I thought it was christmas!

[nhwoj]

Anyway, with my slice I donate 10x more balls to a course than I retrieve. I am way up on Karma.

Amen to that. At what point do I get to exchange all my "donated" balls for a sleeve at the pro shop... I mean that is how it works, right?!

[mapa94]

I often steal broken and unbroken tees that are left by other golfers on a tee box. I used to feel twinges of guilt but I no longer have any remorse. Never thought I'd end up a hardened criminal but it's true.

[golfro]

I often steal broken and unbroken tees that are left by other golfers on a tee box. I used to feel twinges of guilt but I no longer have any remorse. Never thought I'd end up a hardened criminal but it's true.

think twice. that broken or unbroken tee was never yours to begin with. You are committing theft. This isn't an issue of guilt or remorse, this is real crime we're talking about here.

[Stretch]

You are committing theft. This isn't an issue of guilt or remorse, this is real crime we're talking about here.

Indeed. You are headed for the Big House, Mapa, where you can look forward to being repeatedly driven into by the big swinger behind you, if you follow me.

[resapudfures]

Meh, if I take one I always replace it and I call it a Karma even-steven.

This is my most favorite comment on my most favorite thread. As a kid, I always felt that golf was the perfect fusion of piñata parties and Easter egg hunts.

[Fat Slice]

Also, what about this: what if you found a ball YOU had hit onto the range in your bucket.

This is what I asked Sen. McCarthy twice, but got no response.

A course collects a ball from range and rents it in bucket, but makes no conscious effort to convert my property to their property (i.e. they don't mark it with a range stripe). In this case (which I think is the most likely), the course makes no claim to the ball and simply provides it in a rental out of expediency: it's not worth it for them to sort through all the balls to pick out the mishits from the tee/fairway. Courses mark their range balls as THEIR property. So would there be theft at all if you snag a Penta from the bucket? Let's think about it...the law as stated notes an item has to be taken "without permission or consent." So what permission or consent would a golfer give after losing his ball on the range (or anywhere else)? If a golfer hits into the range and desperately wanted his ball back, he could go to the range operator, mention that he lost his ball there, that it was his property, and he wanted to claim it. Grudgingly, the range operator would shut down while the idiot went and got his ball. I've seen that happen when people lose clubheads down the range - they retrieve them! Also, when you hit a drive that just barely goes into the range and you can retrieve it yourself with your club - you don't have to ask for permission to get the ball legally because it doesn't *belong* to the range. Now, if someone hits a ball into the range or course and abandons it, to me that displays permission and consent for someone else to pick it up and use it, so if you pocket the Penta you aren't stealing from the original owner. For me, I give permission to any other golfer to take a lost/range-hit ball of mine and convert it into their own property, and I'd bet that 99.9% of other golfers feel the same way. I reallllly doubt any golfer would give permission/consent to a golf range to convert their ball to a range-owned ball so that the range could then charge a patron with theft for snagging it from the bucket. Well, ok, I can think of ONE golfer... This reminds me of a day when I was hitting a lot of balls off-line. While looking for my ball, I found a ball with huge red lettering that read "ROCKY." I found another one in the same area. I show it off to my buddy and he lauged and pulled a "ROCKY" ball out of his cart. By the end of 18 we had maybe a dozen or so ROCKY balls. When we got into the clubhouse I took them all in there and yelled "HEY, IS ROCKY STILL HERE?" Sure enough, he was, and I went over to his group of drinking buddies and have him all his balls back. We all had a huge laugh over that one.

[TheGeekGolfer]

I love rationalization of questionable behavior. If the ball was found in a rented bucket of balls at a range, then one thing is certain, it wasn't yours to take.

The range didn't buy that ball, they in effect 'stole' it from someone else when they didn't allow the original owner to retrieve it and instead put it into their rental rotation. Finding a 'good' ball in a range bucket is good karma coming back to you!

[walfice]

Just an update on my 'stolen' penta. I played with it today and shot a 76 (par 71) so was very pleased with it, not so pleased with the 35 putts I took though. Maybe that was my punishment for playing with ill gotten gains!
Just a note on the penta, what a great ball it is. The only thing I didn't like was how it just seemed to hang up in the air when playing into a headwind, much more than my usual Nike tour d, that robbed me of considerable distance. Other than that it really is exceptional in all other areas.
THE END

[MJP]

You guys must be insane to think it's bad karma or "theft" to use or take a tee lying on the tee box. So just because the other golfer left it on the courses property, the tee is now their property? Absurd. No one would ever call that theft. Why? Because I am willing to bet never in the history of golf has someone went back to previous tee boxes looking for that "tee" they left on the tee box. Tees are a penny a piece. Literally.

Like everything in life, take it with a grain of salt.

Is it theft to take a golf ball lying in the woods of a golf course? If so, you me and all of the golfing world are thieves.

[kafka01]

To you guys who think its stealing - if i print my adress on my expensive ProV1s - and you are going to find them, will you sent them back to me or drop them off at the Pro shop? After all, i paid for them and they are my property, right?

[sacm3bill]

You guys must be insane to think it's bad karma or "theft" to use or take a tee lying on the tee box.

No one who's said that has been serious. Your sarcasm detector just needs a little recalibrating.

[sean_miller]

To you guys who think its stealing - if i print my adress on my expensive ProV1s - and you are going to find them, will you sent them back to me or drop them off at the Pro shop? After all, i paid for them and they are my property, right?

As covered in the rules of golf, after 5 minutes the ball is to be abandoned. There's no rule about abandoning other lost equipment (i.e. putters, wedges, headcovers, rangefinders, etc) so that's up the finder's conscience to sort out. Tees are a consumable (disposable) and no player should start a round with less than 18 in his or her bag.

Shall I add another exaggerated analogy to the pile? Imagine player A loses his gap wedge on the 18th hole somewhere in the rough. Player B finds it and turns it in at the proshop. By the time player A discovers this loss he can't remember where he lost it and calls all the wrong courses looking for it. 2 years later, proshop employee C thinks this wedge is too good to just sit in the lost things bin and adds it to a set of rental clubs. Player B forgets his clubs at home one day and rents that set of clubs. He recognizes the gap wedge as the one he turned in and knows the golf course didn't pay for it - it was a lost/abandoned item. Is it okay for him to take the wedge home after the round? He has two reasons to take it. 1.) the course didn't pay for it and is making a profit on its rental, and 2.) as the original good samaritan, he really should have been the one to get it if the "rightful" owner never showed up.

[Fat Slice]

As covered in the rules of golf, after 5 minutes the ball is to be abandoned. There's no rule about abandoning other lost equipment (i.e. putters, wedges, headcovers, rangefinders, etc) so that's up the finder's conscience to sort out. Tees are a consumable (disposable) and no player should start a round with less than 18 in his or her bag.

Wrong on all counts!!!!

Player B is DQd for carrying 15 clubs on the 18th hole. Thank you very much. Good night, try the fish.

[billysandy]

Wrong on all counts!!!!

If i take your logic, the next time I am carrying 14 clubs, and i see a club on the course, I may not return it to the pro shop, because picking it up would mean disqualification. LOL nice one man.

[Wildcat]

There are some great possibilities for law school Property I exam hypotheticals in this thread. I'll have to file them away in case I ever move from practice to teaching.

[sean_miller]

If i take your logic, the next time I am carrying 14 clubs, and i see a club on the course, I may not return it to the pro shop, because picking it up would mean disqualification. LOL nice one man.

Were you not following from the start? If it's a really good club, you can pick it up, but you have to throw one of your old garbagey clubs back in the bush/rough as compensation. In your case you'd probably be best to either leave it there or only carry 13 just in case.

[Fat Slice]

Were you not following from the start? If it's a really good club, you can pick it up, but you have to throw one of your old garbagey clubs back in the bush/rough as compensation. In your case you'd probably be best to either leave it there or only carry 13 just in case.

Wrong again, Miller...must I correct all your rookie mistakes? You stick the club in your PARTNER'S bag, thereby snagging a new wedge AND winning by DQ.

[alo1984]

As covered in the rules of golf, after 5 minutes the ball is to be abandoned. There's no rule about abandoning other lost equipment (i.e. putters, wedges, headcovers, rangefinders, etc) so that's up the finder's conscience to sort out. Tees are a consumable (disposable) and no player should start a round with less than 18 in his or her bag.

Never gonna happen! No real golfer is going forget his clubs!