Yelling "FORE!" - When Do You, and How Do You React?

[iacas]

I tried to make the best poll options I could (without making three questions with ten answers each or something), but basically, I:

• yell "fore" when I can't see where the ball is going (i.e. it's over a line of trees or over a hill toward another tee box, green, etc.).
• yell "fore" when the ball is likely to hit someone that I can see.
• do not yell "fore" if I know that the ball is not going to hit anyone.

When someone else yells "fore," I:

• cover my head and duck in place when I don't know the source of the yell or I can't see the source.
• run away while covering my head if the people yelling "fore" can see me.

This may not be what y'all do, but basically, if I know that my ball is not going to hit someone, I don't yell. Yelling may cause them to run INTO the golf ball, when if they keep walking or standing as they are, they'll be safe.

I was taught to duck and cover, though if there's a building or a tree or something nearby that I can get behind very quickly, I'll sometimes (I think I've done this maybe twice, ever) take a few steps to get behind it. But mostly, it's duck and cover - make yourself small, turn away, cover your head and neck as best as you can.

I have two stories here:

• The 17th green at Lake View is forward and right of the 18th tee at Lake View. A number of years ago I hit a pull that was hit toward the location of some people standing between the green and the tee (we gave them plenty of time - it was a big pull). I saw that if they stood there or moved toward the 18th tee, the ball would miss them by quite a bit (it ended up hitting about 20 yards beyond them and 20 yards to the right). They were a little upset at first, but understood the logic after I said "the ball wasn't gonna hit you, and if you heard me yell and tried to run behind that tree, you might have run into the ball."
• Someone on this forum, at a biennial event… yelled "fore" at me from about 100 yards away. Though I normally duck and cover, because he could plainly see me and because he was hitting a wedge, I covered my head and ran. I figured he thought the ball might land very close to me. I ran about 15 yards and the ball landed about a foot in front of me. It would have missed me by 15 yards had he not yelled, but yelling implied to me that he could see the ball was likely going to hit me… and so I moving out of the area made the most sense to me in that moment. I felt that the mistake there was in yelling "fore" for a ball that wasn't going to hit anyone - I was standing there, not moving, and the ball was clearly not going to hit me.

I don't think there's any right or wrong thing here. My default is to duck and cover, and I almost never choose to "cover and run," but I did in that instance. Were I at a PGA Tour stop, I'd duck and cover, because that's going to be a generalized "fore" intended for any number of people, and there'd be nowhere to run, anyway. If I'm standing on the green with three other golfers, and a golfer on a par four nearby says "fore," I duck and cover, because I don't know which golfer it might hit, and so running toward one of them wouldn't do anything, either.

One last thing: one thing I never do is look toward the direction the yell came from or try to see the golf ball flying through the air. Both of those just expose your face to the ball.

[BuckeyeNut]

If someone yells................I turn away and duck in place.  No sense moving!!   

[David in FL]

I turn and duck in place regardless.

 I yell when I think there is any possibility of hitting someone else.

[HJJ003]

Regardless of whether or not I can see the person who yelled I duck and usually run behind or inside of my cart. Its natural for me to move towards some sort of cover (cart, tress, etc..) and even if I don't have cover I usual move somewhere other than where I am standing...figure a moving target is harder to hit...(though its possible I could move to exactly where the ball is going). 

I only yell "fore" if I think there is a reasonable chance someone will get hit or if I am not completely certain people are not in the possible landing area of the ball. And when I yell it...I YELL it. I can stand it when people are quiet about it. 

[jimnm]

I will usually duck down, cover my head with my arms and hands (like a boxer blocks a punch) and turn away from the voice where the "fore" is coming. I probably also crouch down a little and think small. 

I will yell fore if people are in the general area of the direction of my shot. I do my best to try and yell early. 

If someone hits a ball in my direction, I would like for them to yell fore so I know it's coming. I like to think the way I duck down will minimize the chance of getting hit in the head or face. I wouldn't want to get hit at all, but protecting the head of face would be my top priority.

 

[billchao]

I'll be honest, the first thing I do when someone yells, "Fore!" is to look in that direction to see if they're looking towards me. Then I turn away and duck in place.

I only yell when I think the ball has a chance to hit someone. Sometimes I lose sight of the ball completely and it lands near people. I always feel bad when that happens.

4 minutes ago, HJJ003 said:

And when I yell it...I YELL it. I can stand it when people are quiet about it. 

Yea, me too. And I'm loud.

[jimnm]

Just now, billchao said:

Sometimes I lose sight of the ball completely and it lands near people. I always feel bad when that happens.

This happens to me too. I'm not the best at picking up my ball mid flight on drives. 

 

[sjduffers]

I duck and cover in place, always. I yell (loudly!) when I don't see where the ball is going relative to people or when I see that people are inline to get hit (I can't necessarily judge the distance very well). I do not yell fore if I can see people might get hit if they heard the yell and started moving in that direction (with some margin). I have thus watched a skulled ball fly head high, only a couple of paces away from someone who was standing still on a green and not yelled fore. If I had said anything, they might have moved: this way, they were out of danger...

[Vinsk]

I just cover my head. Anywhere else I'm hit I'll be fine.

[Patch]

I voted with the masses. This assuming i am not wearing head phones, and have my hearing aids in place. You have to be able to hear the warning to react to it. 

[Yukari]

If I hear “fore” I always duck and cover my head no matter where the ball might be. 

Also I yell “fore” if there is any of the ball hit by my group heads toward anywhere but our own fairway or rough. 

[Buckeyebowman]

If the Fore! is behind me I'll just duck and cover in place. If the Fore! is in front of me, and I can spot who's yelling in time, if I'm near the cart I'll try to duck behind the cart, especially behind the golf bags. They give a lot of cover.

However, I've had balls land with 5 feet of me and the guy who hit it never uttered a peep! I really scream those guys out! The word is FORE!,  a$$hole!

[dennyjones]

1 hour ago, David in FL said:

I turn and duck in place regardless.

 I yell when I think there is any possibility of hitting someone else.

Ditto

[nevets88]

I've had too many close calls and squeeze myself into a ball so quickly. I am especially paranoid when out of sight to people standing on tee box either because below hill or sharp dogleg.

After reading @iacas's accounts, will try and assess quickly before yelling fore.

[ghalfaire]

I too cover my head and duck any time I hear "fore".  I have only been hit by another golfer once.  It was  drive and it caught me in the left shin, on the fly.  I went down like I'd been shot with a 30-30.  Certainly hurt and the fellow did yell "fore", but I didn't hear it.  Anyway the fellow was very apologetic and I was able to walk after a minute or so, but didn't finish the round.  It hurt.

[MacDutch]

I would yell fore for sure. Not going to assess if I better not yell because they are walking away from the target line. Not enough time, not sure about ballflight. I also yell if the guy in my flight keeps silent when he hits a ball to the other fairway.

[boogielicious]

I duck and cover only and don't run because I usually am not sure where the ball is coming from and don't want to run into it.

I yell 'FORE" when I think it is going to hit someone or if I can't see the next fairway and am reasonably certain someone is over there. 

I have a LOUD voice. Anyone who has been coached by me can attest to this. 

I've only hit one person and I didn't yell FORE, but for good reason. My fairway was clear. I hit my driver down the right side, but still in my fairway. As the ball started to descend, a golfer appeared in a trot from the adjacent fairway. I had no time to yell. The ball bounced once and then into the golfer's leg. I felt awful and ran down to see if he was OK. He was and he apologized to me for what he said was, "being dumb'. I was glad he was OK.

[Vinny Cap]

I pretty much use the average logic here. 

Cover your head and duck/crouch down when you hear FORE!

Yell FORE when it is going Left or Right into where people are or might be.

I too have a loud voice and that helps as the whispers who say they said it but sometimes its tough to hear 200 - 300 yards away.