Idiotic Mistakes on the Golf Course

[Pretzel]

In a tournament once a fellow competitor ended up signing a scorecard for 31 strokes higher than what he actually shot.

Hole 18 was a par 4 which this player made par on. This player's marker accidentally wrote down the total score for the back nine, which was 35, in the space for hole 18. The player didn't catch the mistake and signed the card, turning in a total that was 31 strokes too high. 

I felt really bad for the guy and his marker, since it was an honest mistake that wasn't noticed, but ever since that happened I've made sure to triple check my tournament scorecards. 

My own personal big-time blunder happened in my first tournament ever. I hit it under a tree on the third hole, and wasted 3 shots trying to extract it before taking an unplayable drop. 

[406pat]

It's very comforting to know I'm not the only one guilty of operator error with the rangefinder! I now make a practice to range the back and front of the green in addition to the pin just to make sure it all makes sense.

Besides that, I think I felt my most idiotic leaving my wedge behind not once, not twice, but three times during a single round last summer. I usually carry my clubs and walk but we were in carts that day. Something about being in a cart just throws me off and causes me to forget about clubs. Started right away too. Nothing like getting within 100 yds of the green on hole 1 and having to go back to the practice green for a club! 

[dennyjones]

3 hours ago, 406pat said:

It's very comforting to know I'm not the only one guilty of operator error with the rangefinder! I now make a practice to range the back and front of the green in addition to the pin just to make sure it all makes sense.

Besides that, I think I felt my most idiotic leaving my wedge behind not once, not twice, but three times during a single round last summer. I usually carry my clubs and walk but we were in carts that day. Something about being in a cart just throws me off and causes me to forget about clubs. Started right away too. Nothing like getting within 100 yds of the green on hole 1 and having to go back to the practice green for a club! 

This is why I leave my wedges on the putting surface and not on the fringe while I am putting.   After I finish I take a quick glance to make sure there isn't any club left behind.  

[406pat]

38 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

This is why I leave my wedges on the putting surface and not on the fringe while I am putting.   After I finish I take a quick glance to make sure there isn't any club left behind.

Should I tell ya the worst part (every one had the handle on the green, head on the fringe) or keep myself from looking too idiotic? Just something about playing in a cart that throws me off. I've never left a club when I wasn't in a cart.

[RH31]

Playing in partners better ball tournaments I ;

Opening hole, tough par 3, pin on back left shelf, I absolutely smoke an iron right over the top of the flag. It hits the down slope over the green and goes out of bounds. I comment how I've never hit a 5 iron that far, ever. My competitors comment on how the ball just shot off my club.

It was a 4 iron (woops).

Another time, season long team matches, 15th hole we're up 1. Couple days before playing the same hole, I have a really funky sidehill, downhill lie on what is a pretty flat fairway. We're walking along chatting away and I get to my ball scoop it over to demonstate to my partner how wacky this lie was. Thing is, we were playing the ball down, I was out of the hole. We ended up winning but boy did I feel stupid.

[shanksalot]

I have played for over 50 years so I have lots of these moments. The two that pop out are: Playing in the Club Championship and on a drivable par 4 hitting three straight drives out of bounds and taking a big fat ten. The other was also in a tournament I hit a driver off the tee down the left side of the course in the rough. Got to the ball and made sure it was mine since there was a fairway parallel to mine. Sure enough it was a Precept Laddie. So I went ahead and hit it only to have a guy come walking down the other fairway and looking at another ball about ten yards head of mine. Turns out it too was a Precept Laddie only his had a blue dot on it and at that point I did not mark my ball at all. Oh oh I had hit his ball not mine. How I missed seeing his marking still bothers me.  This was one of the most embarrassing moments of my golfing life. I had hit his ball by mistake. After that day I never again played without making my ball even if it was just a quick nine holes late in the day. I would like to post that that penalty cost me the tournament, but no it did not, not even close. One other comes to mind when playing on a course new to me I thought was playing a dog leg par 4 and not being able to see the green I hit my ball toward what I thought was the correct green only to find out I hit to the wrong green, but also had hit off the wrong tee box. My mistake was playing as a single and not with someone who knew the course. Dumb!!!

[Killa]

I'm pretty much a newbie, but last week I played my 5th round of golf (9 holes) with an even bigger newbie :) 

So on the third hole I we were caught up by 2 seniors and since my buddy was about 50 yards off the tee in the rough with 400 yards left to go we wave them on, to let them pass.

We play behind them and see them finishing the hole and we still needed about 4-5 shots each to finish the hole. 

We walk up to the tee on 4th (150y par 3) and the layout is so stupid that the tee box of the 5th is maybe 10 yards behind the green of the 4th. I see them standing about 10 yards off the green and to the right and assumed they were teeing off on the 5th. Hit my 7 and it is about the same hight as the flag. The ball stopped about 10 yards from where they were standing but I never even considered yelling fore as I knew I was not gonna go over the green and my "vision" told me they were on the tee box behind it anyway. 

 

Turns out they were searching for their balls in the woods... Apologized to them but man was I ashamed... Made sure to leave them even further ahead on the fifth...

[p1n9183]

My classic stupid error on the golf course it´s to fail to do the yardage math on an approach shot.

Like... ok 150 yards to the middle of the green, 160 to the back. OK no more than an 8 Iron. Wind? tail wind so the ball will fly 10 yards more so 160 to the back + 10 = 170 so no more than 7 iron. Pic 7 iron an watch how the ball goes 20 yards over the green.
Correct math should be 160 to the back - 10 (tailwind) =  have to hit 150. No more than a 9 Iron.  

[Kalnoky]

Anytime the lie calls for a different club than normal, but I ignore the facts and go ahead and use the club I want to use instead of the one I should.