Practice green etiquette.

[xxsoultonesxx]

At my local course there are two chipping greens. One of which is tucked away across the parking lot from the clubhouse. You can park your car right next to it and practice away. When I practice there, I generally play 5-10 balls and play the whole perimeter of the green. My question is do you consider it rude to play an entire shag bag and scatter balls all over a (fairly large) green? The last few times I've tried to join these people on the green I end up losing some of my balls with their shag balls, which end up everywhere. Is there a polite approach to this?

Oh yeah, this is my first thread, although I have been an avid lurker for a couple months now.
Cheers!

[Mrd19abhs]

If there are others there I personaly try to just play a couple balls to one pin so that I dont get my balls taken. But if there is noone else I play whole green.

[golfro]

At my local course there are two chipping greens. One of which is tucked away across the parking lot from the clubhouse. You can park your car right next to it and practice away. When I practice there, I generally play 5-10 balls and play the whole perimeter of the green. My question is do you consider it rude to play an entire shag bag and scatter balls all over a (fairly large) green? The last few times I've tried to join these people on the green I end up losing some of my balls with their shag balls, which end up everywhere. Is there a polite approach to this?

as long as you're not literally chipping/putting that ball all over the place, I won't mind.

What grinds my gears is the guy who walks around just putting and chipping towards any hole, regardless of who's practice where. This happened yesterday, I was spending some time on the green, and a guy started chipping directly at the pin I was working... I moved away to another pin, 3 minutes later, same damn guy is chipping over to my pin (he hadnt picked up any of his balls at the previous pin, just started chipping to a new pin). So i move to another pin and same thing...he didn't pick up a single damn ball and chipped away like 50 balls at all the different pins ignoring everyone else. Finally by the 4th pin or so, another guy asked him to pick his balls up.

[xxsoultonesxx]

as long as you're not literally chipping/putting that ball all over the place, I won't mind.

I'm always very conscious of other players on a practice area...but when I show up and there are literally 75-100 balls on the green (generally clustered on one half, with odd ones randomly throughout) I find that to be "hogging it up" especially when after they are picked up with said shag bag, he dumps them all out and continues to use the entire green.

[rwfastrax]

3 balls is enough when others are around.

[Cornbread]

I feel your pain. At my Club (which is one of the nicer clubs around) many Members get bags of range balls, take them to the putting green and putt & chip them all over the entire practice green. Then walk away leaving the ball laying where they stopped. EXTREMELY LAZY & Rude.

[RedCard03]

situation always dictates........If the guy is hitting chili dippers all over the green. Then yeah a problem arises, but if he is being methodical about where hes chipping and hes not chipping towards your flag. Why not.

[senorchipotle]

funny enough, i've got a thread about this very subject somewhere in the annals of TST history. ignorant/nonchalant chippers/pitchers are the bane of my sanity. never fails that some jackass with a shag bag has 50 balls scattered everywhere on the green. i've told our pro multiple times that he should make sign giving a five ball maximum on the practice green. if there's one thing that seriously gets on my nerves, this is it.

[xxsoultonesxx]

It isn't that these guys are hacking it up all over the place, but when the volume of balls is so great, they just end up everywhere, bouncing off each-other. And if I'm playing my half dozen, I am constantly in his way when I walk on the green to retrieve them, as he just stands there hitting tons of balls.

[Paradox]

I think its silly really. I don't believe these guys really accomplish anything by hitting 50 balls back to back to back. On top of that, its just rude to think you can have that much of the area for your stuff.

I will take 4 or 5 balls max and as I'm not really terribly concerned with where the actual holes are, I can find any place to work. If I'm putting, I will not go much outside 10 feet if there are others around. The guy who makes me maddest is the one standing 30 feet away putting across the line of 3 different holes.

[andycook]

Have to be sharp and ready for those 30'+ putts

I think its silly really. I don't believe these guys really accomplish anything by hitting 50 balls back to back to back. On top of that, its just rude to think you can have that much of the area for your stuff.

[Cornbread]

funny enough, i've got a thread about this very subject somewhere in the annals of TST history. ignorant/nonchalant chippers/pitchers are the bane of my sanity. never fails that some jackass with a shag bag has 50 balls scattered everywhere on the green. i've told our pro multiple times that he should make sign giving a five ball maximum on the practice green. if there's one thing that seriously gets on my nerves, this is it.

Their are two types of people. Folks who were taught to follow the rules, and people who have figured out that gets you nothing.

[ks8829]

common courtesy would go a long way in many places especially at the golf course practice areas. Most people are very considered and you also have a few that are very self centered and their parents did not teach them to share and play nice.

[zeg]

IMO, if there's a proper green, you should use no more than one flag and the surrounding area at a time. Maybe if there are lots of flags and you can't help but use a couple, you get a corner of the green, but if it's crowded, it's up to you to share it so that everyone can get some time in. That means no shag bags when it's crowded. At the nice course near here, they have a simple rule: no shag bags. Seems good to me for practice on a real green.

At the usual place I go, the short game area is really just a couple of flags in some fairway cut grass "greens" and some unkempt rough-like grass to hit from. This area is really good for shag bags since you can't do any more than use those flags as targets since the roll-out is nothing like what you'd get on a real green. There's usually no more than one other person there practicing, so there's no problem with each person using a large number of balls, just pick directions so that you don't chip across each other's paths. Personally, I don't sweat it if some of my shag balls get mixed up, I figure it evens out in the end. If there are two people, I just use one of my alignment sticks to make a new target somewhere off in the rough or do some other drill that doesn't use one of the flagsticks.

[jamo]

I think people are generally good on the chipping greens. As long as you keep to your flag I have no problem with you. I few errant balls headed my way (provided they are not intentional or due to some sort of reckless behavior) doesn't get me to worked up. If you think you can't keep a full shag bag of balls under control, just use a few balls. In the end that will probably help you more anyway. Instead of mindlessly chipping ball after ball from one place, only using a few balls lets you move around a little more often.

[glk23]

Also in Tacoma and trying to think what course you are talking about. I tend to only hit 2-3 balls at a time regardless of how busy. It keeps me moving around and I loose focus if I try and hit ball after ball from the same place.

[Stretch]

Some people are just clueless, too. The other day I was pitching over the practice bunker to the practice green from about 30/40 yards. The green is much wider than it is deep and I'm hitting to the narrowest part. Another guy walks up and, instead of picking either end of the green where there's acres of space to do anything you like, starts chipping from directly behind the pin I'm aiming at, maybe another dozen yards back from where I'm landing the ball. Does my pitching swing look that solid to you, sir? I have been known to catch the odd one thin...

[Fourputt]

3 balls is enough when others are around.

Amen!!! I absolutely hate it when I walk over to the chipping green and a couple of dickwads are lobbing 100 range balls all over the green, leaving no room for anyone who wants to do some serious practice with real balls. What do they really accomplish using range balls for short game practice anyway???

I don't worry about losing balls so much as I need to see the carry AND the runout to know just what I'm doing. We have separate chipping and putting greens (no chipping at all allowed on the putting green), and the putting green is usually no problem. I never seen anyone with more than 4 balls there. It's the chipping green that I have the issue with. I try to hit the short game area early or I mostly don't bother.