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Sometimes I have to write things down, so sorry for this sad tale of bitterness and resentment.
So anyway, I had a pairs match yesterday. 4th round in our knock-out club competition and at this stage of the competition the matches get interesting. My partner and I were drawn against two "older gentlemen", one of whom I had played with before last year. My partner had warned me that these guys had a reputation for being slow. So much so that the guys that this pair had beaten in the last round had complained, but because they lost did not want to make a big deal out of it, lest it look like sour grapes.
So we teed off at 1pm and the course was relatively quiet, there was no-one ahead of us. Four ball-better ball and the sun was shining. Life is good.
5 HOURS LATER AND I WAS READY TO COMMIT MURDER! Yes, that's 5 hours later when we finished at the 18th. Without having to wait for a single shot the entire round, we trudged through one of the most tortous rounds I have ever had to endure. These dudes through a combination of deliberate gamesmanship and selfishness decided that they would play at their own pace. After 9 holes ( 2 hrs. 40 mins) I was going up the wall. After 12 holes I was ready to walk in. After 15 holes and I refused to acknowledge or speak to either of them. After 18 holes I was close to sinking my wedge into one of their skulls!
The match started out in good spirits. My partner has a reputation for being slow, so there was a bit of jibbing on the 1st tee. By the 4th tee, my partner looked like a sprinter! Luckily there was only one match behind us which we eventually let through on the 12th. I was so embarrassed. To typify play, here's what was going on. The Tall Old Guy would tee up and spend 20 seconds lining his ball up on the tee to target. He would then stand behind the ball, visualise and then take 2 very methodical practice swings, EVERY SHOT. If he drove one in the rough he would hit a provisional "just in case". Putting was worse, both of them would look at his putts from every angle, then again he would line up his ball precisely (taking 20 seconds to make sure it was accurate). Then he would go an have another look at it and then take two long practice swings and finally hit his putt. Oh, did I mention club selections? The decisions these guys had to make; I mean for guys who played off indexes of 8 and 13, not exactly Tiger and Jim, they woukld spend minutes hudling about what clubs to hit. Like it would make a huge difference.
We made a couple of comments during the round about speeding up play, but to no effect. I'm not sure if one can penalise one's opponents in match play for slow play.
As it turns out the quality of golf in the game was very good and outside what was happening it was a very close game. So much so that we were tied at the end and and had to play sudden death tie holes! I so desparately wanted to beat these guys.
Well, we finally got poetic justice. Both of them hit off into trouble at the first tie hole. The Tall old guy pulls one down the left. Short old guy drives into the gorse on the right. I hit one down left and it ran out of fairway on the left, not too bad. My partner hits one down the middle. When we arrived down to look for our balls, I asked my partner to note the time. We both agree that we would be applying the 5 minute rule "to the second". So both of us were hunting for our balls, and it turns out the rough is quite bad. Anyway 5 minutes later (to the second) I loudly declared my ball lost as we had expired the allowed time "within the rules".
So effectively I was also declaring Tall Old Guy's ball lost as well. And guess what? About 1 minute later Tall Old Guy finds his ball! Too bad asswipe, you're outa here!! I also found my ball and made a point of letting him know "just how unlucky we both were" in my most sarcastic voice.
These are supposed to be friendly matches played in good spirit. But my partner and I had just about as much good spirit as we could handle.
So we ended up winning the hole on my partner's ball with a bogey! LOL!
These two guys, imho, were cheating. Deliberately slowing up play to give themselves an advantage. There is no way that these guys would get away with this type of play in a regular tournament. They would be kicked off the course. The Tall Old Guy was probably the single most selfish golfer I have ever encountered. I am not 100% sure he was doing this whole gig deliberately. But what annoyed me more were the comments from his partner who would slink over to me and casually say "Boy, it's kinda slow today, eh?"
It was all I could do to shake hands with these guys when our match finished. I refused to have a drink with them afterwards (my partner in fact did the decent thing). I just got in the car and drove home. The fact that we won was only a minor consolation. I was genuinely upset with the whole episode, upset that I had lost my cool and my dignity, but I cannot detest blatant cheating.
I am sure both these guys are decent folk, and maybe they just got me on a bad day. I phoned my partner later last night and apologised. But he backed me up and said that a number of comments had been passe int he club house about these guys. Still it's been a long time since I have lost my cool like that. Golf is supposed to be fun, right?
Sorry, rant over!! I must go and look at "Why I play golf" again.
So anyway, I had a pairs match yesterday. 4th round in our knock-out club competition and at this stage of the competition the matches get interesting. My partner and I were drawn against two "older gentlemen", one of whom I had played with before last year. My partner had warned me that these guys had a reputation for being slow. So much so that the guys that this pair had beaten in the last round had complained, but because they lost did not want to make a big deal out of it, lest it look like sour grapes.
So we teed off at 1pm and the course was relatively quiet, there was no-one ahead of us. Four ball-better ball and the sun was shining. Life is good.
5 HOURS LATER AND I WAS READY TO COMMIT MURDER! Yes, that's 5 hours later when we finished at the 18th. Without having to wait for a single shot the entire round, we trudged through one of the most tortous rounds I have ever had to endure. These dudes through a combination of deliberate gamesmanship and selfishness decided that they would play at their own pace. After 9 holes ( 2 hrs. 40 mins) I was going up the wall. After 12 holes I was ready to walk in. After 15 holes and I refused to acknowledge or speak to either of them. After 18 holes I was close to sinking my wedge into one of their skulls!
The match started out in good spirits. My partner has a reputation for being slow, so there was a bit of jibbing on the 1st tee. By the 4th tee, my partner looked like a sprinter! Luckily there was only one match behind us which we eventually let through on the 12th. I was so embarrassed. To typify play, here's what was going on. The Tall Old Guy would tee up and spend 20 seconds lining his ball up on the tee to target. He would then stand behind the ball, visualise and then take 2 very methodical practice swings, EVERY SHOT. If he drove one in the rough he would hit a provisional "just in case". Putting was worse, both of them would look at his putts from every angle, then again he would line up his ball precisely (taking 20 seconds to make sure it was accurate). Then he would go an have another look at it and then take two long practice swings and finally hit his putt. Oh, did I mention club selections? The decisions these guys had to make; I mean for guys who played off indexes of 8 and 13, not exactly Tiger and Jim, they woukld spend minutes hudling about what clubs to hit. Like it would make a huge difference.
We made a couple of comments during the round about speeding up play, but to no effect. I'm not sure if one can penalise one's opponents in match play for slow play.
As it turns out the quality of golf in the game was very good and outside what was happening it was a very close game. So much so that we were tied at the end and and had to play sudden death tie holes! I so desparately wanted to beat these guys.
Well, we finally got poetic justice. Both of them hit off into trouble at the first tie hole. The Tall old guy pulls one down the left. Short old guy drives into the gorse on the right. I hit one down left and it ran out of fairway on the left, not too bad. My partner hits one down the middle. When we arrived down to look for our balls, I asked my partner to note the time. We both agree that we would be applying the 5 minute rule "to the second". So both of us were hunting for our balls, and it turns out the rough is quite bad. Anyway 5 minutes later (to the second) I loudly declared my ball lost as we had expired the allowed time "within the rules".
So effectively I was also declaring Tall Old Guy's ball lost as well. And guess what? About 1 minute later Tall Old Guy finds his ball! Too bad asswipe, you're outa here!! I also found my ball and made a point of letting him know "just how unlucky we both were" in my most sarcastic voice.
These are supposed to be friendly matches played in good spirit. But my partner and I had just about as much good spirit as we could handle.
So we ended up winning the hole on my partner's ball with a bogey! LOL!
These two guys, imho, were cheating. Deliberately slowing up play to give themselves an advantage. There is no way that these guys would get away with this type of play in a regular tournament. They would be kicked off the course. The Tall Old Guy was probably the single most selfish golfer I have ever encountered. I am not 100% sure he was doing this whole gig deliberately. But what annoyed me more were the comments from his partner who would slink over to me and casually say "Boy, it's kinda slow today, eh?"
It was all I could do to shake hands with these guys when our match finished. I refused to have a drink with them afterwards (my partner in fact did the decent thing). I just got in the car and drove home. The fact that we won was only a minor consolation. I was genuinely upset with the whole episode, upset that I had lost my cool and my dignity, but I cannot detest blatant cheating.
I am sure both these guys are decent folk, and maybe they just got me on a bad day. I phoned my partner later last night and apologised. But he backed me up and said that a number of comments had been passe int he club house about these guys. Still it's been a long time since I have lost my cool like that. Golf is supposed to be fun, right?
Sorry, rant over!! I must go and look at "Why I play golf" again.