What happened to etiquette in golf?

[DaSportsGuy]

Originally Posted by mymizunosrock

OK, so I dont have the time to read right through this thread, but how about people wondering onto your fairway? If they are within my landing area, I'll wait, wave my arms, maybe give them the bird. Other than that, i'll just hit right over them. Doesnt take long for them to realize they are in the wrong place and need to be paying attention. Usually I will just say to them when I walk past "Trying to get yourself killed today are we??" or "you need to pay more attention out here. If you get hit on another fairway, it will be your own fault". Some people unfortunately dont have a clue, and thats part of playing on public courses.

People who play my home course do this ALL THE TIME. It's absolutely ridiculous. If someone is on the tee ready to tee off and you are in their fairway, they have the right-a-way. I've never hit into someone in my own fairway who is on another hole but it really pisses me off. The other day I had already addressed the ball and was about to hit and this guy goes walking right in front of my tee box to his ball. He's right in front of me maybe 20 yards in front of the tee box. Doesn't even look at me or anything just walks right out to his ball and hits it. Their was someone else on the hole on the other side who had also hit his ball on my fairway and he waited for us to tee off, hit his ball, and thanked us for waiting on that guy. He said that guy had no etiquette and was really grateful we didn't unload our drives over his head.

I would urge you to discontinue hitting into them. It only takes one time. It's stupidity on both sides. Them for being in your fairway while you're ready to tee off. And you for hitting into them. I can never find an excusable time to hit into someone. Their are times where I've really wanted to and thought to myself about how little chance their is of hitting them, but again, it only takes one time. It's just not worth it.

[turtleback]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

Maybe I missed a fine detail in the OP, but I don't understand why the person on the tee box owns that particular fairway.  There have been many times where I've been on a tee box and somebody from an adjacent hole landed in "my" fairway, and I allowed him to play his ball before I played mine in the interest of pace of play of the entire course.  In other words, it would take less time for him to get out of my way, than it would for everybody in our foursome to play our tee shots...not to mention him waiting on us would result in the people behind his group waiting on them even longer.

Sure, I've seen some people wander aimlessly through a fairway, clueless to the people on the tee box, but I get the impression from some posts that the people on the tee box should always play into the fairway before allowing a stray golfer to get out of their way.  That doesn't seem like good etiquette to me.  Is there a rule (written or unwritten) that addresses this?

Brandon

Everything depends on the circumstances.  This weekend I came to a tee and there were guys playing up an adjacent hole and one had pushed/sliced his drive and was smack in the middle of my fairway.  I looked at the green they were going towards and there were 4 guys just chipping up and starting to putt in the group ahead of him.  But this guy just stood there in my fairway when it was going to be a good 3-4 minutes before he could hit.  Meanwhile my hole was wide open.  So this guy was way out of line.  Then he finally hits his shot, and instead of returning to his own fairway and out of my line, he drives up the right side of my fairway until he gets within 20 yards of the green.

Clearly the guy was an idiot.  But that still did not induce me to hit into him.  It just is not worth it.  I also try not to let myself get too steamed up in these kinds of situations when you have an idiot in front of you or interfering with you because I find it can ruin my next shot because it is hard to concentrate and focus when you are steamed up.  At least for me.

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

Maybe I missed a fine detail in the OP, but I don't understand why the person on the tee box owns that particular fairway.  There have been many times where I've been on a tee box and somebody from an adjacent hole landed in "my" fairway, and I allowed him to play his ball before I played mine in the interest of pace of play of the entire course.  In other words, it would take less time for him to get out of my way, than it would for everybody in our foursome to play our tee shots...not to mention him waiting on us would result in the people behind his group waiting on them even longer.

Sure, I've seen some people wander aimlessly through a fairway, clueless to the people on the tee box, but I get the impression from some posts that the people on the tee box should always play into the fairway before allowing a stray golfer to get out of their way.  That doesn't seem like good etiquette to me.  Is there a rule (written or unwritten) that addresses this?

Brandon

If the players who belong on that hole are hitting or getting ready to hit, they always have the right of way.  Why should they be delayed because of your ineptness?

[camper6]

If the players who belong on that hole are hitting or getting ready to hit, they always have the right of way.  Why should they be delayed because of your ineptness?

They might have the right of way but is it the right way?

It only takes a couple of minutes for a guy on the wrong fairway to get off the fairway and back to where he belongs.

Personally it would bother me to hit while someone is standing out there in front of me.

And what if one of the guys driving off the tee plonks one fifty yards.   He has the right of way?  So the guy on the wrong fairway now has to wait again?

Do you realize how far behind that group is now on the other hole?

[carpediem4300]

id rather hit a drive off the tee whilst someone is waiting to retrieve there ball, than holding up a group on the tee whilst recovering my duffed shot

I've always seen it as etiquette to stop and wait for them unless they are kind enough to wave me on to play the shot,

your argument of "how far behind is that group now" holds no bearing as it is easily reversed that the group on the tee are being held up by the guy on the wrong fairway, then if he duffs that shot again they are waiting, how far behind is the teeing off group now?

The teeing of group has right of way to add clarity to the situation, if they feel better letting the errant shot taker go first then thats their decision to make or to not make

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by camper6

If the players who belong on that hole are hitting or getting ready to hit, they always have the right of way.  Why should they be delayed because of your ineptness?

They might have the right of way but is it the right way?

It only takes a couple of minutes for a guy on the wrong fairway to get off the fairway and back to where he belongs.

Personally it would bother me to hit while someone is standing out there in front of me.

And what if one of the guys driving off the tee plonks one fifty yards.   He has the right of way?  So the guy on the wrong fairway now has to wait again?

Do you realize how far behind that group is now on the other hole?

I never said I would hit while he was there.  In fact, I emphatically said just the opposite.

What I'm saying  is that the player who hit the errant shot should look and see if there is someone already hitting on that hole (or on the tee ready to hit), and if so that player should wait until those players have finished before venturing out.  That is the proper etiquette for the situation.  Again, it's the player with the errant shot who may have to pay the price of a small delay in playing his shot rather than the players who have done nothing wrong.  We have a couple of holes on my home course where this situation is not uncommon, and it's understood generally that the player in the wrong fairway waits.  If he wanders out anyway, we always stop hitting, but we let him know that he is in the wrong for using really poor judgement.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by turtleback

I looked at the green they were going towards and there were 4 guys just chipping up and starting to putt in the group ahead of him.  But this guy just stood there in my fairway when it was going to be a good 3-4 minutes before he could hit.  Meanwhile my hole was wide open.  So this guy was way out of line.  Then he finally hits his shot, and instead of returning to his own fairway and out of my line, he drives up the right side of my fairway until he gets within 20 yards of the green.

Clearly the guy was an idiot.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by Fourputt

If the players who belong on that hole are hitting or getting ready to hit, they always have the right of way.  Why should they be delayed because of your ineptness?

I gave a reason in my original post.

Originally Posted by Fourputt

What I'm saying  is that the player who hit the errant shot should look and see if there is someone already hitting on that hole (or on the tee ready to hit), and if so that player should wait.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by carpediem4300

I've always seen it as etiquette to stop and wait for them unless they are kind enough to wave me on to play the shot,

The teeing of group has right of way to add clarity to the situation, if they feel better letting the errant shot taker go first then thats their decision to make or to not make

So, you just illustrated that etiquette is a two-way street, right?

Question, why would the teeing group feel better letting the errant shot taker go first?  That hypothetical is the key to the entire issue.

Brandon

[NorthShoreGolf]

Quote:

Question, why would the teeing group feel better letting the errant shot taker go first?  That hypothetical is the key to the entire issue.

If there is a slower group ahead of the group on the tee (maybe just out of sight) they will soon catch up with anyways they may let the errant shot player hit his ball.

It's a slow afternoon and they group on the tee is having a few brews and taking it easy, joking around, maybe they let it slide because it's no rush.

The group on the tee side bets $1000 the hacker can't get it back out of their fairway in x amount of shots, you have to let him go.

Phil hit an errant tee shot, who wouldn't let him play it out?

There are plenty of hypotheticals.

[camper6]

Originally Posted by Fourputt

I never said I would hit while he was there.  In fact, I emphatically said just the opposite.

But if you are hitting off the tee and he is waiting on the fairway or in the rough you will still be hitting over him or past him.  That's my point.  I don't like hitting when someone is standing out there.

What I'm saying  is that the player who hit the errant shot should look and see if there is someone already hitting on that hole (or on the tee ready to hit), and if so that player should wait until those players have finished before venturing out.  That is the proper etiquette for the situation.  Again, it's the player with the errant shot who may have to pay the price of a small delay in playing his shot rather than the players who have done nothing wrong.  We have a couple of holes on my home course where this situation is not uncommon, and it's understood generally that the player in the wrong fairway waits.  If he wanders out anyway, we always stop hitting, but we let him know that he is in the wrong for using really poor judgement.

But isn't the game speeded up if the one player on the fairway gets out of the way instead of having to wait for four players to tee off?

To me it's not an etiquette thing it's just common courtesy.  Same as merging in traffic ..

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by NorthShoreGolf

The group on the tee side bets $1000 the hacker can't get it back out of their fairway in x amount of shots, you have to let him go.

Winner.

Brandon

[Paradox]

Originally Posted by camper6

To me it's not an etiquette thing it's just common courtesy.  Same as merging in traffic ..

Chances are that one player in the fairway is still gonna have to wait for his green to clear because he is inevitably going to go for the hero shot and try to reach the green from 250 yards away.  If the group on the tee is clear ahead of them..its not going to take long before they've hit and are moving towards their ball in which case they will likely be past your ball and you won't be in each others way anymore.

In the end, the situation goes both ways depending on the variables.  Its never going to be..."x always hits first and y waits..." or vice versa.

[luu5]

On one course I used to belong were some fairways quite close to each other and slices ended on adjacent fairways. They had a local rule that player playing (if I recall correctly) higher number of fairway has right-of-way.

[stevepgeorge]

I just had a complaint from the last hole played today.  One of the people in the group in front of us finished then walked off the green to his bag and proceeded to put everything away (I assume tees, balls, etc.) literally a foot or so off the green.  I couldn't hit because he was in the spot that I hit to when I miss hit.  I couldn't get his attention as his back was too me and I didn't want to yell because it is a small course with people teeing off both to the left of me and almost directly behind me.  Wanted to say something after we finished the round, but of course they were gone by then.  Don't know that I expect anyone here to have anything useful to say about the situation just wanted to vent.

[NorthShoreGolf]

That annoys me. People who are slow to do everything . Much the as riders on path only days that walk across the fairway to check out their lie without bringing a handful of clubs. A bit of common sense would help!

Originally Posted by stevepgeorge

I just had a complaint from the last hole played today.  One of the people in the group in front of us finished then walked off the green to his bag and proceeded to put everything away (I assume tees, balls, etc.) literally a foot or so off the green.  I couldn't hit because he was in the spot that I hit to when I miss hit.  I couldn't get his attention as his back was too me and I didn't want to yell because it is a small course with people teeing off both to the left of me and almost directly behind me.  Wanted to say something after we finished the round, but of course they were gone by then.  Don't know that I expect anyone here to have anything useful to say about the situation just wanted to vent.

[carpediem4300]

only extra time spent on a green at the end of the round is to shake a fellows hand, anything else such as packing up is done outside the door to the bar or the boot of your wagon, never at the side of the green (unless there isnt anyone behind you which i cant see an issue arising)

[mymizunosrock]

Originally Posted by DaSportsGuy

People who play my home course do this ALL THE TIME. It's absolutely ridiculous. If someone is on the tee ready to tee off and you are in their fairway, they have the right-a-way. I've never hit into someone in my own fairway who is on another hole but it really pisses me off. The other day I had already addressed the ball and was about to hit and this guy goes walking right in front of my tee box to his ball. He's right in front of me maybe 20 yards in front of the tee box. Doesn't even look at me or anything just walks right out to his ball and hits it. Their was someone else on the hole on the other side who had also hit his ball on my fairway and he waited for us to tee off, hit his ball, and thanked us for waiting on that guy. He said that guy had no etiquette and was really grateful we didn't unload our drives over his head.

I would urge you to discontinue hitting into them. It only takes one time. It's stupidity on both sides. Them for being in your fairway while you're ready to tee off. And you for hitting into them. I can never find an excusable time to hit into someone. Their are times where I've really wanted to and thought to myself about how little chance their is of hitting them, but again, it only takes one time. It's just not worth it.

Im not hitting into them. As I said, if they are in my landing area, I wait. If they are 150m in front of me (and I can carry the ball 230m), I'll give them the opportunity to move. Some of our fairways are very narrow, and in the time  I am looking down at the ball to the time I hit, a few seconds, someone has wondered out in front of me. I would never hit at someone, but some people need a wake up call that they need to pay attention. If its someone else hitting, they might not be so lucky. Im not trying to be rude or anything, but afternoons at my course are full of tradies in carts sucking down beers and dont give a rats about anyone else. I've run out of patients with these guys. I know the difference between what dangerous and a warning shot across the bow.

[onemind]

As a beginner who has only played on public courses (even at my advanced age of fifty) I don't really understand the extreme anger with slow play.  I'm not saying it's fun waiting at the tee box, but it also seems like some groups are racing like hell to finish eighteen.  Not sure that's how I want to play the game.

[carpediem4300]

Many reasons

Golf takes a long time as it is, being held up for ages making the day longer, jeopordising other plans can frustrate people

For some people a slow game can destroy their rhythm and lead them to shoot high scores as concentration drops

Watching someone dithering about because they are an idiot can annoy people

list goes on

Originally Posted by onemind

As a beginner who has only played on public courses (even at my advanced age of fifty) I don't really understand the extreme anger with slow play.  I'm not saying it's fun waiting at the tee box, but it also seems like some groups are racing like hell to finish eighteen.  Not sure that's how I want to play the game.