What would you do if you found the Thief?

[Aging Boomer]

Stealing a club and getting caught would  likely get somebody expelled from the club.  In may experience, everybody turns lost clubs in.  All bets are off on road trips, but in that case, I probably wouldn't see the club again to know who stole it.

[zipazoid]

Originally Posted by Mr3Wiggle

Perhaps he saying that a person who does not turn in a lost club is a thief.

Perhaps he is.

And I would call the person that lost the club careless with his equipment. There are ways to ensure you don't lose a club on a green - lay it over the flagstick, don't lay it in the rough, place it on the green at a point betw the hole & the cart so you see it, etc.

Point being, if you're careless with your equipment you deserve what you get.

[bplewis24]

The OP is definitely vague, and the devil is in the details.  I'll just say I'm glad I don't play at the clubs that some folks are members of who would see somebody drop/leave an item and snatch it up under "finders, keepers."

Two seasons ago my wallet fell out of my golf bag as I drove off after dealing with the drink cart girl.  I didn't realize until about 3-4 holes later, and by that time it was impossible to trace my steps, so to speak.  Plus it was nearly nightfall.

I left my number in the pro shop and was completely shocked to get a call by 10am the next morning reporting that somebody had turned it in.  Everything was in there, including a small amount of cash.  I was definitely lucky, but I guess if I were to join a club, it would be at a place with members like that.

Brandon

[Aging Boomer]

Perhaps the careless player is at fault, but it doesn't make the person who keeps the club rather than turn it in any less of a thief.

Perhaps the culture is different at green fee tracks, but most clubs expect--basically require-- members to turn lost clubs in.

[zipazoid]

Originally Posted by Aging Boomer

Perhaps the careless player is at fault, but it doesn't make the person who keeps the club rather than turn it in any less of a thief.

Perhaps the culture is different at green fee tracks, but most clubs expect--basically require-- members to turn lost clubs in.

Well, and there's another devil in the details thing.

At a private, member-only club, I would imagine there's a great chance he would get his club back. At a public muni, much less so.

And yes, if someone keeps a found club, they're still taking what's not theirs, but I would go back to the locked versus unlocked car analogy. If someone breaks into your locked car & hot-wires it that's one thing. If you leave it unlocked with the keys in the ignition that's another. Either way it's theft, but in the 2nd example you invited the thievery, so you share in the blame.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by zipazoid

And I would call the person that lost the club careless with his equipment. There are ways to ensure you don't lose a club on a green - lay it over the flagstick, don't lay it in the rough, place it on the green at a point betw the hole & the cart so you see it, etc.

Point being, if you're careless with your equipment you deserve what you get.

I agree with everything except the last part.  I have made a habit of counting my clubs just about every time I return a club to to bag, and like you mentioned, always drop the wedges between the hole and the cart so I have to walk over them after the hole, and in doing so have not left a club behind yet (knock on wood).

But you can't say that those who have made that mistake "deserve" to have their clubs stolen.  Just like in your earlier comment about leaving your car unlocked, you don't deserve to have it stolen.  Saying its deserved is taking the culpability away from the perpetrator and giving it to the victim.

He forgets it at the last hole ... he lost it.  You pick it up (obviously knowing full well that the guy who left it there did it by accident), say nothing, and keep it ... you stole it.  Period.

[zipazoid]

I didn't say they deserved to be stolen. I said the player deserves whatever he gets for being careless.

Look at it this way - if you don't leave a club behind in the first place, none of this happens. The whole train of circumstances started with the player's carelessness.

[Jimdangles]

WOW I really cant believe some of the people in this golf thread. I wouldn't expect stuff like this from anybody let alone golfers, a sport which REQUIRES etiquette and courtesy. Is the person that dropped the club at fault yes but mistakes happen and everything would be much better if people just did what they could to help. Its not like I would be asking you to give me your wedge because I lost mine. Just give me back what I work hard to pay for and earned. The only reason why people would take something is if they feel entitled because one time something happened to them and they didn't get their club or wallet back or whatever but not returning something is only encouraging and spreading bitterness. I would say even not making an effort to returning the club is stealing. Finders keepers? Are we 10? I won't even pick up a ball unless it is 100 percent certain that it has been sitting there for a while or I find it in a bush when looking for my ball on the 18th. How many people have lost their ball and had to take a stroke penalty to drop if you werent anywhere near OB and maybe just on another fairway. That ball that i can pick up is gonna be nothing more than a chipping junk ball to me while the person looking for it will have wasted their time looking for something, wasting their time and getting stroke penaltys because you want an old beat up dt solo. I dont expect everyone to agree with me on that but it would just make things easier.

[Paradox]

I still can't understand why you're saying its the guy who forgot the clubs fault.  It doesn't matter under what circumstances the club was left behind...if you take it, you're a thief and a no good person.  No one deserves to have their stuff stolen for any reason.  You don't take what isn't yours, simple as that.

It doesn't matter if someone left the keys in the car with the windows down and all the doors wide open...any decent human being wouldn't touch it.  If you would, then YOU deserve to be kicked in the sac.

[Stretch]

That's bullshit. Decent people don't take what isn't theirs. The end.

PS: That was in answer to zipazoid. I see a few others beat me to it while I was fulminating my outrage.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Jimdangles

WOW I really cant believe some of the people in this golf thread. I wouldn't expect stuff like this from anybody let alone golfers, a sport which REQUIRES etiquette and courtesy. Is the person that dropped the club at fault yes but mistakes happen and everything would be much better if people just did what they could to help. Its not like I would be asking you to give me your wedge because I lost mine. Just give me back what I work hard to pay for and earned. The only reason why people would take something is if they feel entitled because one time something happened to them and they didn't get their club or wallet back or whatever but not returning something is only encouraging and spreading bitterness. I would say even not making an effort to returning the club is stealing. Finders keepers? Are we 10? I won't even pick up a ball unless it is 100 percent certain that it has been sitting there for a while or I find it in a bush when looking for my ball on the 18th. How many people have lost their ball and had to take a stroke penalty to drop if you werent anywhere near OB and maybe just on another fairway. That ball that i can pick up is gonna be nothing more than a chipping junk ball to me while the person looking for it will have wasted their time looking for something, wasting their time and getting stroke penaltys because you want an old beat up dt solo. I dont expect everyone to agree with me on that but it would just make things easier.

But they should.

Well said.

[clubchamp]

It's simple the person who left it LOST the club, the person that picks it up and keeps it STOLE the club. It's not even a question of finders keepers since you took something that belongs to someone else. I half expect to see some of you walking around a restaurant stealing tips off of tables since the waiter didn't pick it up right away and you found it first.

[Aging Boomer]

Originally Posted by clubchamp

. I half expect to see some of you walking around a restaurant stealing tips off of tables since the waiter didn't pick it up right away and you found it first.

That wasn't even acceptable behavior in college--in the 1960s, when virtually EVERYTHING was acceptable!

[Dloy]

I didn't read all 5 pages and won't offer a solution. I haven't visited this site much recently but would like to share an observation. I have golfed for decades now and most of that time at public courses. During that period I temporarily lost gear (clubs mostly) several times. EVERY TIME someone turned it in and I got it back. In 99 I joined a Country Club here in Seattle and since then I have lost gear (again, clubs mostly) 3 times. Not one of those came back to me. One would think that your club would have this Gentleman's ethic but apparently that is not the case.

Rant over.

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by zipazoid

Look at it this way - if you don't leave a club behind in the first place, none of this happens. The whole train of circumstances started with the player's carelessness.

I'd go even further back.

Blame the shop that sold him the club - if he hadn't bought it it couldn't have been stolen. Or the club manufacturer. Or his parents.

Talk about tying yourself in knots to attempt to excuse the inexcusable.

Being careless does not give thieving scum permission to take what isn't theirs.

[zipazoid]

Originally Posted by Shorty

I'd go even further back.

Blame the shop that sold him the club - if he hadn't bought it it couldn't have been stolen. Or the club manufacturer. Or his parents.

Talk about tying yourself in knots to attempt to excuse the inexcusable.

Being careless does not give thieving scum permission to take what isn't theirs.

Now you're being silly.

There's no knot-tying to make my point. It's pretty simple. If he hadn't lost the club nothing would have happened. It began there. With him. His action.

Look folks. I'm not advocating stealing clubs. I'm not condoning the behavior of the person that picked it up & kept it.

I'm advocating personal responsibility. If I left a club on the course I assume it good as gone. If I don't leave a club on the course then I will still have it in my bag. It's a pretty simple concept.

If you don't agree, fine. Believe that a club you lost will magically reappear, that everyone is good-hearted and fair, and that the finder will return it.

I, however, reside on this planet. And my experience with the inhabitants is it just doesn't work that way.

[Shorty]

I'm advocating personal responsibility. If I left a club on the course I assume it good as gone. If I don't leave a club on the course then I will still have it in my bag. It's a pretty simple concept.

I would think that the finder of the club has to accept some personal responsibility too. Like handing the club in.

It's a pretty simple concept. Don't be a thief.

[zipazoid]

Originally Posted by Shorty

I would think that the finder of the club has to accept some personal responsibility too. Like handing the club in.

It's a pretty simple concept. Don't be a thief.

Both concepts are simple - don't be careless & don't be a thief. But if I'm not careless in the first place then the theft never happens. Can't see what's so hard to understand about that.