Golfing tales

[9wood]

When I first started playing golf about 20 or so years ago, my golfing partner always insisted on teeing off on the 1st hole as early as possible. We had a course we would regularly go to, and we would pull into the parking lot about 5:15 AM while it was still dark outside. WE would get our clubs out of the car and put on our golf shoes and walk to the 1st tee. This early in the morning the course wasn't even open as yet therefore carts were not available so we would have to walk, but we would still start our round of golf in spite of that. When we would tee off on the first hole it would just beginning to get a faint bit of morning light, and we could just barely see the fairway. Many mornings it was so foggy that you couldn't see the fairway and were never sure where your tee shot ended up, but you kinda knew what direction to walk to in order to locate your ball. By the time we would tee it up on the second hole we would have plenty of light. Once we finished the front nine we would always stop and pay our fees in the pro-shop before starting on the back nine. The staff in the pro-shop knew us personally and knew we would always pay up after the first 9 holes so it wasn't a problem, at least not at first. Then new people took over the pro-shop who didn't appreciate the fact that we would start our round long before the course was open and they chewed our butts out and told us to never start a round ever again before the course was open. We never started that early ever again, and in fact we never went back to that course ever again, but we did find another course that didn't mind our early start time. I really use to love those early starts. These days, the earliest tee times for me our 7 AM. Still nice, but as memorable as those 5:30 AM starts

Do you have a memorable golfing story to share? 

Include it in this thread for us to enjoy.

[Fourputt]

1 hour ago, 9wood said:

When I first started playing golf about 20 or so years ago, my golfing partner always insisted on teeing off on the 1st hole as early as possible. We had a course we would regularly go to, and we would pull into the parking lot about 5:15 AM while it was still dark outside. WE would get our clubs out of the car and put on our golf shoes and walk to the 1st tee. This early in the morning the course wasn't even open as yet therefore carts were not available so we would have to walk, but we would still start our round of golf in spite of that. When we would tee off on the first hole it would just beginning to get a faint bit of morning light, and we could just barely see the fairway. Many mornings it was so foggy that you couldn't see the fairway and were never sure where your tee shot ended up, but you kinda knew what direction to walk to in order to locate your ball. By the time we would tee it up on the second hole we would have plenty of light. Once we finished the front nine we would always stop and pay our fees in the pro-shop before starting on the back nine. The staff in the pro-shop knew us personally and knew we would always pay up after the first 9 holes so it wasn't a problem, at least not at first. Then new people took over the pro-shop who didn't appreciate the fact that we would start our round long before the course was open and they chewed our butts out and told us to never start a round ever again before the course was open. We never started that early ever again, and in fact we never went back to that course ever again, but we did find another course that didn't mind our early start time. I really use to love those early starts. These days, the earliest tee times for me our 7 AM. Still nice, but as memorable as those 5:30 AM starts

Do you have a memorable golfing story to share? 

Include it in this thread for us to enjoy.

This was never an option here.  Nobody goes before the course opens.  They collect green fees, and they have to give the mowers time to get a half hour head start on the golfers.

However, back in the 80's they held every 5th tee time open for walkon golfers, first come, first served.  My buddy and I would trade off week to week on who got up at 3:00 AM to go to the course and get on the list.  We had a very civilized system, no standing in a line.  

The way it worked was, the first person in the parking lot started a list with his name at the top.  He passed the list to the next person to come in, they added their name, then they passed it to the next and so on.  Once you passed on the list, you could kick back and nap for a bit.  When the pro opened to shop at 5:00, the last person who had the list handed it to the pro and he called people up from the top down.  When you got called you could take your pick of the remaining open times. 

We usually took the first available, which was often the first time of the day because we were usually the first in the parking lot.  Then we would also take a time around noon or a bit after.  We would walk 18 holes, take a break to eat lunch, then go out for another 18.  We sometimes did that both Saturday and Sunday.

[BrofessionalGolfer]

@9wood 5:30 am tee time sounds awesome - get a quick 18 in before work! 

One time I was playing a round of golf in Florida. We were on hole 14 or so and we had just landed our second shots onto the green, which was bordered by a crocodile infested pond. I parked the golf cart on a slight slope and slammed down the parking break (or so I thought) to make sure that cart was staying still. As we start to walk up to the green, the cart slides right into the pond. We hopped in the water to grab our clubs, phones, etc..as soon as we gathered all our stuff, we high tailed it out of the pond. Look back and see 2 crocs swimming over to investigate the cart. I consider it a near-death experience. Apparently we weren't the first ones to have a cart "malfunction"...to this day I often wonder if I really did press the break down all the way, I'm not entirely sure now looking back.