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Looking for strangers' golf balls

Esox

Esox

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When paired with someone you don't know, do you help them look for their errant shots? Is it a requirement as a courteous playing partner? If so, how hard do you look? What if they hit A LOT of errant shots? Do you expect help looking for your own errant shots from someone you don't know?

An all question thread. Almost.

Kevin
 
If my ball is near where they lost their ball - I'll help look, but I won't cross the fairway to look. If I notice they are losing a lot, I'll pay more attention to where they hit. If they are looking on every hole and we're falling behind, I will say we need to play a bit faster and perhaps they should drop one. I don't expect anyone to help me look for my own ball, but may ask if they saw where it went.
 
When paired with someone you don't know, do you help them look for their errant shots?

Yes, but after I am done with my own tasks.

Is it a requirement as a courteous playing partner?

As a courteous playing partner: Yes. As a playing partner: No.

If so, how hard do you look?

No harder than they do.

What if they hit A LOT of errant shots?

The search effort will become less and less enthusiastic!

Do you expect help looking for your own errant shots from someone you don't know?

No.
 
This is an "it depends" answer. :smile:

I'm almost always walking so if the other golfer is in a cart, I'm usually so far behind it doesn't make sense for me to go over, especially if I'm on the other side of the fairway. If the other golfer's walking, I'll definitely go help. And I do try my best to find it. Sometimes we have a difference of opinion of the spot it was lost, but it's not a problem (usually) since s/he knows I'm just trying to help. And finally, I will help as often as needed.

An almost all-answer reply. Right?
 
I usually help them look unless they are spraying them a lot. It also depends which side of the fairway I am on.
 
Sure I'll help them, especially if it's a busy day, and I know where mine is. It's a good opportunity to help them out, get to know them, and also find the treasures that lurk in the woods (golf balls, clubs, poison ivy, animals, etc)

If they help me find an errant shot, I try to show my appreciation; if not, no biggie, I'm pretty well practiced at finding my errant shots in the woods. :D
 
what Diane said...and it depends on how strange the stranger is...
 
Have you ever noticed that when your helping somebody find their ball they always go 20 yards past where you saw it go in?
 
TheGasman said:
Have you ever noticed that when your helping somebody find their ball they always go 20 yards past where you saw it go in?
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And you don't? :laughing:
 
A friend gave me a great tip for looking for balls: start where you think it is and walk back towards where you hit it.

Sadly, it almost always works.
 
It's an illusion. Ever hit the ball on the green and think you got a 3 footer just to find out 15 is more like it
 
As a walker, I'll help someone look if I don't have to walk clear across the hole to do it.

I generally watch where people hit because 90% of the players I get teamed up with think they hit it 50 yards farther than they actually do and I really don't feel like waiting in the hot sun for them to finish looking where their ego thinks they hit their ball.

When they begin searching, I'll tell them where I think their ball is and then I'll just continue on. If I happen to be walking on the same side of the fairway, I'll ask what kind of ball they're playing and then I'll often walk over to where I saw the ball go to see if I can find it.

And yes, I sometimes get a kick out finding their ball fifty or sixty yards farther back from where they're looking.

If the guy is cool, I'll commiserate with him in regard to the distance and offer him some excuses like "the rough really grabs the ball" or something like that. If, on the other hand, the guy is a real tool, then I'll just smile to myself and keep walking as he loudly tries to convince himself and whoever else is within shouting distance that this couldn't possibly be his tee shot.



-JP
 
JPsuff said:
If the guy is cool, I'll commiserate with him in regard to the distance and offer him some excuses like "the rough really grabs the ball" or something like that. If, on the other hand, the guy is a real tool, then I'll just smile to myself and keep walking as he loudly tries to convince himself and whoever else is within shouting distance that this couldn't possibly be his tee shot.



-JP
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See im different there. If the guy is a real tool I look extra hard where I saw it go in just to bruise his ego.
 
JPsuff said:
As a walker, I'll help someone look if I don't have to walk clear across the hole to do it.

I generally watch where people hit because 90% of the players I get teamed up with think they hit it 50 yards farther than they actually do and I really don't feel like waiting in the hot sun for them to finish looking where their ego thinks they hit their ball.

When they begin searching, I'll tell them where I think their ball is and then I'll just continue on. If I happen to be walking on the same side of the fairway, I'll ask what kind of ball they're playing and then I'll often walk over to where I saw the ball go to see if I can find it.

And yes, I sometimes get a kick out finding their ball fifty or sixty yards farther back from where they're looking.

If the guy is cool, I'll commiserate with him in regard to the distance and offer him some excuses like "the rough really grabs the ball" or something like that. If, on the other hand, the guy is a real tool, then I'll just smile to myself and keep walking as he loudly tries to convince himself and whoever else is within shouting distance that this couldn't possibly be his tee shot.



-JP
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You beat me to it. I was going to say that if I am going to help them look, I always walk 20 or 30 yards back toward the tee from where they are searching and I normally find it right there.
 
Esox said:
When paired with someone you don't know, do you help them look for their errant shots? Is it a requirement as a courteous playing partner? If so, how hard do you look? What if they hit A LOT of errant shots? Do you expect help looking for your own errant shots from someone you don't know?

An all question thread. Almost.

Kevin
Click to expand...

Yes I do. I will usually go to my ball first and play, then go help him look. That way sometimes he will find it on his own and I've just saved a little time.

I don't really care if I get help from a stranger when I'm looking for my ball... It's nice, but it won't ruin my day if he doesn't help me. I really don't generally spend much time looking anyway, and I've usually played a provisional ball, so a minute or so then I just play the second ball.
 
I usually walk so if the path their lost ball took is along the same path as mine, I will help them. If not, then I will find mine first, and maybe even take my next shot if they are still looking. Ready golf means just that.

Since I pretty much have my club distances dialed in, I just let my GPS tell me when I am in the general area of where my lost ball might be. Their's too, if they have the correct yardage to work with.
 
v3.0 said:
When paired with someone you don't know, do you help them look for their errant shots?

Yes, but after I am done with my own tasks.

Is it a requirement as a courteous playing partner?

As a courteous playing partner: Yes. As a playing partner: No.

If so, how hard do you look?

No harder than they do.

What if they hit A LOT of errant shots?

The search effort will become less and less enthusiastic!

Do you expect help looking for your own errant shots from someone you don't know?

No.
Click to expand...

+1...Could not have said it any better.
 
If I spend half the day looking for other peoples balls I just usually start sucking. It gets my tempo so off that I forget about my shot. So usually I'll play my shot then help them look if its becoming habit forming. If its the occassional bad shot I'll spend as long as they do to help them out. We all hit bad shots so I know when I hit one I would love a little extra help. I really feel bad having people help me look so I'm usually just trying to get them to go ahead and hit a ball so I don't affect their game but most of the guys I play with won't go until you either find it or end up dropping. I guess I have some nice playing partners.
 
It sounds like most here are on the same page. Help some here and there, but you can't devote yourself to helping someone you don't know. I try to do the same thing, but I play mostly with my wife and daughter and often end up with a single in my cart as there is no walking where we play. Being in the same cart I sometimes feel locked in to helping, but many times will drop them off, hit my ball, then go back for a quick look. As we have been paired with the same people on a number of occasions and have become friends, I spend more time looking for the errant shots of those players.

I don't feel it should be an expected action beyond some minor common courtesy. My buddy and I played last week with a couple of nice guys that could not keep the ball in play. We helped early in the round, but then gradually stopped helping. They were also slow players, lots of practice swings and chatting when they should have been addressing the ball and hitting.

It was a frustrating day.

Kevin
 
We/I will help look for lost golf balls, but no harder than I look for the ones I hit astray. When riding in a cart, going to help look is usually not too big of an issue. I usually don't look more than a minute or two, so that's all I'll spend on theirs. If it gets to being on a lot of shots, some of the time they just have to do it on their own.

It's nice if they help me look for mine, but I don't care if they do. I suppose that if they never helped me look it might affect how often and how hard I'll help them look for theirs.
 
The most annoying thing with ball-searches is when I am done searching for my ball, for example one that went waaaay into the woods, and want to drop, or re-hit, or whatever, but I can't get the well-meaning helpers to abandon the "not-a-chance" search!! I have come up with some great lines for that situation, such as "Hey, search for your own ****ing ball!" and "If I had known you guys were like this, I would have hit it in the fairway!", but I haven't used them yet!
 
Gasman has been in my head lately - yesterday at Trader Joe's when I bought turkey bacon and today when I was searching for my ball in leaves. I could hear him asking why I was searching there when my ball was 20 feet back. So I went back and of course - my ball was 20 feet ahead. Get out of my head Gasman!
 
Diane said:
Gasman has been in my head lately - yesterday at Trader Joe's when I bought turkey bacon and today when I was searching for my ball in leaves. I could hear him asking why I was searching there when my ball was 20 feet back. So I went back and of course - my ball was 20 feet ahead. Get out of my head Gasman!
Click to expand...

Sorry, once im in there, there is no getting me out.
 
TheGasman said:
Sorry, once im in there, there is no getting me out.
Click to expand...

As long as it's just you - I can deal with it. Hopefully, no one else will get in there.
 
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