Throwing the ball.. Really??

[jashotze]

Hey guys, I'm new to the site but wanted to get some other golfers thoughts on a situation i had a few weeks ago.

I was playing a local military course, Admiral Baker's in San Diego about two weeks ago when a weird thing happened.  I showed up by myself midday on a Saturday and got paired with an older gentleman and his 16 year old son.  The kid was pretty good and me and the dad were so-so.  Anyways we had not been slowed at all by the golfers in front of us, all day.  We had not had to wait once. Well i think it was the 15th hole and we got to the tee box and the young man went to tee off.  Hit his shot and about the time we were following the shot we noticed a man and woman in a cart sitting under a tree about 250-260 yards down the fairway, just off to the left.  We yelled FORE but the man didn't seem to hear.  Well the shot landed about 20 yards behind him and ran up in a bunker and settled probably 25 feet to the carts left in the sand.  The man jumped out of his cart, looked towards us and waived his arms all over.  The he decided to run into the bunker, grab the ball and throw it into the adjacent fairway, get in his cart and drive to the green.  I was very confused because i never saw him on the course before, and still didn't see him hit a shot before he drove off.  I met up with him on the next hole as he was getting in the cart from the tee box.  I said " Hey man what was that all about?" in an actually pretty non confrontational way.   He started screaming and cussing saying we almost hit him with the ball and we shouldn't be allowed to golf if we were so bad we were hitting it in bunkers haha....  Overall it wasn't not a big deal but it just kinda struck me the wrong way..  Ive never had a situation like this on the golf course before..  Even if someone ACTUALLY hits me with a ball i find it pretty hard to get mad..  we're all standing around an area that people are hitting little balls with sticks..  its bound to happen eventually..  Any thoughts?

[luu5]

Originally Posted by jashotze

Hit his shot and about the time we were following the shot we noticed a man and woman in a cart sitting under a tree about 250-260 yards down the fairway, just off to the left.  We yelled FORE but the man didn't seem to hear.

They were snogging and the shot interrupted on the right/wrong moment...

[Lihu]

Hey guys, I'm new to the site but wanted to get some other golfers thoughts on a situation i had a few weeks ago. I was playing a local military course, Admiral Baker's in San Diego about two weeks ago when a weird thing happened.  I showed up by myself midday on a Saturday and got paired with an older gentleman and his 16 year old son.  The kid was pretty good and me and the dad were so-so.  Anyways we had not been slowed at all by the golfers in front of us, all day.  We had not had to wait once. Well i think it was the 15th hole and we got to the tee box and the young man went to tee off.  Hit his shot and about the time we were following the shot we noticed a man and woman in a cart sitting under a tree about 250-260 yards down the fairway, just off to the left.  We yelled FORE but the man didn't seem to hear.  Well the shot landed about 20 yards behind him and ran up in a bunker and settled probably 25 feet to the carts left in the sand.  The man jumped out of his cart, looked towards us and waived his arms all over.  The he decided to run into the bunker, grab the ball and throw it into the adjacent fairway, get in his cart and drive to the green.  I was very confused because i never saw him on the course before, and still didn't see him hit a shot before he drove off.  I met up with him on the next hole as he was getting in the cart from the tee box.  I said " Hey man what was that all about?" in an actually pretty non confrontational way.   He started screaming and cussing saying we almost hit him with the ball and we shouldn't be allowed to golf if we were so bad we were hitting it in bunkers haha....  Overall it wasn't not a big deal but it just kinda struck me the wrong way..  Ive never had a situation like this on the golf course before..  Even if someone ACTUALLY hits me with a ball i find it pretty hard to get mad..  we're all standing around an area that people are hitting little balls with sticks..  its bound to happen eventually..  Any thoughts?

250 yards seems like a safe distance, any longer and you would probably hold up the next party. I had something similar happen to me a few weeks ago. No one on the fairway, I drive a ball about 240 yards. Two carts pull in from both sides of the fairway, someone picks up my one and only ball. I walk up from behind apologizing, and he reluctantly throws it back toward me. However, later on he left another ball at the hole for me. Seemed brand new too, even though he claimed he found it the same way as mine. Your man seems too sensitive. Who knows why, but don't lose sleep over it.

[phillyk]

There are always those people that are soo righteous and proud to be on the course believing they own the game, that anybody who makes a mistake or miscalculation should be kicked off "their" course and stop golfing.  Everybody has had their run in with people who appear out of no where and hit into them. Just gotta move one and focus on your own game.

[hanalei]

I've actually thrown someone's ball into the lake.. But it was a very crowded day on the course, groups ahead and behind. On a 230yd par 3 group behind decides to hot the ball while where still walking to the green.. ball lands about 10yards and bounces by my feet, so I look back, and throw his ball in the lake. Guy never said a word to me in passing...

[ghalfaire]

Having been hit a couple of times on the course I really don't like getting hit into.  But I am usually forgiving & polite the first time it happens and especially if the offending party drives up and apologizes.  But I do let them know it was close whether they apologize or not.  If there is a second time I also let them know by hitting their ball OB or into a lake or something other than the fairway.

[VegasRenegade]

Just need to be careful who you get into it with on a Military course. You just never know.

[Willie Malay]

If I'm in a spot where another golfer can hit me, I'm always watching out. I think that is part of your responsibility for being out there. However, purposely hitting into me will be met with bad results. There is a difference and you can tell.

[colin007]

never touch someone elses ball.  or balls.  :)

seriously, mistakes happen.  i try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

[newtogolf]

Guy sounds like a jerk but I can understand his concerns about getting hit into.  It would have been better if he had voiced his displeasure first and then if you hit into him again throw your ball into the woods.

[Wisguy]

Last week a buddy and I were playing a very nice, normally pretty expensive course with a highly discounted late season rate (a course where one would expect that people playing it would be fully knowledgeable about golf etiquette). On a dogleg left hole, I'm 190 out and wanting to go for the green, except there are two chumps standing 15 yards in front of the empty green chatting. My buddy is 5 yards closer but further left, blocked by trees on the dogleg, so he's got no direct shot onto the green unless he hit a perfect draw, something he cannot do. I wait a minute expecting the two blabbing bubbas to finish up, but no, they are resting against their wedges talking away, so I whistle loud enough for them to hear. Nothing. I whistle again, then again. Then I yell and wave my arms. Still nothing - it is getting nearly inconceivable that they are unaware that one cannot stand in front of a green blocking it and inconceivable that they cannot hear or see us. After three, maybe four minutes of this, they are still being a pair of Chatty Cathys, right in front of the green. ................. I thought about hitting my shot, to hell with them, but decided not to do it. Rudeness and inconsiderate play are not sufficient excuses to risk hitting someone in the head with a golf ball, which could kill them. Less than five minutes of my life standing around waiting for self-absorbed dolts to get out of the way is not worth a lawsuit with a potential punitive damages claim. My buddy finally gets impatient and hits his ball, smacking a nice straight hybrid 30 yards to the right of the idiots, as close to the green as he is able to hit the ball from that location, but not endangering the dolts. They see his ball and finally wake up, quickly chipping onto the green and finishing up the hole. After we finished puttting, I noticed a ranger and flagged him down. I explained that the twosome in front of us had been chatting in front of the green for literally nearly five minutes and he volunteered to to chew them out, but I asked him to ride near them for a hole to see if they would do it again and only say something to them if they continued the delays. We didn't see them again so I'm not sure if they picked up the pace and played through the threesome in front of them or if maybe it was a pro taking a student out on the course and stopping make a point during a lesson and then they went back to the clubhouse. ................. I've thrown back a ball once and I've hit someone's ball into a pond once. But those occasions were times when we were standing out in the middle of the fairway on a slow day, we were being held up by the group in front of us, the delays weren't our fault, the group behind could clearly see us and simply got so impatient that they deliberately hit into us, so it wasn't a situation like the OPs. ---------------------- The site seems to be acting up again and won't recognize page breaks - if this turns into a mega paragraph, it's not my fault - I typed three regular sized paragraphs and separated them by 3 lines each.

[luu5]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

Guy sounds like a jerk but I can understand his concerns about getting hit into.  It would have been better if he had voiced his displeasure first and then if you hit into him again throw your ball into the woods.

20 yards+rolls is not "hit into", hit close but not into. My opinion.