Jim Swindler

In March of 2012, I played a local municipal course and due to the soggy conditions, holes on the back 9 were flooded. We had to play the front 9 twice to get our 18 in. I had a problem with plugging all day and coming to the ninth hole, I had lost three balls as a result. We weren't putting out because the cups were filled with water. To make a long story short, I couldn't find my ball after teeing off on the Par-3 9th, uphill green from the tee-box, and figured I plugged it into the side of the embankment. I took the drop and finished the hole. The second time through the course, when playing this same hole, my partner found my original ball in the cup after making a long putt. Only one other group was on the course at the same time as we were...so either they played a cruel joke on me and placed my ball in the cup, or I had a hole-in-one the first time through and was too stupid to check the cup when I thought my ball plugged.

I have semi-regular tee times with two groups of people. The first of which are out there to get out of work, drink, relax and have fun. During this process, they typically do not count drops and neither do I. I never place these scores into my handicap. I find that it makes a difference of 0 to 6 strokes per round depending on how I am swinging. The second group we count everything and these are the scores from which my handicap is based. I just view the former group as practice rounds for the latter group.

I'm not sure if this is etiquette or a pet peeve, but the shadow of a partner moving across your stance as you are swinging. On occasion, I will have a playing partner that will head back to the cart as soon as I begin my backswing and his shadow will cross the ball position before impact...rather annoying.

The same golfer who would make 4-5 passes looking for a ball in a cart is the golfer who would spend excessive time looking for a ball while walking. The slowness of the process has little to do with the cart and more to do with the golfer.

My golf nickname would be "MaryBeth"...which is my wife's name. I tend to leave a lot of balls short on the green and thus been dubbed with this name by my normal playing partners.