Ever have a "fun" round that just beat the fun out of you?

I'm not talking about tournament play or anything too serious, but today I played a round that started out fun but ended up being a miserable experience. For starters, know that one of the main reasons I started playing golf again was to spend time with my old man. He's not as active as he used to be and any time we can get together out on the course should be the highlight of my weekend. That's almost always the case, just not today. He doesn't play nearly as much as I do and he's a much higher handicapper than I am. Still, we manage to have fun every time out. Just not today.

We picked a nice public course near his house for our outing. Being a holiday-ish weekend and nice weather, the place was packed to the gills. This facility has three (and a half) courses and there were at least 250 golfers on it during all of daylight. We arrived early to warm up on the range, but it was closed (crazy on such a busy day). At our first tee, he and I were supposed to be paired with another twosome. Well, that twosome ended up being a foursome (clubhouse error) so we let them play in front of us. Another twosome behind us had the same issue (their paired twosome also became a foursome) so they joined us. Tee times were already crowded but we had to introduce a whole new grouping... c'est la vie. We teed off about 30 minutes late, mainly due to a foursome of ladies two groups in front of us taking more than 20 minutes on the easy par 4 first. No big deal. I stepped up cold and pounded a great drive, straight and actually through the dogleg and off the fairway by a few feet. I GPS'd it at 275 yards... haven't had to worry about hitting through that turn before, but oh well. felt great to do that without warming up . I pitched up for an easy par. This should be a good round

three or four holes later, we're still playing slowly as expected. We're waiting on every hole. As soon as the group in front of us clears the green we're all ready to hit in... and the marshal comes up to us and asks us to pick up pace of play. I counter that we've been waiting all morning and are playing as quickly as the group in front of us allows. He looks back and says "well they're off the green now". We would have already been hitting if he had not ridden up our fairway to complain... *sigh*. Yes sir, we'll pick it up. I hit, and two of the others in the group do, too. My dad is last to hit, and the group behind us decides they've waited long enough and drives into us. one of their balls comes rolling past us. The marshal, of course, is already long gone.

We get through nine and sit on the 10th tee for at least 10 minutes, waiting on the group in front. The one and only beverage cart girl (for all 62 holes, according to her) arrives. We grab some snacks and a couple beers and continue to wait. We will not see her again for the rest of the round. Finally we're able to hit. No sign of the group behind us even with all the waiting, so our pace of play is obviously not the issue. Two holes later another shot into us from the group behind. This time it nearly hit me. It missed me by maybe 3 feet left, in the air. It missed my cart by even less. I haven't even reached my drive yet to hit my second shot and they were driving into us *again*? I was starting to get mad so I walked up, picked up the cheap ball and put it in my pocket. Let him ask me about it if he wants to. Was that the right thing to do? Probably not... but I was not going to put up with this crap. I guess he was used to it because he never said anything to me about it. I'm getting frustrated with my own game, and the group is starting to hit a lot more bad shots... this course doesn't allow for many bad shots. We're all losing balls in the woods and the water. You can feel the frustration level of the foursome rising as a whole. We're trying to keep spirits up and enjoy this outing we all paid good money for and dedicated most of our saturdays to... but we're losing that battle. On the 16th we're standing in the fairway waiting on the group in front to clear the green and *another* ball flies in, this time behind us by a few yards and into a bunker. I look at one of the guys playing with us and he just says "I dunno, man". I leave it there this time but if I see that marshal again...

After 18 we all shook hands and got the hell off that course. I was 45 on the front which for me is outstanding... 57 on the back. I am mostly to blame of course but I can't help feeling like the circumstances just killed any chance I had at shooting one of my lowest scores ever. I definitely won't be visiting there again on a weekend any time soon.

Sorry for the bad day, nothing worse then a bad day on the course. Sounds like the ranger needs some additional training and the course needs to push slower groups forward to pickup pace of play

I agree.

My ex brother in law used to hit the ball back to the people that hit into him.

Sometimes he would stomp their ball flat in the fairway.< I didn't like this because it was damage to the course.



On weekends and holidays a lot of idiots and first time players show up.

Jackal

Sorry for the bad experience. Getting hit into is never fun man, I don't blame you for picking the ball up

I hate Firewheel. Won't play there again unless I have to for the reasons you mentions above. They push out as many players as possible onto that course and it's mass confusion. It's a roll of the dice with many public courses here on the weekends.

That is starting to become the norm here as well. Tee times every 4 minutes so you get to the point you have 6 carts sitting on one tee box.I understand courses want to make $$, but it makes for some ridiculously long rounds

I would have picked the ball up too and have in the past.

this just sucks. Sorry others ruined your round/day with your dad. Don't really know what to say other than people just suck sometimes. Hope your next round goes much better.

What you just described is commonplace at all the cheaper courses here all summer. 5.5-6 hour rounds are simply unavoidable and by the end of it nobody is having fun.

This kind of thing simply will not stop unless courses stop getting greedy and put the golfer experience first, and profits second. Most golfers would gladly pay an extra 10 bucks/round if they'd spread the tee times a bit more as well.

Ugh...dude that sounds awful. I've been there on crowded weekends...makes you want to punch something haha.

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That sounds like a tough round. I have never understood why some groups will consistently hit into the group ahead. 1 time is a mistake and happens sometimes, twice starts becoming an issue.

I pick up the balls on the 2nd time I am hit into. So far no one has ever said a thing. I also have no problem with calling the clubhouse to complain about being hit into or a course marshal that doesn't know what he/she is doing. Slow play is a problem for everyone and it doesn't help matters when the course is forcing tee times closer together.

I hate being hit in to as well all do and I can usually put that out of my head as we play. The problem that arises for me during these rounds is rhythm. You get into a groove making good swings/shots and then you have to wait. I feel your pain, I played a 5 hour round on Friday and we were slowed down by the collegiate team playing from the tips two groups ahead of us. They were walking a course that is extremely hilly and very long. I'm all for walking but this course is too insane to walk.


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I have a similar course that we used to play a lot. Not too many people hitting into others, but the pace of play is really bad and a lot of that is due to the course forcing groups out there. Just look at the bright side, it was an extra two hours or so that you got to spend with your pops.