Pairing up with strangers

[9wood]

I enjoying getting paired up with other golfers I have never played with before and have never met. In my personal experience there are different types of people I have been paired up with. 1) The humble golfer who says he not much of a golfer and then pars almost every hole and gets a birdie or two. 2) The boasting golfer who says he's almost at scratch level golf and drives the ball about 300 yards but often misses the fairways and scores an 87 and drives about the same distance as you do. 3) The frustrated golfer who is angry with how he is playing and blames everything but his swing as the reason why he's not playing well. 4) Then there's the generally pleasant golfer (which are most of them) who are just plain good golf company, and are the type you hope to get paired up with again. 

I know I left out a few other types, but those are generally the 4 types I seem to get paired up with

[Patch]

11 minutes ago, 9wood said:

I enjoying getting paired up with other golfers I have never played with before and have never met. In my personal experience there are different types of people I have been paired up with. 1) The humble golfer who says he not much of a golfer and then pars almost every hole and gets a birdie or two. 2) The boasting golfer who says he's almost at scratch level golf and drives the ball about 300 yards but often misses the fairways and scores an 87 and drives about the same distance as you do. 3) The frustrated golfer who is angry with how he is playing and blames everything but his swing as the reason why he's not playing well. 4) Then there's the generally pleasant golfer (which are most of them) who are just plain good golf company, and are the type you hope to get paired up with again. 

I know I left out a few other types, but those are generally the 4 types I seem to get paired up with

I too like like to golf with strangers. In fact the stranger the better.  

I also have encountered the four you listed. All of them are entertaining to some extent. My preference is the golfer(s) who can actually play to low hncp, or scratch. I like to watch these types of players. I have no problem getting out played by better golfers. 

Young or older is of no consequence to me. I am there to enjoy my own game, and what ever it happens to be that day. 

[bkuehn1952]

I'm with you guys, pairing up is mostly a good time.  We get a lot of stories, we tell a lot of stories and usually end up with some pretty decent memories.  The few "bad apples" won't stop me from joining with the stray single, 2-ball or 3-ball.

One time I joined another single.  Eventually another single came along and I asked him if he wanted to join us.  After a few holes the latest single asked how we knew each other, me an old white guy and the other a big athletic young black man.  We both laughed and told him we just paired up at the beginning of the round. The other guy was amazed that we didn't know each other since we were having such a good time.

[Dan42nepa]

I may have told this before but last year I caught up to a threesome. Play was slow so I joined them. Two were in their 70's and one in his 50's more or less my age. They were electricians. On the next green I smelled a strange smell and noticed the father and son smoking a joint. The other had a vaporizer. They smoked on every hole coming in and shot really well. They were fun to play with and would play with them again. 

[dennyjones]

I pair up with other golfers frequently.   I really enjoy it.

[Mr22putt]

3 hours ago, 9wood said:

I enjoying getting paired up with other golfers I have never played with before and have never met. In my personal experience there are different types of people I have been paired up with.

1) The humble golfer who says he not much of a golfer and then pars almost every hole and gets a birdie or two.

2) The boasting golfer who says he's almost at scratch level golf and drives the ball about 300 yards but often misses the fairways and scores an 87 and drives about the same distance as you do.

3) The frustrated golfer who is angry with how he is playing and blames everything but his swing as the reason why he's not playing well.

4) Then there's the generally pleasant golfer (which are most of them) who are just plain good golf company, and are the type you hope to get paired up with again. 

 

1) These are unicorns....I've played for 48 years and have maybe played with 5 of these types of players.

2) These are great ones to laugh silently at.

3) See above 2).

4) These are 98.5% of my outings when paired with strangers.

Yes....I enjoy playing with strangers...especially female hotties (another form of unicorns)....though I do know 3 of these types unicorns that I've met in the last 3 years within a some casual golf leagues.

[colin007]

In the hundreds of golfers I've been paired with, there were only two that would NOT ever want to be paired with again. That's it. Out of hundreds, just two dickwads.

[Hardspoon]

9 minutes ago, colin007 said:

In the hundreds of golfers I've been paired with, there were only two that would NOT ever want to be paired with again. That's it. Out of hundreds, just two dickwads.

You've done worse than me...I can't remember a single one.

[Buckeyebowman]

5 hours ago, Patch said:

I too like like to golf with strangers. In fact the stranger the better.  

I also have encountered the four you listed. All of them are entertaining to some extent. My preference is the golfer(s) who can actually play to low hncp, or scratch. I like to watch these types of players. I have no problem getting out played by better golfers. 

Young or older is of no consequence to me. I am there to enjoy my own game, and what ever it happens to be that day. 

I feel you, Patch. When I'm lucky enough to join a golfer like that I tend to play better, the human ability for mimicry being so powerful! On the other hand, if I wind up with a hack, I'm liable to wind up hacking myself!

3 hours ago, Dan42nepa said:

I may have told this before but last year I caught up to a threesome. Play was slow so I joined them. Two were in their 70's and one in his 50's more or less my age. They were electricians. On the next green I smelled a strange smell and noticed the father and son smoking a joint. The other had a vaporizer. They smoked on every hole coming in and shot really well. They were fun to play with and would play with them again. 

To echo your thread, and bkuehns' above, I once joined 2 black guys on a local course. I noticed them sharing a little "bud" on the back nine, but what impressed me most was what happened at the turn. I, and one of the guys, was waiting on the 10th tee for his buddy, who was in the clubhouse. This guy had a very powerful swing and could hit the ball a mile, but everything just sort of hung out to the right. He rarely found the short grass.

I was playing well that day, and he asked me to take a look at his setup. It was great, but I did notice that his left hand grip had the thumb right down the top of the shaft. I told him to strengthen it just a teeny bit, he wasn't that far off. He proceeded to split every driveable fairway on the back! At the end of the round he gave me a big "bro hug", and thanked me for helping him with his game. It was just a common sense suggestion, but you would have thought I was Butch Harmon!

2 hours ago, colin007 said:

In the hundreds of golfers I've been paired with, there were only two that would NOT ever want to be paired with again. That's it. Out of hundreds, just two dickwads.

That's been about the ratio for me as well. One guy I wound up with insisted on referring to birdies as "tweet, tweets!" On one hole he hit his approach very close, and as we walked to the green he repeated, ad nauseum, that "he was gonna get himself a tweet tweet!" Then the bastard had the nerve to make the putt and "get himself a tweet tweet!" Which mantra he proceeded to repeat for the next three holes! I wanted to knock his brains out with a sand wedge!

[Rainmaker]

My favorite are the people who you end up really enjoying talking to and then end up playing really well because you're not thinking about your swing. 

My least favorite are the slow players.  The ones you end up trying to make up time for every chance you get and stressing out because the whole course is backing up behind you. 

I got paired up with these 2 ladies one time.  They were pleasant but extremely distant - They were Asian and I don't think they had really strong English.  I understood them fine as far as the little they said.  They played SO UNBELIEVABLY SLOW I didn't even know what to do with myself, lol. 

[Grumpter]

Change some of them a little bit and I have been everyone of them. Depends on which day you catch me on. A sample size of 1 is not a fair sample size IMO.

1) The humble golfer who says he is not much of a golfer and then pars a lot of holes and gets a birdie or two.
* During my 100 to 125 rounds a year I can go through bad stretches. If I am on a bad stretch I am going to actually be humbled by that experience and will undersell my game to someone new.

2) The boasting golfer who says he's a single digit handicapper golf and drives the ball about 270 yards but often misses the fairways and scores an 87 and drives about the same distance as you do.
* One day I shot a 1 under 69. I was knocking the snot out of the ball. The next round was with a guy I had been talking to about golf for 10+ years but we had never played together. Of course I had to brag about my 1 under and then proceed to shoot a crowd pleasing 90 playing with him. Variance is a humbling little *$%^$.

3) The frustrated golfer who is angry with how he is playing and blames everything but his swing or attitude as the reason why he's not playing well.
* why blame myself when it is so much easier to blame everything else? Whatever gets me through the worst of rounds. I can be very optimistic about everyone else's game. Mine? Not so much.

4) Then there's the generally pleasant golfer (which are most of them) who are just plain good golf company, and are the type you hope to get paired up with again. 
* I must at least sometimes be this guy because I keep getting people who ask to play with me again.

[Al B Tross]

I really enjoy getting paired up with people I don't know but it took a bit of convincing for me to get there.  I got back into golf about three years ago after a long stretch of playing one round per year (an annual outing for our church).  We joined a local club and I started to play regularly albeit with a small group of people I knew personally because I was totally self conscious that everyone was way better than me.  Eventually got paired up with strangers and realized that, yes, there were many people much better than me but most of them don't care as long as I kept pace.  Now I look forward to expending my circle and learning from the more experienced guys. Played with a stranger yesterday and had a blast (he's a 6 to my 20) and just got paired up for a two-day partner tourney this weekend with someone I've never even met - go figure. 

[mcanadiens]

I've finally got to the point where almost as many randoms will actually be worse than I am. Being extremely self-conscious about my game or lack there of, this has been really great for me. Unless the guy is really holding me up, this relaxes me and I worry a lot less about my own mishits.

 

[EMC2144]

I don't really like going out on my own and being placed with people who know each other (just awkward).  I'm fine with 3 random people or something, but whenever I get paired with two or three people that all know each other and I'm the only odd man out it just is uncomfortable all round generally, no matter how much I try to change that.  I love getting paired with better players, because I tend to play to the level of my "competition" (even if it's just casual, I'm competitive like that), and I feel I can learn by watching them.  However, playing with players that are significantly worse tends to hurt my game.  Whether it's watching them screw up, or waiting, I don't know, but I just don't play well.  Especially when one shanks the ball into my wrist at an impossible angle.  But hey, at least they were nice.  Too bad no golf for a bit. 

Honestly, I've had a mixed bag.  Might be because I played up at a college course so much, and all those dang kids, but I'm young too and I just feel like some people don't learn proper course etiquette, which just annoys me all round.

[Deed]

Have similar experiences as mention in this forum. I try to play with some new people each week. Do have a bit of a problem with very slow play, at which time I will find a way to get going if possible and or walk off the course. We have two 18 holes course at my club easily to stop at 9 if needed. Most of the time find some interesting people to play with. It also help with concentration. Rarely find a person I can't play with.

[Fourputt]

I've been matched up with so many strangers over the years that I've probably played with every type of golfer and every personality type there is.  My least favorite is the threesome who barely acknowledges my existence for 18 holes.  

Although I enjoy chatting about whatever is of interest during breaks in the playing routine, I do have an issue with the rare times I've played with the guy who just can't turn it off.  I like to hear the quiet too.

In the last 40 years there are very few people whom I've been paired with that, when it was over, I could honestly say I'd rather have been alone.  I don't like playing alone, so I'll tolerate most anything except abuse of other players, verbal or action, or abuse of or damage to the course.  A player who shows good overall etiquette can still have other faults and I can overlook them and enjoy the day.

I mostly want to have a good time, and if the mood in the group is good, my play will usually reflect that, regardless of how well or poorly they play.

[Grumpter]

15 hours ago, EMC2144 said:

I don't really like going out on my own and being placed with people who know each other (just awkward).  I'm fine with 3 random people or something, but whenever I get paired with two or three people that all know each other and I'm the only odd man out it just is uncomfortable all round generally, no matter how much I try to change that.

I am from the same area and don't run into the awkward experience often, only on rare occasions. Though the last few years I have started trying to find openings where there are 2 twosomes in a row (or with close tee times). That way I can eye up my potential playing partners and pick what looks like the better group.

[Big C]

On 5/12/2016 at 7:55 AM, Grumpter said:

* One day I shot a 1 under 69. I was knocking the snot out of the ball. The next round was with a guy I had been talking to about golf for 10+ years but we had never played together. Of course I had to brag about my 1 under and then proceed to shoot a crowd pleasing 90 playing with him. Variance is a humbling little *$%^$.

This comment rings very true. Towards the end of 2014, I was coming off a (then personal best) 73 and feeling really good about my game. My next round was a father/son outing with a buddy of mine at PGA West Stadium course in La Quinta. Of course, on the drive out there, I was all too happy to share the details of my 73 to anyone who would listen. But as anyone whose played that course knows, it's a very tough track that will humble you in a hurry. 

I ended up shooting an even 100 that day. The low point came on hole 10, when - after posting a smooth 51 on the front 9 - I decide to play it "smart" and hit an iron off tee. I promptly hooked it into the water left. My buddy's dad, who had been quiet to that point, finally turned to me and asked incredulously "YOU shot a 73??????" Brutal.

To the OP, I have had very few bad experiences playing with strangers. Even the people who get too frustrated with their games are generally nice guys. The one exception was getting partnered with a middle aged man who thought it was appropriate to tell crude and racist jokes anytime we got within earshot. It was really pretty uncomfortable. By about the 7th hole, I had abandoned all pretense of being polite, and just stayed as far away from him as possible for the rest of the round.