etiquette question

[shuffles62]

Hi. I just joined the forum and I'd like to hear others opinion on my experience yesterday. Our regular 4th couldn't play so a single was sent out with us and I was the lucky one to share the cart with him.

Now I normally don't mind helping people search for lost balls, but this guy couldn't keep his ball in play to save his life. Almost every single drive wound up in the tall fescue and after about 6 or 7 holes I gave up on helping him search for them. He got offended, and I feel bad about that but at the same time enough is enough....i'm out there to enjoy my game and not spend the day worrying about his errant shots. I don't think it was fair of him to expect other people to spend their day chasing around his ball.

Anyone ever have a similar experience? How did you deal with it?

 

[Woosey]

well what i would do is help them look for a couple of mins (max is 5 remember ) if you have people right up behind you i would always say on the tee 'you want to hit a provisional, we probably wont find that'

if there shit off every tee, well then.....cry i guess

 

[shuffles62]

pace of play wasn't really the issue here, it was a public course late on sunday morning so there was nowhere to go anyway. the fescue was tall but not terribly thick, so we were usually able to find the ball its just that it took a few minutes each time. like i said i normally don't mind helping, but this was happening on every single hole, and that gets old after a while. i just don't feel like i should have to waste all my energy helping him out hole after hole.

 

[Rosmo]

I been in the situation before but with friends, so I just told them to get their shit together off the tee or find their own damn balls but you can't really do that in your situation. Best thing to do is just chalk this one up to a bad experience and move on.

 

[bdcrowe]

Personally, I would have helped him every hole without a word if we were waiting anyway. If it began to slow things down, I would have mentioned something, but if you are waiting anyway, what the hell? Golf is a gentleman(woman)'s sport. It is about character even moreso than score. If you don't have the energy to help a playing partner when you're waiting anyway, you don't have the energy to be on the course. This is my opinion, take it for whatever, but I say bad play.

 

[shuffles62]

i dunno, it bugs me to even think about it....i guess you had to be there. it isn't like were waiting on every shot, we just weren't falling behind. i feel like i was trying harder to find his ball than he was. he'd hit a bad shot then turn toward us and hop in the cart without really watching it. then we'd get out there and it was almost as if he was waiting for me to find it for him....so eventually i stopped.

 

[bdcrowe]

i dunno, it bugs me to even think about it....i guess you had to be there. it isn't like were waiting on every shot, we just weren't falling behind. i feel like i was trying harder to find his ball than he was. he'd hit a bad shot then turn toward us and hop in the cart without really watching it. then we'd get out there and it was almost as if he was waiting for me to find it for him....so eventually i stopped.

In that case, it'll teach him to watch it at least.

 

[dave.]

yes,whats get my goat is someone who smacks it into the rough and doesn't watch it land and get a line.If they do I will help them until its dark.If they trun away as if they are Tiger and they don't 'normally' slice that badly then they can have a coule of mins no more

 

[MAHALLEDAY]

I know a guy thatt is like that, he makes sure we are watching and apparently its out responibily to find his ball. He would never watch/ look for for someone elses ball though, as its not his job. Hes a real super guy

 

[Youngun5]

every once in a while you will get paired with a guy like this at a H.S. tourney, it sucks, when i figure their game out i try to play the hole objectively as far away from them as possible, but since you are in the same cart, you just gotta take your losses for the day. although legally i probably can't say this but the motto around here seems to be "have a couple more beers and everything'll be fine"

 

[Silver]

I would laugh if somewhere on another forum, there's a guy going "man, I was playing on Sunday and this guy just wouldn't help me find my ball, I was having an off day and couldn't keep the ball straight, but the ball was generally easy to find and we weren't falling behind, but he just stopped helping...stuck up twit."

(not saying that you're a stuck up twit, but that that's how he may have felt)...but based on your description of him not even watching it...that's just rude

 

[dave.]

Yep,if he didn't watch his own ball he can look for it himself

 

[CybrSlicr]

((Speaking as someone that had this problem this past Saturday))

This past weekend I could not keep my woods in play off the tee. Every hole was the same thing - hook hard left on the first swing, better luck with the provisional. I also had issues with following my ball off the tee. I lost many of them off the tee, because they hooked so badly left that I never picked them up to begin with. When this started happening, I asked the others I was playing with to help me watch the ball off the tee - because I was having a hard time picking it up. This made a world of difference finding the ball later.

IMHO - if he is doing his best to follow and find his ball and he is being courteous about it (and you are not backing up the course looking) - helping him out seems to be the right thing to do. I imagine he must be getting frustrated already, not helping him out would make it worse (it would for me).

Just my 2 cents...

 

[Kilted Arab]

((Speaking as someone that had this problem this past Saturday))

This past weekend I could not keep my woods in play off the tee. Every hole was the same thing - hook hard left on the first swing, better luck with the provisional. I also had issues with following my ball off the tee. I lost many of them off the tee, because they hooked so badly left that I never picked them up to begin with. When this started happening, I asked the others I was playing with to help me watch the ball off the tee - because I was having a hard time picking it up. This made a world of difference finding the ball later.

IMHO - if he is doing his best to follow and find his ball and he is being courteous about it (and you are not backing up the course looking) - helping him out seems to be the right thing to do. I imagine he must be getting frustrated already, not helping him out would make it worse (it would for me).

Just my 2 cents...

Curious...were you taking the driver off the tee, and if so - did you stick with it?

I sometimes get a slicing problem with my driver and it's only recently that i've managed to discipline myself into using the 3-wood if the driver ain't working...

 

[bdcrowe]

((Speaking as someone that had this problem this past Saturday))

This past weekend I could not keep my woods in play off the tee. Every hole was the same thing - hook hard left on the first swing, better luck with the provisional. I also had issues with following my ball off the tee. I lost many of them off the tee, because they hooked so badly left that I never picked them up to begin with. When this started happening, I asked the others I was playing with to help me watch the ball off the tee - because I was having a hard time picking it up. This made a world of difference finding the ball later.

IMHO - if he is doing his best to follow and find his ball and he is being courteous about it (and you are not backing up the course looking) - helping him out seems to be the right thing to do. I imagine he must be getting frustrated already, not helping him out would make it worse (it would for me).

Just my 2 cents...

Did you by any chance get pared up with a 3some? lol

I know what you're saying. I wear contacts on the course because glasses fog up, get sweaty, have blurry areas around the edges, etc... My far-sight isn't quite as good with them as with glasses, so I don't pick the ball up quite as well as I'd like. Thus, the others in my foursome, who are not swinging, and can get a better view of the ball angle off of the clubface invariably pick the ball up and follow it better than I. That means they (more often than I) can see where it goes. I am fortunate to have friends who are kind enough to help if this happens. I've also been lucky enough to play pick-up games with folks who don't read too much into it if this happens.

Again, golf is a gentleman's game, IMHO.