Tobacco products on golf course

[GolfLug]

Let's ban airplanes and cars too... They emit harmful gases.

People just need to be considerate... Whether they're a smoker, drinker, dipper, seed spitter, eat snacks, fart, talk... On a golf course.

No need to ban any of it... Just be considerate and ask others around you to be considerate.

I smoke cigars on occasion while golfing, and it's normally not an issue because I walk the majority of the time, and I'm considerate of others. On the rare occasion I get paired up in a cart with someone, on a day a brought a cigar, I let them know I brought a cigar and I can get a separate cart if it will bother them.

No one is going to get cancer from getting an occasional whiff of a cigar on a golf course... That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Educate yourself. And yes, I've had family members die from cancer as well (both lung cancer, and both were big time smokers)... But that doesn't mean everyone is going to die from catching a whiff here and there.

From a business perspective... A ban would be a terrible business decision. Let's just ban everything that annoys anybody... And not have golf anymore

Yes, some would have planes, cars, electricity... etc., banned if they could. 2/10 is an opinion, 5/10 is a debate, 7/10 is a bill, 8+/10 is a law. Bottom line, enough people annoyed/offended/dead, facts or no facts, the matter is ban fodder. BTW, personally I would never vote (if I had one) against cigars altogether. Just in closed spaces.

[Yukari]

1) Don't leave your cigarette butts or cigar stubs on the green/fringe.  Better yet, collect them (just put them in your dirty ass cart) and dispose of them properly.

2) Don't spit tobacco juice on the green.

3) Cigar smokers--don't ash on the greens.  They can make huge ash piles.  Or take note of the ash and clear it away.

And while we are at it:

4) The worst offenders are people who chew sunflower seeds.  You disgusting ****, don't spit those on the green.

Hear, hear!!!

I hate it because unlike cigar ashes, you actually have to remove the sunflower shells from your line of putt.  Who wants to touch that disgusting crap!

[RFKFREAK]

I can't speak for rural areas but at least, in urban areas in NY, smoking doesn't appear to be decreasing by any substantial amount from when the indoor smoking ban went into effect ten or so years ago.

I've also found that on the course, for the most part, people that smoke are considerate about making sure the smoke doesn't bother non-smokers.

I don't believe that occasionally inhaling second hand smoke while outdoors is harmful to a persons health.  I've also heard the argument that smoke bothers some people because they don't want their clothes to smell like smoke but I'm not sure if an occasionally passage of smoke would really make anyone's clothes smell like smoke much, if at all.

As with others, I think this would be a bad business move.

Finally, it really does just come down to whether a person is considerate or not.  A person that leaves their cigarette butts or ashes their cigar or cigarette on the green is just inconsiderate.  If they dipped, chewed sunflower seeds, or were eating something, they'd probably be just as inconsiderate when on the greens.

I guess I'm lucky in that the 6-8 courses I play at, I rarely, and at the moment can't think of any occasions, where I've seen a cigarette butt, sunflower seeds, etc. on the greens.

[CartShedCop]

I now see this topic/discussion from both sides now that I am employed at a course. I have smoked ever since I was 16 or 17. Disgusting habit, I know, and yes - I need to quit... but that's not this topic. For years I have always tried to THINK about where and how I dispose of my butts when on the course. However, thinking about it and doing something are far too often two different things. Meaning? I am positive that except for on the greens themselves I am sure that I have placed Marlboro Lights butts all over God's green courses. Tee box? Sure. Fairway? Absolutely. Fringe? Unfortunately - yes. Sorry, guys. Fast forward to present day. I still smoke like I'm on death row while playing, (Caveat: if I'm paired/grouped with strangers I'll keep a good distance from them while going to flavor country. My regular partners are smokers as well, so it doesn't bother them.) but due to my part time job at a local course I am now VERY aware of where I dispose of the remains (butts, foil, wrappers, etc.). On every single hole at most of the courses I play, and the three I am employed with, there are trash cans. Also, a person normally has a can or bottle in which to place the butts in. Just about every time I'm on cart detail I'll take in a handful of carts that are holding a few butts. My initial thought? Cool - they didn't just throw them around the course. Next thought? Damn, I REALLY don't know the owner of these and their health. So I'll grab a "barrier" and throw them into the trash can; all the while saying - "Man, you were SO close to getting it 100% right, fellow golfer. I don't know if I can ever get back all the course karma I've lost for years of tossing butts tee to almost green, but I am VERY aware of it now. I'll "police up" tee boxes, sand some divots, and use my putter to grab up smoking refuse as I walk my rounds now. Now if I can just get people to throw SOME of their trash away at the turn or throughout their rounds before I get their dumpster... err... cart after 18.

[Pretzel]

The one thing I noticed earlier in the thread was the person saying to putt the butts in your cart to throw away later. If you do this, please do remember to throw them away later. As someone who has to clean out those carts afterwords, I don't particularly enjoy reaching into the little compartment up front and picking up a handful of cigarette butts to throw away because you couldn't be bothered to find a trash can on one of the 18 tee boxes out on the course.

Other than that, I don't mind so long as you don't insist on standing upwind of me or spitting on the green.

[CR McDivot]

I usually walk with a push cart. I have one of those cup type ash trays attached for butts... easy enough to place this type ash cup in the cup holder of regular lazy person electric or gas cart. But I guess lazy and inconsiderate is lazy and inconsiderate!

Don't be that guy! Bring an ash tray, or use your empty beverage container and dispose of properly.

[tmac20]

I played with a paediatric oncologist the other day who was smoking a $70 cigar! I'm not bullshitting. Anyways, I say keep the cigars, ban the cigarettes.

[whatwoodtigerdo]

I played with a paediatric oncologist the other day who was smoking a $70 cigar! I'm not bullshitting. Anyways, I say keep the cigars, ban the cigarettes.

How do you go about rationilzing that to the public. These courses are ran by the city.

[CartShedCop]

I played with a paediatric oncologist the other day who was smoking a $70 cigar! I'm not bullshitting. Anyways, I say keep the cigars, ban the cigarettes.

Wow... that seems a bit elitist to me. So the $70.00 stogie is fine but the (down here at least) $5.00 pack of heaters isn't? Some people may not like the smell of my cigarettes, but they are gone fast and don't linger around for the better part of an hour. I need to start putting a gold band around each one of my cigarettes and tell people that I paid an outrageously inflated price for them.

[flopster]

I volunteer marshal at a course and each of us get assigned a hole to take care of like pick up trash, sand fill divots, fix green pitch marks, rake bunkers, I don't want a ban to happen but smokers themselves are giving the people who want to ban it too much evidence for their case, cigarette butts and cigar chunks, spat puddles of chewing tobacco all over teeing areas is what I see lots of, these people know there are people who want to take this away but then they do things that are going to make it a lot easier for those who want the ban.

[CR McDivot]

And Hogan died from cancer.  Go figure.

Colon cancer. At age 84.

Neither "coffin nails" nor a Greyhound bus could put Ben down!

I knew a fellow who drank a fifth of whiskey, smoked like a train, and broke horses till the day he died in his mid eighties. He crossed the river like he lived, with a firm will and a sound heart.

Fear mongering seems to be the modern mantra. BULL STUFF! I for one, am tired of the fear mongers, nannies, and busy bodies trying to impose their pansyfied culture on free men. We're all gonna die, die standing up.

[boogielicious]

Colon cancer. At age 84.

Neither "coffin nails" nor a Greyhound bus could put Ben down!

I knew a fellow who drank a fifth of whiskey, smoked like a train, and broke horses till the day he died in his mid eighties. He crossed the river like he lived, with a firm will and a sound heart.

Fear mongering seems to be the modern mantra. BULL STUFF! I for one, am tired of the fear mongers, nannies, and busy bodies trying to impose their pansyfied culture on free men. We're all gonna die, die standing up.

Great, so let's just hand out cigarettes and whiskey to the kids in elementary school.  You sound like a Phillip Morris PR man.  400,000+ Americans die every year from smoking related illness.  It costs the rest of us millions in insurance coverage.  And yet you flaunt it like it is harmless.  Strange post.  Hogan died lying down, miserable and in great pain.  And I bet he cursed the cancer sticks.

I am against the ban BTW. I would rather educate people to stop smoking than legislate it.  But post like the guy above irk me no end.

[mcanadiens]

Somebody's handing out whiskey and cigarettes? Where?

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CR McDivot

Colon cancer. At age 84.

Neither "coffin nails" nor a Greyhound bus could put Ben down!

I knew a fellow who drank a fifth of whiskey, smoked like a train, and broke horses till the day he died in his mid eighties. He crossed the river like he lived, with a firm will and a sound heart.

Fear mongering seems to be the modern mantra. BULL STUFF! I for one, am tired of the fear mongers, nannies, and busy bodies trying to impose their pansyfied culture on free men. We're all gonna die, die standing up.

Great, so let's just hand out cigarettes and whiskey to the kids in elementary school.  You sound like a Phillip Morris PR man.  400,000+ Americans die every year from smoking related illness.  It costs the rest of us millions in insurance coverage.  And yet you flaunt it like it is harmless.  Strange post.  Hogan died lying down, miserable and in great pain.  And I bet he cursed the cancer sticks.

I am against the ban BTW. I would rather educate people to stop smoking than legislate it.  But post like the guy above irk me no end.

This is how I see it too.  For every story like he throws up there are 20 who died prematurely of lung cancer and other pulmonary and cardiac diseases related to smoking.  Virtually everyone has such a story in their families, or in their circle of close friends.  And contrary to their oft stated opinions, it affects far more than just themselves.  My mother-in-law felt like that until she got sick and saw first hand how it devastated her family.  She found out that the effects were more far reaching than just how it affected her.  It was very painful to witness her steady decline from a strong, active, involved member of her community to someone who had to sit in a chair and instruct her husband in how to cook meals because emphysema  had stolen her strength for being able to stand up for that long.

I also watched 3 friends that I played golf with die of smoking related diseases, 2 from lung cancer.  It was hard to see them gradually fail.  And not only the affect on friends and family, but what the rest of us pay in increased insurance and medical costs to finance care for those people as their heath declines.  Anyone who says that he is only hurting himself is deluded and selfish.

[newtogolf]

Yes, some would have planes, cars, electricity... etc., banned if they could. 2/10 is an opinion, 5/10 is a debate, 7/10 is a bill, 8+/10 is a law. Bottom line, enough people annoyed/offended/dead, facts or no facts, the matter is ban fodder. BTW, personally I would never vote (if I had one) against cigars altogether. Just in closed spaces.

If that was the way it worked I could live with it.  Reality is 20% - 30% dictate what becomes law in this country.  Look at your presidential elections, last election 57.5% of eligible voters actually cast a vote, which means less than 30% could have had an impact on who ran the country.  Apathy is at an all time high here and the squeaky wheels usually get their way.

As others have said, if people are considerate, there is no reason to ban tobacco products.  The problem is there are a lot of inconsiderate people out there.

[isukgolf]

Colon cancer. At age 84. Neither "coffin nails" nor a Greyhound bus could put Ben down! I knew a fellow who drank a fifth of whiskey, smoked like a train, and broke horses till the day he died in his mid eighties. He crossed the river like he lived, with a firm will and a sound heart. Fear mongering seems to be the modern mantra. BULL STUFF! I for one, am tired of the fear mongers, nannies, and busy bodies trying to impose their pansyfied culture on free men. We're all gonna die, die standing up.

Smoke and drink all you want ... Fools die by any method of thier choosing, it's just natures way of elimating the stupidly that abounds the earth.

[mcanadiens]

Everyone dies. Is it very much better to die a decade after the last marble rolled out of your head?

People want to talk about the health costs of smoking and drinking, but what do you think it costs for those healthy people that live to 100 in a nursing home?  Right now, smokers are a scapegoat. In the long run, it's cheaper for all of us if I live the way I do and die in a few years the way I was intended to.

[Gunther]

Everyone dies. Is it very much better to die a decade after the last marble rolled out of your head? People want to talk about the health costs of smoking and drinking, but what do you think it costs for those healthy people that live to 100 in a nursing home?  Right now, smokers are a scapegoat. In the long run, it's cheaper for all of us if I live the way I do and die in a few years the way I was intended to.

Haven't looked at it this way before but makes very good sense. In the obamacare model, the young pay for the old which is one reason it's unsustainable. But yeah, the longer people live, the more it will cost the rest of society. I'll do my part by considerately Kevorkianing myself as soon as I can no longer take care of myself. Probably got a good 5 years left.