Someone Hit me With their Ball... Did I take it too far?

[Rob Anderson]

Originally Posted by 90fiveo

You were a better man than me, because i would have Punched dude in his mouth. no questions asked.. he hit you and acted like a douche he needed it.

So an assault charge and a police record is worth that? Man- I'm brand new to this game but played hockey at various levels for the past 35 years- even we have our limits...

...besides... you never know who is punching back...I'd hate to be the guy in jail who got beat up by a fellow golfer...that would win you b*t*h points for sure...

[golf4fun12]

Originally Posted by Rob Anderson

So an assault charge and a police record is worth that? Man- I'm brand new to this game but played hockey at various levels for the past 35 years- even we have our limits...

...besides... you never know who is punching back...I'd hate to be the guy in jail who got beat up by a fellow golfer...that would win you b*t*h points for sure...

I'm interested....what about hockey fights....can you press charges on someone who starts a fight with you in the rink? I have always been curious about this one.

[royal oak]

Good point sir.

I don't see where violence suggested by others on the course leads to anything positive.

The OP had good reason to be pissed at the ram golf ball wielding individual...the situation could have been healed much quicker if he had made an attempt to yell fore and a "oh shit sorry man"...I never saw my ball after the tee shot.  Not everyone on the course is out for the congeniality award and not all of us need to teach everyone out there a lesson.

After about 30+ years on the links...killin' with kindness usually works best.

And please don't confuse "kindness" with weakness.

Originally Posted by Rob Anderson

So an assault charge and a police record is worth that? Man- I'm brand new to this game but played hockey at various levels for the past 35 years- even we have our limits...

...besides... you never know who is punching back...I'd hate to be the guy in jail who got beat up by a fellow golfer...that would win you b*t*h points for sure...

[paulballs]

Last year this guy kept hitting into us. Did it 3 times without us saying a word. I was playing in a 2some, he was a single but playing 2 balls (which is why we didnt let him around) and we had a group ahead we were waiting on anyway.

Anyway on the 16th my partner is hitting his 2nd shot from the fairway and a ball lands about 5 feet behind him. I picked it up and threw it in the nearby lake. The kid comes rolling down the fairway in his cart, saying WTF is all that, blah blah. Im a pretty mild mannered guy but when I come unglued I let loose with the best of them. Told him what I thought, why I did what I did, he didnt seem to want to get out of the cart.

[Dave Gordon]

A sobering story about being hit with a golf ball:

http://www.golfcourseindustry.com/gci-031711-guest-column-brian-youell.aspx

[BostonSully]

Originally Posted by Rob Anderson

So an assault charge and a police record is worth that? Man- I'm brand new to this game but played hockey at various levels for the past 35 years- even we have our limits...

...besides... you never know who is punching back...I'd hate to be the guy in jail who got beat up by a fellow golfer...that would win you b*t*h points for sure...

To your point last summer in my Mens Hockey league. There was a real punk on the other team who was giving gruff' to the old guy (45yo) on our team. This punk was yappin yappin yappin, till the old guy eventually told the kid to shut his mouth.

The kid then Turned and spit in my teammate, the old guy's, face not 1x but 2x and it was on the 21yo dropped the gloves. Problem for this 21year old punk is that the 45yo on my team is a Boxing instructor and MMA Trainer at several local gyms. The old guy beat the tar out of the kid so bad that he knocked out his front 2 teeth broke his nose brutally and left a nice gash above the kids eye almost without taking a single punch.

So now our old teammate cant play this year, is banned from the league and is still fighting court proceedings(filed by the little punk) to this day.

Like you said you dont know who's punching back and you dont think about the consequences till their ruining your life for the next 2 years.

[Deryck Griffith]

A little extreme?  Are you saying that you pipe every shot down the middle?  I would say you don't so knowing that is the case, what if you hook a ball, yell fore at the top of your lungs and hit someone on another fairway.  Isn't that an accident?  Didn't you yell fore?  After yelling fore, and after knowing that you made a poor shot which happens to EVERYONE and apologizing, should the guy you hit come over and punch you in the face? In your eyes he should because as you said "hitting antoher person with you ball is never acceptable and should result in physical confrontation."  A little crazy no?

In the case of the OP.  All he is saying is that the guy didn't yell fore.  I'm sure if the guy did, he would've ducked, moved, done whatever to prepare for a ball that might hit him and while still upset, been able to accept it a bit more than getting the reaction he did from the guy.

Originally Posted by Bryan SD2

Hitting another person with your ball is NEVER acceptable.  EVER.  ANY reaction from the person who got plunked that does NOT involve a physical confrontation is 100% acceptable in my book.

[sacm3bill]

Originally Posted by Deryck Griffith

...should the guy you hit come over and punch you in the face? In your eyes he should because as you said "hitting antoher person with you ball is never acceptable and should result in physical confrontation."

Reread the post you quoted. He said any reaction that does NOT (caps his) involve physical confrontation is acceptable.

[darkhunter139]

Originally Posted by Grndslmhttr3

Yeah, knowing how a baseball feels when it hits you, I can't imagine getting hit by a golf ball on the fly, especially square in the upper back. I can have a short fuse (especially when it comes to golf) so I think I probably would've acted in a similar manner.

Aside from helplessly trying to avoid getting hit, it does give you some time to use your arms to cover your head, assuming they don't yell it right before the ball lands.

Also, on an off-topic note, is there a reason as to why my post changes to Times New Roman when I copy/paste something into the edit box?

Yeah good point, I was playing yesterday and someone hit it at me and my first reaction was to turn away and cover my face when I heard him yell fore.

[Deryck Griffith]

Originally Posted by sacm3bill

Reread the post you quoted. He said any reaction that does NOT (caps his) involve physical confrontation is acceptable.

I misinterpreted.  Thank you for clarifying.

[toddmlazarchick]

Had something similar happen to me last year.  My best friend and I were out and on 18 (par 5 going back towards the club house).  17 is also a par 5 running back the opposite direction as 18 both side by side.  We were sitting in the car in the middle of the 18th fairway and I was in the driver seat waiting for the green to clear.  As we were sitting there talking I heard them tee off on 17 and a couple seconds later I hear an ear piercing PING as their ball hit the metal frame of our cart on the front left corner face high.  My friend and I both bailed out of the cart like a bomb went off because we never saw the ball coming.  After we stood up I noticed the dent on the frame and saw the ball sitting there.  Pissed off as hell (was having a horrible round) I teed the ball up right there in the fairway, running along the right side of the 18th is a road and over the road is nothing but woods, and drove it into the woods.

A minute later two teenage kids come driving up to us laughing and one asked "That ball didnt hit you did it?"  I pointed to the dent and both started losing it.  I didnt say anything and we went to get back in the cart and leave because the green was now clear when kid who hit it asked where his ball was at then.  I pointed to the woods and said "about 300 yards deep in there".  He laughed and then got a totally confused and idiotic look on his face and said "Wait if it hit your cart then how is it 300 yards in the woods?"  I pulled the tee out of my pocket and flipped it to him and got in the cart and as I drove off he said "WTF asshole?  You drove my ball in the woods?"  We kept going and just finished the hole.  My friend who has a HORRIBLE temper was dumb founded that I didn't drill him in the mouth when he started laughing haha

[Cut68]

To be perfectly honest, the ball landing a foot in a different direction could have seriously injured or, it is concievable, killed you (a stretch, I know, but from 230 out, on the fly, it would have been moving, and if the OP had turned his head and it hit him square on..) There's really not alot that would have been "over the line" for me. I'm the kind of guy that will apologize if I land even in the general area of another group, even if I've yelled fore. I mean really, what does it cost me to say I'm sorry? I'm already embaressed because I hit a bad shot. Might as well make some new friends while I'm wandering around on the next tee, dreaming up an impossible flop shot. Unforgivable for the suspect not to appologize. Beginner or not, you hit a guy with a golf ball and aren't sorry, you're just an a-hole

[brightonrock]

Just very nearly had a similar thing happen - there's a bit of a bottleneck on the course I played today, where the fifth fairway has a row of trees on the left from about 80-140 yards from the green, behind which is the 6th tee, a par 3. To the right of the 6th green is the 7th tee, hitting back at the 6th again, a par 4. Me and the mate I'm playing with are on the 6th tee, I'm teeing up an iron, when a shot comes in from the group behind on the 5th fairway which spanks into the tee box literally a foot away from where my head is as I was bending down. This guy has hit it from probably 170+ and pulled it badly, he can see me clearly from where he was, and doesn't say a thing. I'm a bit rattled and thinking of this exact thread, but bite my tongue and start to go through my pre-shot routine. Next thing I know I hear a driver being hit on the 7th, and a second or two later a second ball comes fizzing past me at about chest height and buries itself into the woods behind our tee. I can't believe it's happened a second time but hit my shot, walk off the tee quite ruffled, and my mate steps up. Next thing, what do you know, a third ball comes down, this time about eight yards short of our tee, from the 5th fairway again, and bounces up onto the tee where we're standing. Admittedly this third one bounces short and has much less power on it, but it still makes it onto our tee. Two groups, three shots out of four all but hit us, and not one shout of 'fore', not one apology as we walk down to the 6th green - just silence. I had going through my head this very thread, and for a second considered teeing it up and lacing it OB, but was actually the slightly calmer one as my mate was very pissed off to say the least. I told him to let it go as the guys behind especially clearly had no idea of any etiquette, they were in a buggy roaring up and down the wrong fairways without checking to see if someone was hitting, they were shouting and swearing, revving the buggy engine when people were putting - as we walked into the bar there were a couple of other groups complaining to the course pro about them, so it wasn't just us they got to. Either way, my experience today tells me the OP wasn't going too far - I had to stop myself from doing it when it didn't hit us, so if it had, God help the guy, I'd've teed it back at them, let alone into the woods.