Post different course etiquettes please!

[phillyk 504]

Originally Posted by Dan Garcia

Everytime I go tee off, I like to pick up broken tees and cigarrette butts or any other trash I may see and put it in the bin.

I don't understand why so many people leave the broken tees on the ground when there is a bin 10 ft. from the tee box.

There is a regular at the course I work at, and although I like the fact that he helps clean the course of cigarette buds and broken tees. He leaves it all in the driving cart for who ever the cart person is.  We give him a trash bag, he ignores it and drops it in the cart.  Really annoying.

However, for etiquette (and course rules), when you pay for 18 holes, play 18 holes, not 19 or 20, by trying to go back and jump in front of another group.

[sean_miller 379]

Originally Posted by Dan Garcia

Everytime I go tee off, I like to pick up broken tees and cigarrette butts or any other trash I may see and put it in the bin.

I don't understand why so many people leave the broken tees on the ground when there is a bin 10 ft. from the tee box.

The cig butts make sense, but if it's a holes < 400 yards, did you ever consider some players like to find a couple broken tees there?

[LovinItAll 12]

The cig butts make sense, but if it's a holes < 400 yards, did you ever consider some players like to find a couple broken tees there?

I know I do. Sometimes I'll grab a few broken tees and toss them by the tee markers if there are a bunch of them laying around. To the guy that is bothered by the player who cleans up but won't use your bag while he's doing someone else's job: Offer him some free golf and see if he uses the bag then. He's saving an employee time and effort (and the course money) by tossing the stuff in the cart.

[phillyk 504]

Originally Posted by LovinItAll

To the guy that is bothered by the player who cleans up but won't use your bag while he's doing someone else's job: Offer him some free golf and see if he uses the bag then. He's saving an employee time and effort (and the course money) by tossing the stuff in the cart.

I'm pretty sure that spending the time to pick out the butts from his cart is nearly the same amount of time it takes to pick'em from the course.  So, in the end its not really saving us time and effort.

[Ernest Jones 1,015]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

The cig butts make sense, but if it's a holes < 400 yards, did you ever consider some players like to find a couple broken tees there?

Did you ever consider some dude with no smokes left might be happy to find a few serviceable butts lying around.

EDIT - I actually love finding broken tees for my irons off the tee but I wouldn't begrudge anyone cleaning them up as an effort to help maintain the course.

[zeg 94]

Re: cleaning up broken tees, only a minority of courses I've played have such a bin, so most of the time I just leave them with the others. When there is a bin, I try to pick them up and toss them in, but often I don't notice for a few holes or forget because it's so uncommon for me.

The best I've seen were tee box markers that doubled as broken tee bins. This also serves the purpose of storing broken tees in a handy spot for people who like to re-use them for teeing irons.

[Ernest Jones 1,015]

Originally Posted by zeg

Re: cleaning up broken tees, only a minority of courses I've played have such a bin, so most of the time I just leave them with the others. When there is a bin, I try to pick them up and toss them in, but often I don't notice for a few holes or forget because it's so uncommon for me.

The best I've seen were tee box markers that doubled as broken tee bins. This also serves the purpose of storing broken tees in a handy spot for people who like to re-use them for teeing irons.

Excellent solution.

[LovinItAll 12]

I'm pretty sure that spending the time to pick out the butts from his cart is nearly the same amount of time it takes to pick'em from the course.  So, in the end its not really saving us time and effort.

Maybe you guys are just more efficient than me, because I'm pretty sure I could empty a cart full of a carton's worth of butts faster than I could pick them up spread out over 75 acres or whatever.

[Ernest Jones 1,015]

Originally Posted by LovinItAll

Maybe you guys are just more efficient than me, because I'm pretty sure I could empty a cart full of a carton's worth of butts faster than I could pick them up spread out over 75 acres or whatever.

As a smoker I can't understand how anyone can feel comfortable pitching theirs butts around the golf course. Ridiculous narcissistic behaviour.

[KingG 2]

The latest issue I've run into is people not leaving the green once they hole out. Lately it's looked like people working out their tax returns before they walk off the green. Please, write down your score at the next tee box.

[Dan Garcia 0]

For the holes <400 yds...how about instead of leaving them on the tee box, pick one up that is broken, use it...and if it doesn't break more or get lost on the swing, pick it up and keep it in your pocket for future use?

[sean_miller 379]

Originally Posted by Dan Garcia

For the holes <400 yds...how about instead of leaving them on the tee box, pick one up that is broken, use it...and if it doesn't break more or get lost on the swing, pick it up and keep it in your pocket for future use?

How about I usually do, but I'm not hunting down the broken bits of a tee that broke after hitting a drive. Pace of play rules the day.

[Dan Garcia 0]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

How about I usually do, but I'm not hunting down the broken bits of a tee that broke after hitting a drive. Pace of play rules the day.

Haha, I agree Sean. As long as pace of play is not affected, I will pick up the broken tees that are clearly visible on the tee box.

By the way, I enjoyed your last post better when it said "Pace of play trumps your OCD".

[dru925 0]

Do what the starter asks you to do!  Played yesterday and it was BUSY.  There were some guys ahead of us who wanted to be a fivesome but were told no.  So they went out as 2 + 3 then ignored the starter's instructions and played as five.  Slowed everything down for everyone.  Really, really annoying.

[Outlander 0]

I am lucky as my golf mentor is a stickler for rules and etiquette. 'score on the tee, not on the green' and 'your game has progressed to the point where mulligans are no longer appropriate' were ingrained early in my golf career. Must say I have never experienced some of the nasty behavior described in this thread - and I play the local municipal course!

That said, I will watch my flag tending. I realized reading this thread that I probably don't tend it enough for my foursome.

[kymonopoly 1]

I hate the cigarette butts laying around the tee box and in bunkers.  Just because the smoking stand outside of the mall has sand, it doesn't mean that all sand is for cigarette butts.

Also, I chew sunflower seeds on the course and generally it's after the first 4 or 5 holes because my game has quickly taken a turn for the worse.  I would hate to clean up the cart with seeds spit in it.  I try to spit them into the empty gatorade/water/coke bottle that I just finished off or into the woods where my errant tee shot went.

Golf is supposed to be the gentlemen's game and we (golfers as a whole) have forgotten that periodically.  The way I look at it is this...I wouldn't do this stuff inside the house that my friend just built, what makes it ok to do it at the place Pete Dye built?

[Timothy Voyles 4]

Originally Posted by kymonopoly

I hate the cigarette butts laying around the tee box and in bunkers.  Just because the smoking stand outside of the mall has sand, it doesn't mean that all sand is for cigarette butts.

Also, I chew sunflower seeds on the course and generally it's after the first 4 or 5 holes because my game has quickly taken a turn for the worse.  I would hate to clean up the cart with seeds spit in it.  I try to spit them into the empty gatorade/water/coke bottle that I just finished off or into the woods where my errant tee shot went.

Golf is supposed to be the gentlemen's game and we (golfers as a whole) have forgotten that periodically.  The way I look at it is this...I wouldn't do this stuff inside the house that my friend just built, what makes it ok to do it at the place Pete Dye built?

You speak too much sense... stop it!

[mdl 168]

Originally Posted by mdl

Obviously not!  But I maintain it does contribute to slow rounds.

I don't have any experimental data or anything, so I'm not going to claim I have proof it speeds overall pace of play.  But I'm pretty sure it does.  Think about it this way.  If every group on every par 3 waves up the following group after everyone's on the green, then you have at least two groups actively playing on every hole.  If everyone putts out on the par 3s, that means there's 4 holes on the course where only one group is playing at a time.  That's going to add at least 20-30 minutes to your round.

Even if you don't believe that argument, as was replied to you above, it evens out the waiting times if the group in front waves up the following group.

Originally Posted by sacm3bill

If having more groups actively playing each hole helped anything, then it would help to wave groups up on the par 4s and par 5s as well, as Sean suggests. The reason that *doesn't* help is because the duration of the round is always going to be as long as it takes to get to the 18th green and putt out, and the only thing that depends on (assuming you're waiting on groups ahead of you, as is the assumption for the sake of this argument), is the speed of the slowest group in front of you.

The par 4s and 5s argument is bogus.  The reason you don't wave up the following group on par 4s and 5s is because the group behind you is still hitting and walking to their balls and setting up their approach shots for most of the time your group is on the green (unless your group is ungodly slow or the following group is super fast).  On a par 3 on a busy day, your group is coming up to the tee box while the leading group is still hitting or just finished.  Your group cleans its balls and selects its club and gets its tees out and gloves on and whatnot well before the leading group is all on the green.  Then they can wave you, wait just a couple minutes while your well-prepared group hits its tee shots, then finish while you walk up.

Add up the minutes.  We all know that the time it takes for a group to go from first putt in the group to clearing the green (call it X minutes) is definitely longer than the time it takes a well-prepared group to take four tee shots (call it Y minutes).  So if every group is waving up, you get to wait X minutes less before starting the hole, with the only cost being you have to wait Y minutes between when your whole group is on the green and when you get to start taking putts.  So as long as X > Y, you're saving 4 * (X - Y) minutes on the round by having every group wave up the following group on each par 3.  Figure 4-5 minutes on the green per group, and 1.5-2 minutes for a well prepared group to all tee off, and you're saving 10-15 minutes a round at least.

I could see it feeling annoying both to tee off with the leading group watching and thinking over your putt for an extra minute or two waiting for the following group to hit if you didn't get into golf in an area where this is a common practice though.