Was I in the wrong?

[boogielicious]

The guy overreacted I think.  In that situation, I would have just to them "Sorry guys.  I didn't think it had any chance of going anywhere near you.  When it hit the path, it was too late to yell."  But, they should also be paying attention on a tee that close to a green.

[RH31]

Your ball didn't carry far enough to hit them on the fly and you couldn't tell it what going to get anywhere near them. No reason to yell fore. The guy overreacted, IMO.

[pepsiplusconker]

Yeh I wouldn't have shouted, I'm guessing to actually hit then and put them in danger, you would have had to carry that 3 wood 280 yards maybe more.

I've done similar to Iacas, where I know it's going their direction, but it has no chance to hit them because of the shape etc. Sometimes you're better off not shouting, you don't know whether they might run into the path of the ball.

[MS256]

If you didn't think it could hit them that's good enough for me to think I would have thought the same thing.

Things happen. All we can do is the best we can do.

Last year I was playing a drivable (occasionally) par 4 and the green is over a hill. I knew there were people on the green so I just decided to hit a 5W (that should have been well short) so I could keep moving along. It must have hit the cart path because when I went over the hill I saw my ball laying on the right side of the green.

I apologized to them for hitting into them and told them my 5W must have hit the cart path.

They were nice and didn't think it was a big deal at all.

BTW. I would hate that hole if people were on the tee box. My most common miss these days is a straight ball right of target that goes a mile.

[Dave2512]

There is hole like this at a course we play. But is uphill at 280-295 yards and the path and next tee are on the left. The design flaw there is the next tee is between the green and tee of the short hole about 260 out. A 20 yard hook gets you there. Crazy things all over that course. I usually yell if it is a miss just because they are hard to predict. But wouldn't if my shot was moving in the intended direction. Have only yelled fore twice in 2 years and both times it was due to hitting into and adjacent fairway.

[Parker0065]

So here is the scenario I ran into today.

13th hole, short par 4, slightly down hill. Runs about 275 to 280 yards to the green. The next hole tee boxes are about 70 yards to the right and behind the green. So something like 2 o'clock.

So I wait for the group to clear. I actually wait till they are all on their tee box getting ready to hit. The wind is slightly out of the left. So I pull a 3 wood, I was going to try to put the ball near the front of the green, maybe front right bunker. So I hit a shot and slightly push it. Its heading towards the front right bunker, the wind drifts it further right. Now the cart path sits about 10-15 yards to the right of the green. I watch it go down, and I was hoping it wouldn't hit the cart path. I didn't hear the classic CLANK, or see the giant hop of the golf ball. The ball looked like it was heading towards the inside of the cart path. So something like 7-10 yards right of the green. As I turn to walk off the tee, one of the guys on the tee box from 14 yell "HEY!!!". So my guess is, it hit the cart path and it bothered them.

So I walk up, and my ball is about 50 yards behind the green down the cart path. Which makes sense if it hit it. The guy looks at me all pissed off like I should have yelled "FORE". I mean would you yell "FORE" if the ball was 7-10 yards just off the edge of the green, from a tee shot. If the ball was actually heading towards their tee box, I would have yelled it. I just thought the ball actually landed inside the cart path. I can understand if the ball kicked towards them, but it actually kicked a little left because the trajectory was fading right a bit due to the wind, but the ball ended up inside the cart path. So I apologize to the guy anyways just to cool things down. I don't like hitting into people.

I guess next time I should just yell "FORE", just in case. I thought it was a good tee shot till it hit that cart path.

You were in the wrong and should have yelled FORE!!!!

Anything even close or in the direction of another hole or golfer I yell FORE at the top of my lungs. Looking at the pics you definitely hit the ball in their general direction.

Nobody got hurt or hit so in this case no biggie but next time yell it out! It's not like a marshal is going to come out and get on you for yelling fore for no good reason. I don't know why people don't use it more often just to be on the safe side!

[mailman]

When the geezer looked at you saying fore you should have thought back to him "no worries mate, your ball is no where near me". Mailman

[Newby]

It's never wrong to yell fore.....

^^ This.

I hit a tee shot yesterday that was headed towards the group on the previous tee box (big dog leg right) and I knew the cart path(s) were in the vicinity of where my ball was headed. I called it out, ball ended up about 30 yards short of their tee box...but on the senior/ladies box.

You yell fore not because you know it is going to hit them, but to give them warning in case it might.

[CarlSpackler]

I assume that's at Community. It seems like there are several holes there that have similar issue. Which hole is that? It looks familiar.

I will give warning if my ball is heading anywhere in the general area of another group or if there is a blind spot where a group might be.

[mcanadiens]

I assume that's at Community. It seems like there are several holes there that have similar issue. Which hole is that? It looks familiar.

I will give warning if my ball is heading anywhere in the general area of another group or if there is a blind spot where a group might be.

Some days at Community, it gets hard to find places to hit the ball and not risk nailing somebody. I've had numbskulls fly out in front of my tee box after shanking one. One afternoon we were all set to hit our drives and a four-some rolls up and parks 50 yards away. All four hit balls back toward the adjacent green. Didn't say anything. Just crossed my arms and glared.

[mdl]

I will admit that I don't yell fore when a golf ball is close but clearly going to miss someone.

If it's not close and thus going to miss, I usually yell it, depending on how close (you don't yell if they're 60 yards away, probably).

This is my approach too.  Because of this I usually only end up yelling fore when I can't see where the ball is going, like when I push one into the trees right, have my view of where it'll probably land blocked by the trees, and I know there's a group on the neighboring fairway but can't see them either.  Unfortunately I'm not such a good golfer that I can't remember the last time this happened...

Though in the case @saevel25 posted, I might yell fore.  Depends a bit on whether they were driving carts.  If they had carts parked about where the carts are in the Google pic, a slightly harder push right from the wind or a kick hard right instead of the straight/left one he got looks like it could easily glance at least as far right as the carts where one of them may have shuttled back without @saevel25 seeing.  If they're not driving and you can see the whole group standing on the tee box, so even a skip down the part of the cart path past the S curve is clearly not hitting any of them, then I wouldn't have yelled either.

On a side not, so you're saying you carry your 3w 280?!

[saevel25]

On a side not, so you're saying you carry your 3w 280?!

I might have hit it pretty good . I wasn't going to bring it up any more than that, but since you mention it. I should have said I hit my 5 iron. That would have gotten things going better!!!

The hole is slightly downhill, and I was hoping for front of the green, for an easy pitch shot. I pushed it slightly right, it had no right curve on it. Then about at it apex the wind decided to shift it another 5 yards right on me to have it strike the cart path.

[thefinlex]

general rule for me is always good to yell "fore" it its anywhere near,its a useful warning not a signal of intent!

second that does look a dodgy layout! I would encourage course management to put up a screen/mesh fence or whatever to protect tee box on 14 from what looks like it must be fairly common occurrence on that hole ??

anyhoo,i think he overreacted a bit and its always a useful diffuser to yell fore at anything "close enough"...

[MS256]

I might have hit it pretty good . I wasn't going to bring it up any more than that, but since you mention it. I should have said I hit my 5 iron. That would have gotten things going better!!!

Yep. In internet terms that definitely should have been a 5 iron.

[Golfingdad]

I will admit that I don't yell fore when a golf ball is close but clearly going to miss someone.

If it's not close and thus going to miss, I usually yell it, depending on how close (you don't yell if they're 60 yards away, probably).

But when they're close and it's not going to hit them, I don't yell. I don't remember the last time I hit it near anyone, but a few years ago a guy in my group did just this - hit close to someone but in a way that we could see the ball would miss them by a few yards.

When we approached them, I explained to them (they were pissed) that we didn't yell FORE because we could see it would miss them, and we didn't want them to stop or change direction as then it could hit them. They were reasonable and understood that was good logic.

Exactly.  I don't get why somebody would be mad at you for not yelling fore when your ball didn't almost hit them.  How bad would you feel yelling fore just because you want to cover your butt even though you see it's going to miss the guy, and then have him randomly start scurring to the point that he actually causes himself to get hit?

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[saevel25]

Exactly.  I don't get why somebody would be mad at you for not yelling fore when your ball didn't almost hit them.  How bad would you feel yelling fore just because you want to cover your butt even though you see it's going to miss the guy, and then have him randomly start scurring to the point that he actually causes himself to get hit?

I get that logic. When I hear "FORE", I usually either find the nearest tree to hid behind. Or I will turn around and cover my head. If it it hits me it hits me. Worse thing I could do is look up and get whacked upside the head by a golf ball.

[Golfingdad]

I get that logic. When I hear "FORE", I usually either find the nearest tree to hid behind. Or I will turn around and cover my head. If it it hits me it hits me. Worse thing I could do is look up and get whacked upside the head by a golf ball.

Yeah, I have had a few situations where I've hit balls close enough to people for them to hear it hit, and I saw them there and I purposely didn't yell fore for the same reason Erik stated.  I am afraid I'd be less polite (and quite ornery - "Did I ***ing hit you?!?!") if contronted by anybody for not yelling fore in that situation, but it hasn't happened.

[rkim291968]

When I am in doubt, I yell.

Slightly off topic:

I don't know about others but a golf ball making a landing sound near you (within 20 yards) is not a pleasant sound.  I know some golfers will test the distance and hit a ball 10 - 20 yard short of a front group, annoying or not.   A sudden gust of wind can carry 10 - 20 yards easily and can land on the group in front.  An unusually solid shot can do the same.    B/c of these reasons, I normally play very safe.