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People walking about the course, with kids

Don't get into the blame game though it will only effect your golf more.

On reflection I could just be totally guff at hitting a 4 iron off the tee?

I really don't like the rain, or people watching me. Not so much other golfers as they know how to behave when someone is about to tee off. It broke my good mood for the round. I was having a lazy round. I get up to a tee box, a kid starts shouting, I duff my tee, then it starts raining. It wasn't nice.

It came off the back of seeing far too many dog walkers on the course of late, just letting their dog dump all over the place without any care. One time I check my app, and it's 200 yards to a bunker that some woman is throwing balls to her dog at. For 5 mins she didn't even flinch. I whistled with my hands in the air and she then moves away. Luckily preffered lies is on due to the wet weather just now. I don't want to be hitting my second off a turd.
 
We've several footpaths through our course, and the big pond that surrounds our 16th green often attracts anglers. Most of those who cross the course environs are considerate enough to give you plenty of time and space when you're playing near them.

Although my PP almost creamed a young cyclist on Sunday during the medal.. our 14th runs adjacent to a housing block, and there's a footpath that crosses from the street across the front of the tee. My PP was just at the top of his backswing when a youth shot out from the footpath across the tee-box, not looking to see if the way was clear and utterly cacked himself when a Callaway Warbird when whizzing past his head.
 
On reflection I could just be totally guff at hitting a 4 iron off the tee?

I really don't like the rain, or people watching me. Not so much other golfers as they know how to behave when someone is about to tee off. It broke my good mood for the round. I was having a lazy round. I get up to a tee box, a kid starts shouting, I duff my tee, then it starts raining. It wasn't nice.

It came off the back of seeing far too many dog walkers on the course of late, just letting their dog dump all over the place without any care. One time I check my app, and it's 200 yards to a bunker that some woman is throwing balls to her dog at. For 5 mins she didn't even flinch. I whistled with my hands in the air and she then moves away. Luckily preffered lies is on due to the wet weather just now. I don't want to be hitting my second off a turd.

Makes me kind of wonder why you joined that course then if there's loads of dog walkers/kids that seem to make you so angry?
 
It's a quiet course
I can walk on it anytime I like
It's the cheapest in the area
It's a good challenge
The members are really down to earth.

Like anyone, I want to improve. How I go about that is my own business. It might be a bit OTT for some, but that's me broke 90 in my last 4 full 18 holes, with a good few 9 holes in between. I'm proud of that drop from shooting over 100. Some people moan about really daft things on here and get a general agreement of such moans. Somehow I kind of feel I didn't have place to have gripe with this because I was only playing on my own.

To be consistent you need to be in the zone. Getting lessons on striking the ball is one thing, but people forget that you need to train yourself to zone out during play too. I felt I was relaxed and in the zone until that happened. It's like anything else, distractions need to be worked on.

Seems a bit OTT for a standard round of golf but that's just the way I do it. I bounce about less bothered on my 9 hole ventures but 18 I tend to pretend it's worth something. Hey, I'm 12 again playing in the Open :)
 
Because that's too easy. If I was playing in a comp or something else, I'd have to play the shot so I played it.

I see folk are missing the point anyway. The fact is, that, it's not a public park for folk to just walk all over the place. It woudl be a different story if one of the kids was hit by a ball.

Playing on my own one evening I had just hit my tee shot at the par 3 17th. Ball was still in the air when a young girl, 4 or 5 at a guess, ran out of the trees and across the front of the green. Nothing I could do and fortunately my ball missed her. Moments later another kid and two adults followed her.

They took off sharpish before I got down there but I was furious. It's one thing wandering around a golf course but if you're oblivious to the people playing golf you're taking a huge risk. I can understand (although not condone) kids coming onto golf courses and roaming around but not parents who aren't looking after them.

Unfortunately with the right of access we have in Scotland folk thing they can wander around where they like.

we have one path that has access to the beach, but we get people all over the course , its a real pain and is dangerous to boot
 
OP I feel your pain, I'd have been annoyed too, this is the sort of thing that would have stayed with me for many holes after the incident when I started playing first. I read a book called Zen Golf by Joseph Parent and it gave me a new perspective on the mental side of the game. After reading it I became instantly better at shutting my mind off to what had happened before, and indeed wandering to what might happen later. I smile to myself when an opponent talks about how the 15th is going to play hard today, or how he was so unlucky back there on the 4th. None of it matters, all you can do is play the next shot to the best of your ability. Once you settle into that mind frame, a distraction like this still might have cost you that tee shot, but no more. You're learning the game pretty quick and your progress is excellent, as with the swing and short game, the mental side of the game takes practice for some (to others it comes naturally, the lucky ones!).
 
The best I heard at a previous club was a family set up Camp to have picnic and a day on the common with the kids by pitching up ON the 16th green lovely spot but maybe a touch hazardous...

On other occasions 'travellers' would decamp on waste ground just over the course boundary and would come over the fence and break the green watering for drinking water - and when the water gathered in deep pool by side of the green they would do washing their clothes in the pool.
 
The last time i played Botley Park before it closed i got to the 18th at about 7.15ish in the evening. It was april so the sun was beginning to set. Some numpty appears as i am walking across from the 17th gree to the 18th tee and positions a camera tripod on one of the humps that sit on either side of the fairway about 100 yards from the tee. He noticed me and moves away over the brow of the hill but the knowledge that he was there was enough. I compensated and aimed a bit further away from him and almost clonked my tee shot out of bounds. Was not impressed.
 
I used to play at a links course that had people wandering over it all the time. Summer was a nightmare, picnic blankets set out on the fairway etc. On one day two women started sunbathing in a dip in front of the 1st green. The guy on the tee, it was a par 3, could not see them and we had to shout and wave like madmen to stop him from taking his shot before suggesting to the two bright sparks to move.

My previous course would have dog walkers on it in the evening and the occasional family walking along the edge of the fairway on a couple of holes. I think my experiences of the links course gave me a high tolerance level. You either let it ruin your day or you accept it, take a breath and wait for them to move on. If you are not used to it then I can understand how it would annoy.
 
I think that's the problem, I'm not used to it. Never mind, It's all done now. It's at least comforting knowing that it's not just my course that has it happening.
 
We have quite a few public patch around our course but I can't think of a time it's been an issue, generally people seem to be very respectful. Had a guy shoot at a pigeon in a tree while we were on the a box once lol. There's a castle which is popular for weddings etc next to the 3rd/11th tee boxes and we regularly get people watching tee shots. Christ knows how many wedding photos I've bombed/spoiled :cool:
 
The most i have ever seen is a few dog walkers going through the course of an evening, but they are dedicated public footways, so I haven't batted an eyelid as I'm sure they are entitled to be there.
As for the OP, I think it would be summed up as one of those things. If the family didn't know the etiquette then thats the way it is, and I suppose you have to deal with it, unfortunatley we are all going to bump into people like this in life. How you then deal with the rest of your round is completley up to you, everyone will be different and no right or wrong answer.
IMHO, i would love to take my 4 year old boy out on the course to get him into the game but I wouldn't for two reasons;
1. His safety - I couldn't justify the risk if he were to get hit by a stray
2. His noise levels - he makes just as much noise as any other child and I don't think its fair to other golfers for me to put them in that position
 
Cheers for the replies folks. I have two teenage girls (16 & 14) myself, and they were a nightmare even up at the range last week. I had to hurry and hit my balls away to save face. I'm sure somewhere there's been a thread made on a forum about some clown who brought his teen girls to the driving range.
 
Unfortunately with the right of access we have in Scotland folk thing they can wander around where they like.

we have one path that has access to the beach, but we get people all over the course , its a real pain and is dangerous to boot
count your blessings, at least you don't have coach tours driving down the middle of your course...
 
I'm lucky with current club as it is a very rare thing to have folk out walking on course - but went back to aforementioned previous club last year for an Open and had to refind my tolerance and acceptance pretty toot sweet - though in fairness it wasn't too bad that day.
 
The course I play is attached to a hotel and it's not uncommon for the guests to go out for a stroll around the course. A few weeks back I tee'd off on the 3rd and apparently came within a few yards of clonking three blokes playing footy in the middle of the fairway. They didn't half moan so I just told 'em to 'sod off if you don't like it because you're on a golf course'.
 
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