Golfing With Strangers-The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

[Elmer]

10 hours ago, gregsandiego said:

I think the moral of the story - if there is one - golf can teach you to deal with people totally unlike yourselves. But in this case it seems like there was too big a divide for either party.

I also think if you can't deal with bad language golf is probably the wrong sport for you.... 

 

 

 

It seems alot of time I get paired with strangers they are the type that like to tell me their view of the President, their love for Jebus or their thoughts on the cart girls who-has!

I walk onto the golf course and I leave my views in my car with my pedestrian shoes.
So why do I have to put up with the idiosyncrasies of strangers?
Why must I endure every weirdo I meet on the course?
Why cant for once someone have to put up with me?
This is why I tend to head to a local course that has 27 holes and will let me head out on my own on an empty 9!

Rant over...... 

[Valleygolfer]

This was not a personal experience but my gf told me about this guy who used to golf with his daughter's and when they would get paired up with a 4th, the father would just be mean and nasty to the other player. Even more so if the player was not a very good golfer. He would berate and degrade the person throughout the round. Finally at some point one of the daughter's stopped playing golf with the father. According to the woman, he stated that if you are not a good golfer you should not be on the golf course. Later in life, when he was in a nursing home he used to yell at the aids and spit on them...I bet he saw a lot of bed sores...

[boogielicious]

1 hour ago, Valleygolfer said:

This was not a personal experience but my gf told me about this guy who used to golf with his daughter's and when they would get paired up with a 4th, the father would just be mean and nasty to the other player. Even more so if the player was not a very good golfer. He would berate and degrade the person throughout the round. Finally at some point one of the daughter's stopped playing golf with the father. According to the woman, he stated that if you are not a good golfer you should not be on the golf course. Later in life, when he was in a nursing home he used to yell at the aids and spit on them...I bet he saw a lot of bed sores...

I would call the ranger on someone like that. 

[Elmer]

1 hour ago, Valleygolfer said:

This was not a personal experience but my gf told me about this guy who used to golf with his daughter's and when they would get paired up with a 4th, the father would just be mean and nasty to the other player. Even more so if the player was not a very good golfer. He would berate and degrade the person throughout the round. Finally at some point one of the daughter's stopped playing golf with the father. According to the woman, he stated that if you are not a good golfer you should not be on the golf course. Later in life, when he was in a nursing home he used to yell at the aids and spit on them...I bet he saw a lot of bed sores...

That just shows that he was a horrible human being!

[Valleygolfer]

22 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

I would call the ranger on someone like that. 

I would have to...

2 minutes ago, Elmer said:

That just shows that he was a horrible human being!

Agreed.

[TJBam]

I don't really recall ever being matched up with someone who was insufferable.  What's that saying, look around the room for the stupidest guy, if you can't find him, it's you? 

[GolfLug]

On ‎3‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 9:58 AM, Elmer said:

Years ago (2011) I was down in Disney Orlando playing one of their courses. I was play with my mother's BF who was a 60 something blue collar, ultra conservative and a grizzled curmudgeon, (CG from here on out). 
We got paired with an old married couple from on PA.

They introduced themselves (Call them mickey & minnie because I can not remember their names). Minnie immediately tells me she is a women of faith, not that the gold cross on her neck would give it away. She doesnt drink, curse or take the lords name in vein, I do all 3!!!!

We start playing. Mickey plays from the whites and hits a 150 drive middle of fairway. CG hits about 175 in the fairway. I hit about 250.
We then drive up to the reds and wait for her to find her driver, take a minute to work on posture and take 4 practice swings.
She then WHIFFS......"nice try hon"-Mickey.

I went to my bag grabbed my flask and took a big slug!

During the round CG and Mickey talked about how Obama was ruining the county, kids today are soft. The youth are incapable of running the country or being responsible etc...etc...
This left Minnie to stand and talk to me. She felt I looked like Rory, I dont. She felt I hit the ball as far as Rory, I didnt!

Further talk was about Arnold Palmer being not only the greatest golfer but the greatest human being. 
"he is a god fearing christian" minnie interjected!
"not like that tiger woods!!" she further explained.

the pace of play was killing me! Minnie must have shot 300 over 12 holes!
Mickey did his best to convince me that a life was better under Eisenhower's administration. He also predicted that Obama would outlaw Christianity in 2 years (he didnt).

They also tried telling me that Jim Furyk was full of himself for holding out for a higher paying sponsor deal, they knew someone who knew someone who knew someone.

By the 10th hole I started ordering beers 2 at a time. I am after all on vacation. I also did so because Mickey dislike of Obama & tiger woods began to go down some less than comfortable roads.
Not to mention I could not take the pace of play which turned out to be a 7 hour round!!!!!!

on 16 I was 40 yards off the green on my drive only to skull the wedge over the green "Jesus-F_____ Christ" I blurted out.

You would think I had drowned minnie's her grandkids in a bucket. She was horrified and not pleased.
I apologized for being a heathen from a liberal state who did not understand her peaceful, religious way of life which enabled her to look down upon everyone else!
I grabbed my beer and said little for the last 2 holes.
I let CG explain to Mickey that it was the fault of my generation. We apparently dont appreciate anything and have worked for nothing.
I think Mickey said something along the lines of "Arnold Palmer would never do this, but I could see tiger behaving like that".

Suffice to say I have not golfed with CG either.

Ha ha ha. I was already laughing at "nice try hon".. Good post. Playing here in some of the semi private I run into a few couples. None of them this interesting though.

[GolfLug]

Too late to edit my last post above to add. So excuse the separate post..

My best one is from almost 10 years ago. Good friend of mine was getting married and had relatives visiting for the wedding from all over, including his mom who is Bahamian and is very involved in the Bahamian golf scene at the national level. Very very nice lady complete with that I-could-eat-it-with-my-lunch-everyday lovely island accent.

I was one of the groomsmen and he asked me if I could take her to one of the local courses in the morning of the day of the wedding (obviously the wedding was in the evening) as she had brought her clubs and really wanted to experience a Virginia Beach course. I was a fairly recent golfer, about 2 years or so with beginners game to boot, so a bit nervous.

Anyway, she and I get on a local course and play as a twosome. She was an absolute delight and thankfully not that good (29 HCP) which she had warned me about just I had about mine. While driving in between shots we talked about life, and about my impending fatherhood in a couple of months, the Bahamian golf bureaucracy, etc. We were both playing terrible golf but I was proud of how well things were going in general. She was especially having a hard time making contact especially with shorter clubs but kept moving the ball well enough. But I could tell she was starting to feel a bit embarrassed (not sure why as I had already lost a few balls myself by then). Anyway, she starting telling me about her lessons with her coach at her club in Bahamas. She discussed her particular swing issues and how difficult it is for somebody like herself to swing her arms across such a large chest. Bit awkward but nothing major and I feigned sympathy with smoothness and maintaining my respectful demeanor as much as I could muster. Honestly, I was having a hard time suppressing a bubbling laugh but managed. Can't remember which hole on the back nine where she finally got frustrated enough and blurted rather loudly "damn, these f**king t*ts!" and then looked at me and started laughing loudly at which point I did too almost falling off the cart. She was a great sport still and then said "you didn't know nice old ladies could talk like that, did you?"

We just laughed and had a great ol' time. I still have an open invite to play if I ever visited Nassau.  

[vangator]

20 hours ago, No Mulligans said:

Happy Birthday.  I'll be 59 this year also.  Your HI encourages me, folks our age can be in the single digits.  Looks like you may shoot your age some day.

I've got a long ways to go.

So far so good.  Lot of long lived people in my family, so I may shoot my age but I might be 90 when I do it.

20 hours ago, onthehunt526 said:

@vangator my guess would be when ever you feel like it.... here's my issue the an amateur can play in the Senior Open at 50, but has to wait until 55 to Play in the Senior Amateur... and most golf leagues make a player wait until 60 to play from the senior tees... 

If you and I were playing together, and you wanted to play the senior tees, I'd probably play the senior tees right along with you, and i'm only 29... As long as 2 1/2 year old Alina can play from the family tees, we're cool.

If I wear a skirt, can I play from the red tees?

12 hours ago, 9wood said:

The use of senior tees should be based on the players ability rather than on his age. For example, if a 30 year old player is scoring say 108, then maybe he needs to consider using the senior tees until his game improves so that he is not slowing better players down. 

I agree. The guy I was playing with could have easily managed the whites off the tee.  The rest of his game was not nearly up to part with his tee shots though.  Strange.  Didn't play well off the turf.

11 hours ago, boogielicious said:

I just turned 56. My last league we used 60 as the cutoff. My current league, we had to coax a good friend who just turned 70 to move up. At first he was reluctant. But then after scoring much better, he was glad he made the move.

I think it really depends on distance off the tee. For my buddy, there were holes that he couldn't consistently make the distance to clear a hazard off the tee (170-180). He hits some drives 200+, but not all the time. Once he moved up, he was placing his tee shots in the same place we were for the approach shots, which evened things up.

The cutoff in my league is 70.  We have a few of those.  It does make the round more competitive for everyone.

[Hardspoon]

6 hours ago, GolfLug said:

she finally got frustrated enough and blurted rather loudly "damn, these f**king t*ts!" 

And...this is going to be my new go-to method of expressing frustration on the course.  Hilarious.

[CLPotter]

I usually play as a single. One day came up on this guy on about the 7th hole. We started playing together and he seemed like a nice guy. Few holes later he asked "have you accepted Jesus Christ into your life." I spent the next four holes answering questions and defending my lack of religious beliefs. It was so uncomfortable. I just wanted to play golf, not get preached to.  

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2016 by CLPotter

[vangator]

2 hours ago, CLPotter said:

I usually play as a single. One day came up on this guy on about the 7th hole. We started playing together and he seemed like a nice guy. Few holes later he asked "have you accepted Jesus Christ into your life." I spent the next four holes answering questions and defending my lack of religious beliefs. It was so uncomfortable. I just wanted to play golf, not get preached to.  

I used to get hit by the Crossroaders in college when I used to hang out in the bowling alley.  Must have been a popular venue to pick up new prey.  The Crossroads church was a group of in your face evangelists.  Holy rollers.  The guy behind the counter, after seeing them circle me a few times, says he just tells them "I worship Lucifer" and they fly into a rage and leave.  He gets a kick out of it.  I never got a chance to use it myself because I never got hit on again.  But I'm prepared if they do!  BTW, that was 40 years ago....

I don't talk religion or politics on the golf course.  Just golf and sex.

[9wood]

On 3/17/2016 at 8:59 PM, CLPotter said:

I usually play as a single. One day came up on this guy on about the 7th hole. We started playing together and he seemed like a nice guy. Few holes later he asked "have you accepted Jesus Christ into your life."  

 

 

 

I myself am a Christian, but I can honestly say that is definitely not a question you ask someone who you just met. 

Edited March 18, 2016 by 9wood

[mcanadiens]

On 3/17/2016 at 8:59 PM, CLPotter said:

I usually play as a single. One day came up on this guy on about the 7th hole. We started playing together and he seemed like a nice guy. Few holes later he asked "have you accepted Jesus Christ into your life." I spent the next four holes answering questions and defending my lack of religious beliefs. It was so uncomfortable. I just wanted to play golf, not get preached to.  

 

 

 

I'd never have that problem. Within a few holes, I'd have taken god's name in vain a few different times. 

[Valleygolfer]

On 3/17/2016 at 8:59 PM, CLPotter said:

I usually play as a single. One day came up on this guy on about the 7th hole. We started playing together and he seemed like a nice guy. Few holes later he asked "have you accepted Jesus Christ into your life." I spent the next four holes answering questions and defending my lack of religious beliefs. It was so uncomfortable. I just wanted to play golf, not get preached to.  

Sounds like a "Jehovah Witness". They are always out there up front collecting sheep for the herd.

[taxgolf]

On 16-3-2016 at 11:54 AM, disaster said:

In my opinion, that's part of the club's fault. Of course that does in no way apologize the arrogant behaviour of that guy. But here the first tee is usually closed about one hour before the actual tournament starts, so that the first players of the tournament (which are usually the best according to their handicap) do not run into any players that just started right before them.

I tend to agree, I am not sure if that is the rule on that local club (which I quite well could understand), they shouldn't let us on the course. I have to say, they asked us about our hcp (12/13) so I think they made a judgement call thinking we wouldn't hold players up. 

[Lihu]

On March 16, 2016 at 6:17 AM, Elmer said:

It seems alot of time I get paired with strangers they are the type that like to tell me their view of the President, their love for Jebus or their thoughts on the cart girls who-has!

I've never had this happen to me, do you wear T shirts with "I love Sanders" embossed on them? Or do you mutter "Trump's a dimwit" under your breath every time you miss a shot? 

 

On March 16, 2016 at 6:17 AM, Elmer said:

I walk onto the golf course and I leave my views in my car with my pedestrian shoes.
So why do I have to put up with the idiosyncrasies of strangers?
Why must I endure every weirdo I meet on the course?
Why cant for once someone have to put up with me?
This is why I tend to head to a local course that has 27 holes and will let me head out on my own on an empty 9!

Rant over...... 

This is very strange, I've paired up with people all over world with something north of 400 different people and never once had this same experience?

They are usually very polite and often friendly, even if not on the first hole, usually by the third or so. This seems to happen even if no one talks for the first few holes.

[Yukari]

On March 17, 2016 at 6:59 PM, CLPotter said:

I usually play as a single. One day came up on this guy on about the 7th hole. We started playing together and he seemed like a nice guy. Few holes later he asked "have you accepted Jesus Christ into your life." I spent the next four holes answering questions and defending my lack of religious beliefs. It was so uncomfortable. I just wanted to play golf, not get preached to.  

 

 

 

I am surprised you put up with that for that long.

Usually I ask them if they believe in evolution and debate them on a topic they don't like. But that's just me I guess.