Respect (Or Lack Thereof) for Singles/Walkers

[drmevo]

Fair warning, this is a bit of a rant...

I used to belong to a private club where I had regular group I played with, but due to various factors I gave up the membership this year, and I find myself playing as a single a lot more often on the local public courses.

In the past week or two, I've been cut in front of multiple times, hit into a few times despite trying to leave my push cart somewhere visible, even the cart girl passed me by on a really hot day when I could've used a Gatorade OK, the last one was not the end of the world, but after everything else I was beginning to feel invisible.

I get that as a single sometimes you have to take what you can get and just roll with the punches, but this in particular was ridiculous: It was late-afternoon and the starter told me to go tee off. I was about 20 steps from the first tee box when a kid (probably older teen) and his dad roll up from behind, drive past me up to the next set of tees and proceed to get ready to tee off.  They looked back and saw me, where I was now on the tee box behind them, at which point I was sure they'd apologize for not noticing me and either ask to join (which would've been fine) or wait.  Instead, they just played their tee shots and drove off. If that was the last time I saw them it would've been one thing, but I ended up waiting on them for nearly every shot through the first five holes.  Finally they skipped ahead to somewhere else on the course and I didn't get held up the rest of the time.

Another time, I was already at the tee box (again, at the direction of the course), when a foursome rolled up ahead of me. This time, a lady in the group yelled back and said they were in a league and that I shouldn't be there. I explained that the course had told me to tee off.  She said, "Well, they shouldn't have" and they proceeded to play in front of me.  They were about 40 yards up so a polite discussion to sort things out wasn't going to happen. I waited for them all to play their second shots and got ready to tee off myself, except the lady turned her cart around and just waited in the middle of the fairway. I really wasn't in the mood to put up a fight so I went back in the pro shop and they sent me off the other side.

It's not like I'm trying to play during prime time, these were both late-afternoon tee times.  I probably could've stuck up for myself more, but I didn't want to start a confrontation in either case at the risk of ruining my round. 

Does anyone else run into this regularly? Not to get all "woe is me," but it starts to feel like the rest of the course wishes you weren't there, and in some cases people behave as though you aren't. Is this just the norm?

 

 

 

[gregsandiego]

11 minutes ago, drmevo said:

 

Does anyone else run into this regularly? Not to get all "woe is me," but it starts to feel like the rest of the course wishes you weren't there, and in some cases people behave as though you aren't. Is this just the norm?

 

 

 

I'm not sure why people are cutting in front of you and that cart girl should be fired!

But I experience this from the opposing side. I'll be with a group somewhere mid-course when some single invariably creeps up on us hoping to play through. Last week I did the right thing an let some older guy play ahead. Then we found we were waiting for him as he played every putt like he was playing in the PGA open. That's annoying.

Either way  (fast or slow single) isn't good though. Picture the single who is really good. It's kind of like  a car driving 90 in the left lane flashing his lights because he wants to pass. Everyone has to disrupt their drive because of him.

Maybe singles should stick to empty or nearly empty courses.

 

 

 

 

[drmevo]

7 minutes ago, gregsandiego said:

I'm not sure why people are cutting in front of you and that cart girl should be fired!

But I experience this from the opposing side. I'll be with a group somewhere mid-course when some single invariably creeps up on us hoping to play through. Last week I did the right thing an let some older guy play ahead. Then we found we were waiting for him as he played every putt like he was playing in the PGA open. That's annoying.

Either way  (fast or slow single) isn't good though. Picture the single who is really good. It's kind of like  a car driving 90 in the left lane flashing his lights because he wants to pass. Everyone has to disrupt their drive because of him.

Maybe singles should stick to empty or nearly empty courses.

 

 

 

 

I actually was going to address that issue but decided to leave it out at the risk of being too long-winded.  I realize that as a single I'm going to be faster, so if there's a group in front of me I try to hang back so as not to push too hard.  I have been on that side of the equation as well and I agree it's annoying.  But like I said, I'm generally playing in the late-afternoon or evening as a single.  If I get the sense there's a huge gap in front of the group ahead of me, I might get a little closer as we approach a par three in case they'd like to let me through, but I'm not going be up in their business.  

[101101]

I think the pro shop sets a lot of the one for a course when it comes to this.   I've found some courses will tell me preferred times to tee of or start me on weird holes when they know they've got a gap somewhere that should let me loop around with no issues.  I play those courses A LOT.

 

On the other hand,  I played a course on Friday that had a walk up group of three ahead of me on line to play.  They scheduled them for the tee time infront of me instead of pushing them to right behind me. This was 15 minutes before my tee time. 

Suprise,  they weren't ready to tee off 7 minutes later and took a bunch of time warming up.  Starter wouldn't let me off ahead of them due to the order of the sheet. 

Ended up skipping the third hole as I knew on the layout I could get it coming back in.  Crazy part was that I was the only tee time in 3 hour block. 

 

[WUTiger]

More than once I have seen this comment in the rules/guidelines for playing a golf club:

"Singles have no standing on this course", or words to that effect.

I play solo one round out of four; you just have to adjust to the day.

[Aflighter]

You shouldve hit your tee ball right into them and act like they were not there like they did you.Some folks think the course is their personal course.

[Piz]

The rule was amended in 2004  It now reads "irrespective of the number of players..."   It is not a rule, per se, but can be found in Section 1 - Etiquette; Behavior on the course...under Pace of play.

Edited July 31, 2016 by Piz
Clarification

[krupa]

I've come to expect that people aren't going to let me play through (I play as a single almost exclusively) but I have never had anyone cut in front of me; that's just insane.  

[ScouseJohnny]

9 minutes ago, Aflighter said:

You should've hit your tee ball right into them and act like they were not there like they did you.Some folks think the course is their personal course.

Yeah....but you see, once you've made the decision to deliberately hit into someone, conversations about course etiquette and whether it was right for the other group to be in front of you become largely irrelevant.

[metbid]

drmevo, do you mind if I ask where you live (just a general idea)?  I live in northern Minnesota, and play all over the state and in Wisconsin, quite often as a single.  I have had no issues I can remember about either being allowed to play through, or asked if I want to join if it is 3 or less in the group.  I do walk often, using a push cart, or sometimes carrying if I am only playing 9.

[Jeremie Boop]

2 hours ago, drmevo said:

Another time, I was already at the tee box (again, at the direction of the course), when a foursome rolled up ahead of me. This time, a lady in the group yelled back and said they were in a league and that I shouldn't be there. I explained that the course had told me to tee off.  She said, "Well, they shouldn't have" and they proceeded to play in front of me.  They were about 40 yards up so a polite discussion to sort things out wasn't going to happen. I waited for them all to play their second shots and got ready to tee off myself, except the lady turned her cart around and just waited in the middle of the fairway. I really wasn't in the mood to put up a fight so I went back in the pro shop and they sent me off the other side.

I have had somewhat similar issues with league people a time or two. Basically I walked in to the club house, they gave me a tee time that was after their league started, let me know I wouldn't be able to start until around 5 pm. I was fine with that as I just used the time to hit the range first which was by the first tee. I even gave a good buffer after the group before me teed off to just try to give myself extra room before I would catch up by finishing out the bucket of balls I had purchased. As I was getting ready to go over to the tee box which was right next to the range I see two carts pull up and people teed off. I thought I had screwed up by waiting and that another group had come in and gotten the tee time after me. No big deal, my fault I'll deal with it. I let them play up to the green before teeing off, I hit a good drive down the middle, drive up to it and proceed to sit in my cart for probably 10 minutes waiting for them to putt out. Hit the green on the next shot and putt out. As I finish putting the flag in I see they are still not off the next tee which is a par 3. Rinse and repeat the extra long wait on that hole. Then the third hole. Somehow I was actually playing pretty well even with the waiting so I wasn't bothered too much. After finishing up on the third hole and driving over to the tee on the fourth one of the guys in the group turns and tells me "we're in a league so it's going to be slow buddy". I responded that it was fine, I didn't mind. But the problem wasn't that they were in a league, it was that they were just slow players. There was at least two complete holes in front of the one they were on that were open, unfortunately it would have done me no good to jump ahead because then I would have just gotten stuck behind the rest of the league anyway. The wait got so long behind these people that I literally laid down on a couple of the tees and took some mini-naps. Needless to say, eventually it screwed up my game and my score tanked. Good thing the scored didn't count for anything.

1 hour ago, gregsandiego said:

I'm not sure why people are cutting in front of you and that cart girl should be fired!

But I experience this from the opposing side. I'll be with a group somewhere mid-course when some single invariably creeps up on us hoping to play through. Last week I did the right thing an let some older guy play ahead. Then we found we were waiting for him as he played every putt like he was playing in the PGA open. That's annoying.

Either way  (fast or slow single) isn't good though. Picture the single who is really good. It's kind of like  a car driving 90 in the left lane flashing his lights because he wants to pass. Everyone has to disrupt their drive because of him.

Maybe singles should stick to empty or nearly empty courses.

That's a bit strange that they guy caught up to you but somehow you ended up having to wait on him after that.... I can tell you right now if you let me through I'll typically be off the green before you even get ready to play your extra shot and you end up waiting very little time overall compared to how much time I'll have to wait on your group.  I never ask to play through and sometimes I'll even refuse the offer, especially since my single rounds don't count for handicap anymore. As for your last comment, well I'll just have to disagree there because I have just as much right to be on the course as any group out there.

19 minutes ago, WUTiger said:

More than once I have seen this comment in the rules/guidelines for playing a golf club:

"Singles have no standing on this course", or words to that effect.

I play solo one round out of four; you just have to adjust to the day.

Please see the following comment:

15 minutes ago, Piz said:

The rule was amended in 2004  It now reads "irrespective of the number of players..."   It is not a rule, per se, but can be found in Section 1 - Etiquette; Behavior on the course...under Pace of play.

So yeah, a single has just as much standing on the course as everyone else.

17 minutes ago, Aflighter said:

You shouldve hit your tee ball right into them and act like they were not there like they did you.Some folks think the course is their personal course.

Never the right thing to do, though I admit to having the idea cross my mind a time or two I never actually do it.

[Hardspoon]

I used to play all the time as a single (not as much anymore). I never had problems like the ones you describe. I've had the occasional group not let me play through, and an occasional three-ball who didn't invite me to play with them, but nothing like this.

I've found more issues when I'm walking. People assume you are going to be slow, or hit into you because they don't see a cart...stuff like that.

 

[newtogolf]

1 hour ago, Piz said:

The rule was amended in 2004  It now reads "irrespective of the number of players..."   It is not a rule, per se, but can be found in Section 1 - Etiquette; Behavior on the course...under Pace of play.

The etiquette was amended but many courses still don't recognize it.  If you show up to my old course or current course as a single before 3:30 pm , you're going to wait until 3:30 or until they can partner you up with someone unless the course is empty.

[Jeremie Boop]

13 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

The etiquette was amended but many courses still don't recognize it.  If you show up to my old course or current course as a single before 3:30 pm , you're going to wait until 3:30 or until they can partner you up with someone unless the course is empty.

They do this regardless of whether there is a tee time open? If so that seems quite stupid to me. Why let an open tee time go unfilled instead of letting a single go out and at least make some money from it? Now, I have heard of courses not allowing a tee time to be made ahead of time unless you have at least 2 people, but that's completely different. 

[newtogolf]

9 minutes ago, Jeremie Boop said:

They do this regardless of whether there is a tee time open? If so that seems quite stupid to me. Why let an open tee time go unfilled instead of letting a single go out and at least make some money from it? Now, I have heard of courses not allowing a tee time to be made ahead of time unless you have at least 2 people, but that's completely different. 

You can't reserve a tee time as a single, so if you show up as a single you have to wait to be paired up unless the course is wide open.  The problem with singles is they play faster so even if there is an open tee time, they end up catching the group in front and trying to play through or push them which creates problems.

Also it's a private club, we don't pay green fees so there's no financial benefit to the club to let them out.   

[Jeremie Boop]

1 minute ago, newtogolf said:

You can't reserve a tee time as a single, so if you show up as a single you have to wait to be paired up unless the course is wide open.  The problem with singles is they play faster so even if there is an open tee time, they end up catching the group in front and trying to play through or push them which creates problems.

Also it's a private club, we don't pay green fees so there's no financial benefit to the club to let them out.   

I see, still doesn't make sense to tell someone, yeah there's nobody teeing off for the next couple tee times but you can't play. We'd rather nobody play than let you play alone.

[gregsandiego]

3 hours ago, drmevo said:

I actually was going to address that issue but decided to leave it out at the risk of being too long-winded.  I realize that as a single I'm going to be faster, so if there's a group in front of me I try to hang back so as not to push too hard.  I have been on that side of the equation as well and I agree it's annoying.  But like I said, I'm generally playing in the late-afternoon or evening as a single.  If I get the sense there's a huge gap in front of the group ahead of me, I might get a little closer as we approach a par three in case they'd like to let me through, but I'm not going be up in their business.  

Yes the "up i their business" is the issue.

Let's say 4 of you are teeing off and there's a guy just behind you with his arms folded watching you. It makes me feel rushed. I don't like that so I'm likely to tell him to play through.

[newtogolf]

8 minutes ago, Jeremie Boop said:

I see, still doesn't make sense to tell someone, yeah there's nobody teeing off for the next couple tee times but you can't play. We'd rather nobody play than let you play alone.

If there were a few open tee times I'm guessing they would let them out, it likely depends on who the starter is.