Temper Control!!!!

[kid2]

I observed yesterday what can only be described as probably the worst case of course etiquette that i have witnessed since i joined last year.....
We started our round on the 6th tee as there was a backup of players on the 1st due to delayed ice on the course....
After playing our 14 holes we trotted back to play 1,2,3,4 and 5 but when we arrived at the 1st tee there was already a 3 ball waiting to tee off so as rules dictate they were entitled to play 1st even though we were only a 2 ball.
Picture the image.....JEANS ,dirty black golf shoes coats that were for casual wear and gear that had never even seen a sink,Woods and drivers without headcovers.
Anyway our par 4 1st is fairly short at 325 metres a good drive and a wedge usually except for our trio in front had hit 2 OOB and duffed 2 with 1 half drive.
We watched in awe of what was going on....
Once they were out of range we played our shots and after hitting the green we had bogey and par .
As the 2nd tee box is close to the 1st green we were watching again with amazement with what was unravelling befor our eyes.....2nd 162m par3 with a lake in front of it....All there tee shots ended up wet. They played provisionals and just made the grass short of the green...Still waiting to be called through we were laughing at what was going on so to put a little pressure on i tee'd up expecting to be called but once again they obviously had no brain between the 3 of them what pops out of there bag only a telescopic ball retriever....they spent the best part of 5 mins fishing with this......
What should have taken our 2 ball at most 60 minutes to complete our 5 holes turned into 1h 40mins.....
We were never called through and anyone that knows me will tell you that im as laid back and as patient a person as you'll ever meet i speak my mind and im not afraid to ....But yesterday i was on the edge i could have blown up and let fly but i kept my cool...How? Ill never know....

 

[Dodger]

Not afraid to speak your mind you say.....why didn't you simply ask to play through then?

 

[matt01]

from what you were saying they don`t know much about golf and were only out for a mess around before the pub opened
so you have to ask were they members or paying the green fees if they were just paying then why were they let on the course

 

[kid2]

Not afraid to speak your mind you say.....why didn't you simply ask to play through then?

I was too wound up at this stage Dodger mate.....If i had said something at that stage it probably would have came to blows in which case i would have been tagged as the big green eyed monster.
I thought it best to just play my 3 holes and head for the clubhouse.

 

[pokerjoke]

Well done on the temper control your obviouly laid back as you say.My problem is this there is no way you should be teeing off the 6th hole I.M.O. doesnt matter how busy it is your obviously jumping in front of someone else which is wrong.The 9th yes as usually there is plenty of room.However something must be wrong with the teeing system you have to have the feild backed up like that.As for the players in jeans etc that is down to the quality of club your at surely,our course is council run and any tom dick and harry can play watever they wear or conditions which to me is wrong.A club I.M.O must have standards.

 

[kid2]

Well done on the temper control your obviouly laid back as you say.My problem is this there is no way you should be teeing off the 6th hole I.M.O. doesnt matter how busy it is your obviously jumping in front of someone else which is wrong.The 9th yes as usually there is plenty of room.However something must be wrong with the teeing system you have to have the feild backed up like that.As for the players in jeans etc that is down to the quality of club your at surely,our course is council run and any tom dick and harry can play watever they wear or conditions which to me is wrong.A club I.M.O must have standards.

All good points PJ.
But the reason that there was a back up was that there was a society booked between 9.30 and 11 and then outside of these there were members bookings....so thats why there had to be staggered starting times....All the members were put out on the 6th hole onwards as this gave the society a 5 hole buffer....everyone is happy then.

As for the Jeans our course is a public course but i stll think jeans should be stamped out.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think you need to be complaining to the owners or the committee that someone can turn up dressed like that and be allowed out. Personally I would have been asking to play through

 

[Smiffy]

Did they have proper spikes on their wellingtons?

 

[Yerman]

Well done for keeping your cool. But jeans are just trousers, I'm glad your course isn't so uptight about the dress code nonsense that gives golf a bad name, better jeans than some of the eyesores some pros wear.

 

[WhoGivesA]

My problem is this there is no way you should be teeing off the 6th hole I.M.O. doesnt matter how busy it is your obviously jumping in front of someone else which is wrong.The 9th yes as usually there is plenty of room.

Not all courses have the 9th & 18th greens next to the clubhouse thereby allowing members to to either tee off on the 1st or 10th holes. On my course the 10th tee is probably the furthest point from the clubhouse, so at lot of players start at the 4th after parking their car in the small car park provided next to the 4th tee. You also have a good vantage point so as to monitor the 3rd hole a par5 for when you can tee of without holding up players on the 3rd. Always works well at our course during busy times.

 

[USER1999]

Each course has it's own tee offs. On Saturday, we tee off 10, 12, and 14, because it uses the course best, while others go off the first.

As for temper, it is a switch. On / off. Nothing in between.

Not for nothing am I known as Mr Angry. Things are right, things are wrong. Wrong things get on my nerves. Quickly.

 

[Herbie]

All I see in this complaint is a bit of superiority complex as well as grumpyness Im sorry to say.

Why not speak to them at the 1st tee?
Why not at the 2nd?
Were you advised to tee off on the 6th by staff or is the club so laid back they allow anyone to tee off anywhere whenever they feel like it or is it normal members practice to do so?
As I read through your complaint I detected more of an afront at the way they presented themselves as lesser mortals rather than as bad golfers with pooor etiquette. And finally for any golfer to tee up when people are withing range without warning and simply as a means of putting pressure on them I find one the most offensive and provocative forms of abuse of the rules of play and etiquette there is and not what I would ever consider the actions of a laid back golfer. I too speak my mind

 

[rickg]

And finally for any golfer to tee up when people are withing range without warning and simply as a means of putting pressure on them I find one the most offensive and provocative forms of abuse of the rules of play and etiquette there is and not what I would ever consider the actions of a laid back golfer. I too speak my mind

Herbie, Kid said he tee'd it up, not tee'd it off...nothing wrong with that.

 

[TonyN]

Personally i'd have just asked to have played through. I had a similar problem on thursday with a 3 ball (we were 2). They were non members but were dressed as per club rules etc. They held us up from the first but was not alot of room in front so we didnt say anything, second was much of the same but by the 3rd there was a full hole opening up in front. the 4th they messed about on the green lining up 1 foot putts for about 60 seconds each. marking card on green and leaving bags miles away from the way to next tee.

On the 5th they hit balls OOB left and wandered off into gardens to find them (left bags in middle of fairway)
I whistled to them and gestured as if we could play through. They just turned back and started playing so we waited patiently until they next hole. By the time we had finished they had only just got there tee shots away and I managed to speak with them as they were heading to the green. Quick guide on slow play and we were through on the next!

Annoying yes, but not everyone knows the rules.

 

[Herbie]

And finally for any golfer to tee up when people are withing range without warning and simply as a means of putting pressure on them I find one the most offensive and provocative forms of abuse of the rules of play and etiquette there is and not what I would ever consider the actions of a laid back golfer. I too speak my mind

Herbie, Kid said he tee'd it up, not tee'd it off...nothing wrong with that.

Ok a misunderstanding as some people refer to teeing up as hitting the ball as often as others refer to it as teeing off. But even so the mind set of doing this purely to pressure other golfers when the lieklyhood is that they are about as aware of this as they were about anything else they did is a recipe for self inflicted aggrivation in my view and for what? A bunch of mindless inexperienced day visitors enjoying their day to the dismay of others equally guilty of behavior that might irritate golfers.

Thankyou for clearing up my misunderstanding, but it doesnt answer the other questions put to 'Laid Back' from UK

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Sorry Herbie but I've got disagree. Most clubs including all the pay and play and municiples I've ever used all have a dress code to play and all of them have said no jeans on the course. I personally think its such a simple thing to wear a decent (not necessarily expensive - £8 from Asda) pair of trousers and a golf shirt or plain polo shirt.

The fact that they have hacked down the first two holes including stopping at the 2nd to fish around for balls is surely a huge breach in etiquette at any club including yours when there are people waiting. I thinkthe OP had already made it clear that the club had allowed them to tee off from the 6th because of the society playing off from the first. I think a simple word and advice like TonyN describes would have resolved the problem amicably.

 

[BrianDamage]

I have never been able to comprehend how the material of a golfers pants can be relevant!

 

[TonyN]

I have never been able to comprehend how the material of a golfers pants can be relevant!

Traditions and values I beleive and agree with. Just like football teams wear kits, golfers should also dress accordingly.

 

[Herbie]

Sorry Herbie but I've got disagree. Most clubs including all the pay and play and municiples I've ever used all have a dress code to play and all of them have said no jeans on the course. I personally think its such a simple thing to wear a decent (not necessarily expensive - £8 from Asda) pair of trousers and a golf shirt or plain polo shirt.

The fact that they have hacked down the first two holes including stopping at the 2nd to fish around for balls is surely a huge breach in etiquette at any club including yours when there are people waiting. I thinkthe OP had already made it clear that the club had allowed them to tee off from the 6th because of the society playing off from the first. I think a simple word and advice like TonyN describes would have resolved the problem amicably.

I dont know what you are disagreeing with Homer as I personally did not make any comment for or against the way these fellows were dressed, you and the OP did that. nor did I comment on their quality of golf because I wasnt there, but you and the OP did.

Most clubs do have rules and dress codes, even municiples and I did not suggest otherwise, but seeing as you raised the point, the kind of clubs that have such rules also have rules of play/ tee off times/ and controls over which tees are played from to prevent confusion or confrontations or delays

You will have to reasd the post Homer and not what you think has been said as I did not read anything which said they had any kind of conscent to tee off the 6th but I will check.

You show the same frustration the OP showed recanting his incident simply from the description of events, god knows how frustrated you would be in a real life situation. If hes a pal and Im upsetting the apple cart I dont care, obviously someone who likes to speak their mind has a nice group of buddies waiting to prvent or condem anyone else who really speaks their mind in reply?

PS I just checked and there was no indication of permission asked or given, just a statement of actions the OP and his group took.

 

[kid2]

All I see in this complaint is a bit of superiority complex as well as grumpyness Im sorry to say.

Why not speak to them at the 1st tee?
Why not at the 2nd?
Were you advised to tee off on the 6th by staff or is the club so laid back they allow anyone to tee off anywhere whenever they feel like it or is it normal members practice to do so?
As I read through your complaint I detected more of an afront at the way they presented themselves as lesser mortals rather than as bad golfers with pooor etiquette. And finally for any golfer to tee up when people are withing range without warning and simply as a means of putting pressure on them I find one the most offensive and provocative forms of abuse of the rules of play and etiquette there is and not what I would ever consider the actions of a laid back golfer. I too speak my mind [/quo








Herbie,
I think that if you had taken the time to read my post and indeed my reply to PJ you would have answered some of the questions in your own reply....As for speaking to them on the 2nd they had already tee'd off and were half way to the hole when myself and my playing partner had reached the tee box.....And as i said earlier i tee'd it up to put pressure on (not strike the shot) as the trio in question were faffinf with a ball retriever instead of chipping onto the green and finishing the hole.