My Pet Peve

[Pa Jayhawk]

Something else that I see up here that is all too common and possibly one of my peeves, that is related. I can't tell you how many times we have been a foursome and have 2 groups of 2 behind us. If there are more foursomes in front of us, I would probably never let them play through. I most commonly play as a twosome and have never failed to ask anyone single or twosome if they wish to pair up if we meet at a tee while waiting. It annoys me to no end when I see 2 twosomes on the tee box waiting for a foursome and do not pair up. Probably a good reason it is good to leave it at the disgression of the foursome. You should not be expected to be a revolving door because people refuse to pair up.

As a twosome there have been occasions we have offered and people do not want too. If the foursome in front ever says they are sorry for the wait, or that they are waiting I simply tell them we would not be waiting if the group behind wished to pair up, so enjoy the day.

There have even been a couple occasions where we offered, and a single had the nerver to ask if they could play through when we were waiting at the same tee box. This left me speechless.

This is something else you need to keep in mind. You cannot necessarily hold it against the entire foursome. I don't know how many times we have been paired up with a slow twosome and have people po'ed at us. You think your po'ed for having to wait. There may be a twosome or single in the group that is just livid that they have to wait and everyone else is po'ed at them. I guess it is just something you have to live with if you do not have 3 other friends that you can regularyl play with.

 

[Bravo]

Holy Cow. Isn't this just begging to back things up for the day? It must just be a difference in busy times, because in all the areas I have played they would probably only allow a fivesome very late in the day when no one is on the course.

On Sunday morning there are so few players that tee times are not even necessary. You just show up and talk with the other members you see standing there to work it out among yourselves as to who is going to go first. There are two groups of about 10 players each who play on Sunday mornings. Our group usually starts on the front and the other big group starts on the back. Depending upon the number of players who show up - we organize ourselves. If six show up - we play two threesomes. If eight show up - its two foursomes. Nine players - three three somes. We all group together on the first tee, gather one ball from each player and throw them in the air. The balls lying closest to each other are the 'teammates'. Once the teammates are standing in a group, we throw a golf tee in the air and after it lands the group that the tee points to goes first. We then play "best two net balls" from each group. So if we had three threesomes - the threesomes are playing against each other. On the first hole, if your best net scores are a 4 and a 3 - your team score for the hole is 7. So on the scorecard, we keep everyone's individual score as well as the team score for the hole. This 'team golf' betting format makes you root for the players you are playing with - not against them. It creates a very fun atmosphere and everyone cheers birdies and sandies as $1 is awarded for each of these in addition to the Nassau bet.

Sometimes a twosome or threesome will show up on Sunday. We will talk to them and ask them when they want to go. Once they see our large group, we usually encourage them to go ahead and get out there ahead of us...because we will have 2-3 groups bunched back to back.

It is very very rare to have five players show up, but when we do, we play five but do our damn best to move it along because its considered bad form....

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

Bravo,
Enjoy it if you can, I would love that setting. We usually have to set up tee times by Tuesday. Wednesday is even pushing it where you likely would find nothing earlier than 10:30 as the first time, and they have like 20 courses in an 10 mile radius. I thought I was lucky to have so many course in a short radius. We primarily play the same 3-4 course 95% of the time. So having so many courses probably doesn't hold a candle to being able to walk on during Sunday morning. This was the main reason we opt for 7-8am, because they usually fill up last by the diehards that would rather play golf and have the rest of the day ahead of them as opposed to sleep in. Although we do usually feel like we have to explain cracking open a beer at 9-10 am. But when you are up at 5:30, the group we play with usually simply says that we are running behind. I am beginning to think that our area is the exception and not the norm because non of our friends understand when we tell them we need to know by Tuesday or Wednesday if they don't want to play golf in the afternoon.

 

[JEFF4i]

To Jayhawk's three points:

Definately, I went out as a single and surely expected to wait. I did catch them after they teed off on 17 though, and had to wait. The thing with asking my fiance was that I was about 150 yards behind them, given that I was playing the Championship tees and they weren't, so I didn't want to run all the way to them, and if they said yes, run allllll the way back, then one more time for good measure. Lastly, yeah I was sent out as a single but it was a slow day, and the last person behind me was about 4 holes behind me. Totally though I do agree with you, waiting is to be expected as a single.

Anyway, it's done for, but I do appreciate the input from everyone.

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

Fair enough. I was more or less trying to put myself in their shoes, look at the whole picture, and simply mentioning why I could maybe see why they felt the way they did. Then again, I am not sure I would really want to put myself in anyones shoes that takes 25 minutes to complete a hole of golf on a regular basis, or I would probably would pick up my ball, walk off the course being PO'ed, at myself none the less. In no way do I see what you did as being unjustified by asking, I just simply see why they didn't care to let you pass at that point and possible reasons.

We had a similar instance yesterday morning. We were the 4th group out as a twosome. Again, I don't mind the waiting and expect it, although the group in front of us spent about 20-25 minutes on both the 1st and 2nd hole. What was more aggravating was the fact that both the men were more or less doing playing lessons on each shot with their wives. We figured this was going to be a long day expecially after the guy managed to run his cart into a tree on the first hole. The 3rd hole is a par three, so when we got off two we simply skipped to 4, as the foresome in front of them was already on the 4th green. They saw us drive by and again on the Par 4 4th green when they started teeing off, but never again. We played behind the others at a steady pace from then on and later in the round we were chating with the ranger between 16 and 17 and he said they were still on 11.

Again, I see your point, they did not belong on a course during the courses busier times, but it just seemed easier too let the Ranger and the groups behind deal with them. We were thankful that there was not a couple other groups between us and them. Had that been the case I would have been fuming. Although again had it happened real late in the round I am not sure I would let it spoil my round, and the fact that they managed to make it to 17 before you caught them would lead me to believe they just maybe had few bad holes.