I got the impression that they played the back nine, unless he meant that the 9th hole was the last hole for everybody. From the OP: “I’m aware, but it was the next to last hole. You really expect us to let you play through on the last hole? We added 2 minutes to your round, tops.” If he dug in on the actual 8th hole, he’s even more of a jackass.
I’m somewhere in the middle on this, the kids were rude, as was the guy who hit into you, but, 2.20 for a twosome playing nine is extremely slow play. I’ve only been playing for about a year and a half and can get through 18 in 3.30 as part of a twosome. Regardless of quality of play, there is no reason a foursome should ever catch a twosome on the course.
Here’s a couple of hints, when the course is crowded and you get to triple bogey, pick up. If your wife is in trouble, have her pick up and move forward to drop with you. That way she still gets some practice in. Do NOT give her advice or have her practice a stroke on a crowded course. That’s what the driving range and playing lessons are for (when they’ll make sure that the course is reasonably clear). Play ready golf (ie, don’t wait for the other golfer to finish shooting before selecting a club - be standing over your ball ready to hit as soon as the other player hits). Don’t spend more than a minute or two looking for a lost ball.
Obviously, all of these can be relaxed if you’re not being pushed, but Liberal is right, golf is very much a game of rhythm and having that destroyed because of slow play is very frustrating.
Doesn’t matter back or front 9. They are only playing 9. He says?
“Finally, when we’re on the 8th fairway, one final foursome catches up to our tee box. There’s no way they need to go through. We’re half a fairway and a par-3 away from being done, so they aren’t going to get held up that much. They stay as close as they can to us, anyway. When we’re finished, we stopped in the clubhouse to take a pitstop.”
I don’t call bigger groups to tee off when I’m playing my approach from the fairway either so I guess I’m a jackass too.
One time I went to the driving range wearing swim trunks and flippers, shoulder pads (outside my t-shirt), a motorcycle helmet with a dark face shield, and carrying a baseball bat.
They wouldn’t let me on.
It was a dare, and so worth it to see the faces on everyone (it was rather busy that day).
It seemed to matter to him. His rationale for digging in was that the round was almost finished, presumably for the people he held up.
aerodave, while I sympathize with you on the jerk in the parking lot, I’d like to offer some advice. My wife plays also, and when we play together, riding in a cart, we play a regulation 9 holes in an hour and 20 minutes.
Here’s why:
When I tee off, she drives the cart to whatever forward tees she’s playing from. By the time I walk up to her tee, she’s finished her practice swing and hit. Let’s say her ball is closest. We drive to her ball, she picks her club and prepares to hit, if I’m not in the way, I’ll drive to my ball and pull a club. By the time my wife hits her ball, I’m ready and hit mine. She walks over to the cart and off we go. If I missed the green to the right, say, I’ll grab my putter and two or three clubs, just in case. (It kills me to see a newbie walk from the cart with one club, chip on the green, then walk back to the cart to get their putter).
Whoever is closest to the pin pulls the stick, while the away player lines up their putt. Then putt out! No marking unless your in someone’s line. You would not believe the amount of time that is saved while playing as I have described. My regular Saturday and Sunday foursome (which sometimes includes my wife) will play 18 holes riding a cart in three and a half hours.
The bottom line is, and I’ve said this to newbies on the first tee, nobody cares if you suck, they care if you’re slow. I’ve played with people who couldn’t break a 100 with an eraser on the pencil who did it in three hours, and I’ve played with 3 handicap prima donnas who couldn’t play any faster than a four and a half hour pace. I’d rather play with the former.
I spent a huge chunk of my childhood on a golf course and this thread is giving me horrible flashbacks.
It’s times like this when I remember just how much I hate golf.
They use you as a target?
I don’t play golf. Don’t care to play golf. The OP is part of the reason why. You can’t get good unless you practice yet no one wants you to play unless you’re good.
I think the guy in the parking lot was trying to be nice. I do understand the OPers’ frustration. I play tennis and there are times when people are waiting to play. I play my worst game when I feel pressured, even if the people waiting are doing nothing but sitting there. I can’t imagine if someone said some of the comments that were said to the OPer.
I also understand the OPers’ rationale to go ahead and play it out on the 8th hole. It’s like letting someone ahead of you in the grocery line if you have 1000 items and he only has two. I’ll let one guy get ahead of me, but after that I draw the line. Eventually my right to get through the line supercedes your convenience.
As to the Oper, I would keep plugging at it if for no other reason than because it’s a shared interest. However, when making reservations, I would ask the rep what the unposted, yet commonly known, rules are as they vary from course to course. For instance, at Club X, morning and early afternoon tee times are generally reserved for those who know what they are doing. Late afternoons/evenings are for social groups and hackers. If everyone is aware of these loosely written rules, then everyone’s happy. Or, as happy as one can be playing golf.
Since he’s quoting a comedy program, it seems that’d be the logical assumption.
You laugh!
As a kid, the number of rules and regulations and assholes and everything annoying about being on a golfcourse is magnified about ten times.
I did get to have pickled eggs sometimes, though. I liked pickled eggs.
As a long-suffering shitty golfer, I can confirm that you don’t have to play good to play fast. Follow some of the specific advice in this thread, and always hustle. That said, you were subject to some very rude behavior.
Nah, you don’t do that. It’s like throwing a temper tantrum; very unclassy. What you do is calmly walk up to his ball and slip it into your pocket. Mine now, asshole.
You can never be too sure when the B-word and the J-word are invoked… :rolleyes:
About learning golf: There does seem to be some reluctance to let down the drawbridge. I asked to join the golf team as a new 9th grader at a shmancy boarding school. I was told that there was no room for anybody who wasn’t already a competent player. (At age fourteen.)
I guess you’re supposed to have money and time both.
One can never be too sure when the B-word and/or the J-word are invoked… :rolleyes:
About learning golf: There does seem to be some reluctance to let down the drawbridge. I asked to join the golf team as a new 9th grader at a shmancy boarding school. I was told that there was no room for anybody who wasn’t already a competent player. (At age fourteen.)
I guess you’re supposed to have money and time both.
I stopped playing golf a while back. I’ve actually been thinking about picking it up again. I played a charity tourny and shot really well and had fun, which is just enough to give me the itch to play again. I’ve also talked with my SO about teaching her to play. It would be a fun thing for a couple to do together.
However, it’s stories like that of the OP that give me pause. People who play golf just tend to be assholes of the highest order. I don’t know why, but the game just attracts jerks. Cheap courses have t-shirt wearing lower class jerks. Expensive courses have silk shirt wearing upper class jerks. There’s no avoiding it!
What annoys me is when you have a full course. You wait at every tee for the group in front of you. They are waiting for the group in front of them, and so on. Then you inevitably get the jerks behind you that are riding your ass and mumbling about how long you take. Hey, idiots: if you play ahead of me, you’re just going to be waiting for the next group! This happens literally almost every time I play the game.
The idea of trying to teach my fiance to play while dealing with this idiocy is more than I can stand. So, I’ve been putting it off.
In the meantime, I’ve been loving archery. I’d recommend it to anyone. The startup costs are about the same as golf. It’s using muscle memory and distance estimation, just like golf. In New England, and probably the rest of the country, there are many active leagues. You go and shoot at 15 targets (like a front 9), head to the clubhouse to get a burger and a soda (no drinking, ever), then head out to shoot the next 15 targets (like a back 9). It takes about the same time as 18 holes of golf. You shoot in groups of 2-4, and there is sometimes a wait at each target. However, the key difference between archery and golf is that people aren’t total assholes about everything! Everybody gets along and enjoys the sport together.
If you want your fiance to continue to be and turn into your wife, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT try to teach her how to play. Get her lessons. My wife took lessons via a local rec center. Then when we played she just had to learn the unwritten etiquette. IMHO, unless you are a teaching pro or a scratch golfer, you have no business trying to teach some one else how to swing a golf club.
Yep. You are correct, of course. It took me a few lessons just do undo the damage my friends did teaching me to play.
My plan would be to get her lessons. Then I would “teach” her to play: Scoring, etiquitte, strategy, what club to use, etc. Lessons pretty much end with how to swing the club, there’s a lot more to it than that which basically anybody can teach.
Of course, the appropriate response is to calmly step on the ball, and force it into the turf until only the top is visible.
She was in the bear costume driving the ball collecting machine.
Ohh, you’re no fun.
Probably something about the fact that everyone could easily puncture everyone else’s lung easily. Sure, you can wallop someone with a golf club, but archery is a sport in which you are learning to aim for center mass. I’d think twice before being a dick on an archery range.
You brought back some fun YMCA summer camp memories. Archery, eh… Maybe if I were less poor.
My recent experiences would seem to indicate that assholes will be assholes, whether you are slowing them up or not.
I spent a golfing weekend with some ladies, and we got hit into on a regular basis.
Now, before everyone tells me we must have been playing slow, let me assure you that we weren’t. I was by far the worst player, but I play by my own rules (a select few: if the ball lands somewhere off the fairway, pick it up and put it back on the fairway, more than two putts and you pick up the ball and walk away)
Most of the ladies played golf very regularly, and a couple of the girls were so good the course marshall kept telling them to hit from the men’s tees.
And yet…several different groups of jackasses nearly hit us over and over again. And not in the “good lord! My ball hit a tree and sailed off in a whole different direction” way, either.
Jerks will be jerks.
Don’t let them chase you away. It is still a fun game.