What are the chances of hitting the group in front..

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vkurup

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Played a 2 ball last week and we were stuck behind a slow 4 ball. With nobody in front of them, we thought they would let us through.. but no such luck. They would tee off and then each of them would search for their ball, duff their second and so on and on. Finally when they reached the green, they made it look like an elaborate mating ritual of making, taking turns, holding flags etc.. We thought each was taking about 8 shots every hole.

Anyways, we decided to add to the pressure by playing behind them, in the hope they would let us thru.

What are the chances.. Whenever, I waited for them to clear my 'range' before teeing off, I would end up duffing my drive about 150y. Finally on a P5, my DMD put them at just over 200y. So took out my 4-hybrid which I normally hit about 180y. Lo & behold, hit an absolute peach to just a few feet of one of them!!!

Slow play is bad for the game, but bad etiquette is worse. Though I am happy I did not have to test my insurance with those muppets.
 
Would it not have been safer all round to speak to them? That's the option I took yesterday when held up, It's just not worth the risk IMO.
 
Been there myself, exactly the same situation. We were a 2 ball and were being held up for at least 8 holes by a 4 ball containing 2 chaps who were apparently notorious for slow play and not letting people through. I think one of them may have been the captain (it was a pretty poor course). So much so that the 4 ball in front of them had opened up a 3 hole gap.

I was playing shockingly bad on every hole, and got to a point where they had cleared the green by at least 10 minutes as me and my mate kind of stopped on the previous fairway for a bit, as the waiting on every shot was driving us up the wall. So when we gets the the next tee they had only just teed off and were walking off the tee. So we waited another 10 mins for them to find the lost balls and play their second shots.

I was playing pretty badly, struggled to drive anything over 180 yards all day so was using a hybrid on the tee, and they were about 230 yards away. So I hit a 3 wood more out of frustration as I had kind of given up by then, and I am sure you can guess what happened next, for the only time in the day I nailed it and it rolled past them.

I shouted fore which they just ignored, but once the ball went past them they turned round and stared. One of them then stood on my ball, which I suppose I may have deserved in a way. Then on the next tee one of them started to come towards us, until he saw my mate who is a a bit of bruiser and can take care of himself. So he backed off and then surprisingly enough they managed to let us through.

Never been back to that course since and never will thanks to their attitude.
 
stevie_r said:
Would it not have been safer all round to speak to them? That's the option I took yesterday when held up, It's just not worth the risk IMO.
Click to expand...

We wanted to speak to them.. but everytime we reached the tee.. they would do a runner. They knew what they were upto and it was a bit deliberate. On the 17th I nearly managed to catch them.. young college lads, couple of who might have had an extra orange juice the prev night. One of them was playing well, the rest were hackers. I guess early bird tee off was a bit too much for them. (also not sure I wanted to get into an argument with them either)

There was a single guy playing us who got so frustrated that he jumped 2 holes just to avoid them...
 
vkurup said:
Played a 2 ball last week and we were stuck behind a slow 4 ball. With nobody in front of them, we thought they would let us through.. but no such luck. They would tee off and then each of them would search for their ball, duff their second and so on and on. Finally when they reached the green, they made it look like an elaborate mating ritual of making, taking turns, holding flags etc.. We thought each was taking about 8 shots every hole.

Anyways, we decided to add to the pressure by playing behind them, in the hope they would let us thru.

What are the chances.. Whenever, I waited for them to clear my 'range' before teeing off, I would end up duffing my drive about 150y. Finally on a P5, my DMD put them at just over 200y. So took out my 4-hybrid which I normally hit about 180y. Lo & behold, hit an absolute peach to just a few feet of one of them!!!

Slow play is bad for the game, but bad etiquette is worse. Though I am happy I did not have to test my insurance with those muppets.
Click to expand...


Its amazing how many complain about slow play,however are not willing to ask a polite question.
Hi guys were a two ball,please could we play through.
Ok i agree they should be the ones who allow you through,but its not asking much surely.
I also think this situation has a lot to do with slow play[mixed group numbers].
On saturday our 4 ball let a faster 3 ball through,when one of there guys took a 9 they said they
wished we never waved them through,you just cant win sometimes.
 
pokerjoke said:
Its amazing how many complain about slow play,however are not willing to ask a polite question.
Hi guys were a two ball,please could we play through.
Click to expand...

I agree to a certain point. But you must have a myopic lack of self awareness or are just totally ignorant to not realise you are holding people up. So do people really need asking, isn't is pretty obvious what they are doing?

I suppose you could possibly excuse it if they are completely new to the game and know nothing of the etiquette. But the 4 ball in front of me contained 4 members, the group in front of them had made 3 holes on them and as I said, I think 1 was the captain!
 
Hacker Khan said:
I agree to a certain point. But you must have a myopic lack of self awareness or are just totally ignorant to not realise you are holding people up. So do people really need asking, isn't is pretty obvious what they are doing?

I suppose you could possibly excuse it if they are completely new to the game and know nothing of the etiquette. But the 4 ball in front of me contained 4 members, the group in front of them had made 3 holes on them and as I said, I think 1 was the captain!
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I agree some people are blind ignorant.
But i would always ask as it puts them in a situation.
If they say no,then you have a few options.
Say your well within your right to go through.
Tell them you will report them when you get back.
Or ring the pro shop and get them to send a marshall out.
Where theres a will theres a way.
 
vkurup said:
Finally on a P5, my DMD put them at just over 200y. So took out my 4-hybrid which I normally hit about 180y. Lo & behold, hit an absolute peach to just a few feet of one of them!!!
Click to expand...
Isn't this a basic golfing law of nature - your best chance of hitting a perfect shot is when there is a group in front that is just barely in range? Whereas if you wait for them to be well clear, you'll be lucky to get half way.
 
I had the exact opposite today, caught up with a 2ball at the 3rd and they let me through at the 4th then I caught up with a 3ball at the 5th tee and they let me through also finally caught up with a 4ball at the 6th and they let me through on the 7th tee, went round in 1hr 20 mins and that was with waiting on the 2nd and 3rd tee.
 
In light of recent threads i suspect this is a fishing expedition, but what the hell i'll chime in anyway.

Hitting into groups is poor form. You need to let people clear the range of your best shot, not your usual shot, or you run an unacceptable risk.
Their slow play does not excuse your duty of care not to hit into them, last time I checked slow play didn't cause injury.
Yes they were rude, yes they should have let you through, but deliberately firing golf balls up their chuff from 200 yards to "add to the pressure" is bloody disgraceful.
 
Stuey01 said:
In light of recent threads i suspect this is a fishing expedition, but what the hell i'll chime in anyway.

Hitting into groups is poor form. You need to let people clear the range of your best shot, not your usual shot, or you run an unacceptable risk.
Their slow play does not excuse your duty of care not to hit into them, last time I checked slow play didn't cause injury.
Yes they were rude, yes they should have let you through, but deliberately firing golf balls up their chuff from 200 yards to "add to the pressure" is bloody disgraceful.
Click to expand...

Whilst all that is true and I'm not condoning what was done, the ball at best would have rolled by their feet, not carried at head height with the potential of injury!

Just a curve ball opinion ;)
 
I had a couple of 4balls tell me the other day they weren't going to let me play through because 2 of their group had paid green fees. I have particularly bad experiences with the older women but generally golf is full of whoppers, possibly many of them on this forum.
 
lyden said:
I had a couple of 4balls tell me the other day they weren't going to let me play through because 2 of their group had paid green fees. I have particularly bad experiences with the older women but generally golf is full of whoppers, possibly many of them on this forum.
Click to expand...

I occasionally play at a club that has a special rate from a certain time. I've had to point out the restriction to a couple of groups who were also over 5 years out of date thinking 'Singles have no Status'! There is no logic to that 'paid green fees' reason; I'd be keen to get other members through to allow guests to enjoy the course more with less pressure.

I've generally found Ladies to be more aware of their position on the course and happier to let faster groups through than most others.

As for the OP, I'd skip sufficient holes to bypass the group without getting in their way - 2 should be sufficient.
 
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Every time this subject comes up, someone posts "why didn't you just ask to play through?"
Maybe I'm being dense, but if i am expected to wait until they are 180 yards ahead of me, how am i going to do that?
Run after them?
 
A mate and myself play a pretty quick round, under 3 hours, and most at our club know we don't hang around so let us through as soon as possible but there are some seniors that have a bad habit of holding us up even when they know we are there. We normally give them a couple of whistles or shouts and they let us through. On one occasion they had no intention of letting us through even though there were at least 2 clear holes in front of them. so as we arrived at the 5th tee they were just about 100 yards in front of us so we called again only to be ignored for about the 4th time.
While they were hunting for a ball in the rough we teed up and drove down the middle. As we walked past them they said "We didn't call you through." So my mate looks around startled and says "Oh sorry didn't see you there, we were so long on the last hole we thought you were on the green."
There was some discussion when they got back to the club house but one of the group did admit the other three were doing it on purpose.
It's a shame some of the seniors at our place have such a passion to annoy everyone that they can while staying just within the ethics of the game.
 
I was out by myself earlier and caught up with a 4 ball with buggies.

Called me through on the par 3 whilst they waited to putt and even ran me to the green after teeing off on the 500 yard par 5 to keep things quick :thup:
 
One of my pet hates is people putting undue pressure on the group ahead. If you want to play through then ask. If you start firing towards me your ball will be heading back just as fast. Think its poetic justice that most of the time you tried to smash it into the group in front you hit crap shots
 
And deliberately hitting a ball close to someone is much worse than both. While I sympathise with you and agree the idiots should have let you through, hitting a ball when you know the group could be in range is stupid and dangerous. Next time, just ask
 
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