Random kids!

[bornfishy]

Hey all,

Played my local course Monday and Tuesday, with two different people. On Monday, walking up the par three 3rd some kids appear out of the bushes after our tee shots, offering to sell us golf balls. They'd clearly picked them up from the bushes, but we thought nothing of it.

Tuesday, on the par four 7th, I'd laid up well short of a lake, and was on the backswing of my five iron when I noticed a splash up ahead. I put down my iron, walked a bit further ahead, and stared in disbelief - a ten year old kid, waist deep with a driver hacking at the bottom of the lake - which runs to fifteen feet deep with a mud and reed bottom - trying to get golf balls out! I was gonna say "no, no, no... use the wedge - more loft!"...

Seriously though; three times he had to be told to get out of the way; about to swing back, and his mate appears! Told the pro shop, who I assume sorted it out, after we'd left.

As we teed off on the eighth, they were knee deep in a different river... suffice to say, my playing partner scared them enough they'll never cross another fairway in front of us again.

Any other crazy course infringers?

andy.

[getinthehole]

There's some that do that on my course. There's a hole with two out of bounds pits on the right, and they just run into the pit and look for balls, and sometimes they are running all over the fairway and stuff. You just get so tempted to just whip out your driver and a scrap ball when you in the middle of the fairway, tee it up and whack it at them.

[srjorion]

I played a course a few years back where you hit your drive up and over a hill such that you could not see your ball in the fairway after hitting it. To the right of the fairway was a dense brush. We learned that you had to have someone go to the top of the hill and watch the balls as you hit because there were kids that lived next to the course that would hide in the brush, and after you hit they would run out into the fairway and steal your ball.

[Norm66]

Yeah, one of the courses I play is on a corner of two roads with a baseball facility on one side and a trailer park & apartments on the other side. There are constantly kids (and adults!) cutting through to walk to the store or home from school. Normally I don't mind, but one lady last week walked by me as I was getting ready to tee off on a par-3 and she walked right in front of me, right over the bridge and directly across the green I was trying to hit. You expect it from kids, but an adult? A while later I saw her walking back carrying a case of Natural Light so there you go.

I've also had kids in the creek looking for balls when I'm trying to hit. Annoying, but I know if I was a kid in that neighborhood I'd be doing it as well.

[Undr Par]

theres a course in Baltimore City (Carroll Park) real rough area, it's a 9hole course that they made an 11 hole at 1 time, but on 1 of those added holes was a Par3 and the neighborhood kids would come out and cuss you, throw things at you etc.....1 time I was playing it with a friend and this kid (couldn't have been any older then 12 maybe 13) and he had a brick and as we were walking up toward the green he tossed the brick on the green then ran away up to a slight hill, from there he tossed rocks at us, my friend ran after him (but couldn't catch him of course)....I hear they have just recently closed those 2 holes down and are now just a 9hole course again...(I haven't played there in about 3yrs)

[Mitch Cumstein]

There is a municipal course in Philadelphia where you have a blind tee shot over a hill. The local kids will run out and steal you ball, of course. The great thing is though, that they then meet you about six holes later and offer to sell you some balls. My friend puts a really distinctive mark on his ball and they were trying to sell him back his ball! I was really impressed with how the kid could keep a completely straight face and insist that it was not my friends ball and that he had found it weeks ago. He absolutely stuck by the story. We didn't buy the ball back, but he didn't give it back either.

[Jeepthrills]

This isn't a kid, but there is an old guy who walks through the woods looking for balls where I play. He usually wears camo and waders. He also carries a big rake with him. The first time I ever saw him he looked like a serial killer comming out of the woods to get us. I have actually knocked one into the woods in his vicinity and he has tossed it back to me.

[Dent]

In mexico, some of the lawn mowers and people try to sell balls, but the waters are filled with crocodiles and there is actually a guy who goes in there trying to get golf balls to sell, hes crazy!