DonW

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do you touch another players ball?

Was hesitant to post with this with the other threads concerning poor etiquette but it is really bugging me.

Friday playing in couples league my partner in scramble drives his ball from ninth tee right next to the cart path separating holes 9 and 10, players from 10 then approach his ball looking for their drive (their ball appears to be laying in the middle of ninth fairway in plain sight), one gets out of cart IDs ball as a Callaway (we could hear him clearly say this to partners still in cart) and turn back to cart, some conversation took place amongst them we could not hear and returns to the ball and picks it up. At this point still standing on ninth tee I blurt out "THAT IS NOT YOUR BALL" ( I said it too loud and with attitude), he than turns back to replace the ball while everyone else in the group starts yelling comments aimed at us which we could not hear clearly but left no doubt they thought we were total jerks. As we approach they give up looking for their ball and each drop one right behind my partners ball and hit toward the tenth green, my partner then moves his ball for relief from the cart path at which point they all start giving him crap about moving his ball/improper play, I asked them to please just continue on with their play and leave. With out missing a beat nor saying anything back to them my partner drops his second shot 10 yards short of the ninth green (which is a par five) this shuts them up and the climb into their carts and start off until they see I'm also going to play from the same location. They then stop and turn back and tell me what an (insert several derogatory comments here that should not be typed on a PG rated sight) I am, thinking this going to get really ugly and wanting to remove myself from the situation I play a fairway as quickly as I can and never look at them again thankfully my ball lands right next to my partners. At this point they ride off, my wife said they were all elbowing one another ready to give us some more crap but after seeing our shots they just drove off with out any further comments. They were younger but clearly old enough to know proper course etiquette and I suspect they all had more than their fair share of alcohol in their system.

I immediately regretted yelling out to them that it was "not their ball" but it was obvious his intent was to keep my partners ball which I have had happen one too many times to my self and clearly hearing him ID the ball (my partner had a very clear mark on his ball to identify it as his, you couldn't miss it) before he picked it up there was no reason for him to pick it up at all much less start walking away with it. I am the type to speak up and call someone out when they do something inappropriate and it bothers me if I don't speak up. I just feel like this was one of those no win situations. At what point do you shut up and just let someone take your ball? :confused2:
 
I wouldn't shut up about it and they had no right to badmouth any of you. I don't know what their problem was. It was your partner's ball so they have no right. Just sounds like a bunch of a-holes to me.

Also, if I couldn't ID a ball just by looking at it, I would pick it up and see what it is and immediately place it back where it was.

I don't touch other guys' balls unless I have to.
 
I would say don't ever let someone take your ball. Especally if you are sure it is your ball and you see them do it. Golf balls are expensive...if I'm gonna lose one I want to at least get to see the splash.
 
I once had someone take my ball from the middle of the fairway which was nowhere near the fairway they were playing. The guys were in our league so I couldn't say anything to them. I find their balls which was in the rough and not even the same brand of ball I was playing. It pisses me off when people pick up my ball to look, but no sense in fighting with them about it.

In your case i would have done the same thing though and yelled it wasn't their ball.
 
I try not to ever touch my golf buddies balls :D

I see this a lot at muni's, group comes over from another fairway and picks up a ball they think is theirs then throw it back down when it's not... very annoying. Years ago I was playing a short course and drove a par 4 with a group on the green, the ball was on the front of the green and never threatened to hit anyone. As I approached a guy walks out of his way towards my ball and I quickly say "sorry about that, didn't think I could reach the green from the tee". He goes to pick it up and I tell him, "please don't touch that, IT'S MY BALL, I just drove the green!!" He pauses... looks right at me and knocks it off the green about 5 feet with his putter. I was pissed!! I repeated at this point in a huffy tone, "why the **** did you just knock my ball off the green when I told you twice it was my ball". He said "You're on the wrong hole, you hit the tee shot here from #2 tee". I told him then I was on #7 and I've been right behind them since we teed off. I tried to stay calm about it, but I was livid because this was my first realistic eagle opportunity. I had a few words for the guy as he walked off the green about what he had done. He was sarcastically apologetic after the fact, so I left him with this thought, "golf is hard enough on it's own, much less dealing with a-holes who don't listen or respect the other players on the course".

All that said, I think I walked away learning more than he did that day, it is just a game and I try not to sweat the small stuff anymore. I am not getting paid to play or playing in tournaments, I am out there to have fun. I find more players that know the rules(for the most part) and respect the game than I find those that don't. Can't let the handful out there ruin my experience.
 
I get pretty annoyed if someone picks my ball up on the golf course. I won't be confrontational but I'll ask them to show it to me.
 
So if you wait until you are in talking range and the guy has your partners ball, what then? It could get ugly fast. The guy knew it was not his ball and should have left it alone. I have a question, you say you were Yelling from the tee and they heard you, this means you have a great set of lungs or your partner didn't hit it too far :confused2: JUST KIDDING..you handled it correctly and they just showed their immaturity. It burns me when I know someone has taken my ball not because of the price but the principal. it's not like it dropped from the heavens like manna.
 
So if you wait until you are in talking range and the guy has your partners ball, what then? It could get ugly fast..
That's why it pays to mark your golf ball so you can say "That a Nike One Tour with a THP logo on it?" in that situation
 
I don't touch other golfers balls. I mark my balls very specifically and it is very rare that I am unable to identify them from any angle.
 
I never pick up a ball and keep it unless its in the woods.
 
do you touch another players ball?

Was hesitant to post with this with the other threads concerning poor etiquette but it is really bugging me.

Friday playing in couples league my partner in scramble drives his ball from ninth tee right next to the cart path separating holes 9 and 10, players from 10 then approach his ball looking for their drive (their ball appears to be laying in the middle of ninth fairway in plain sight), one gets out of cart IDs ball as a Callaway (we could hear him clearly say this to partners still in cart) and turn back to cart, some conversation took place amongst them we could not hear and returns to the ball and picks it up. At this point still standing on ninth tee I blurt out "THAT IS NOT YOUR BALL" ( I said it too loud and with attitude), he than turns back to replace the ball while everyone else in the group starts yelling comments aimed at us which we could not hear clearly but left no doubt they thought we were total jerks. As we approach they give up looking for their ball and each drop one right behind my partners ball and hit toward the tenth green, my partner then moves his ball for relief from the cart path at which point they all start giving him crap about moving his ball/improper play, I asked them to please just continue on with their play and leave. With out missing a beat nor saying anything back to them my partner drops his second shot 10 yards short of the ninth green (which is a par five) this shuts them up and the climb into their carts and start off until they see I'm also going to play from the same location. They then stop and turn back and tell me what an (insert several derogatory comments here that should not be typed on a PG rated sight) I am, thinking this going to get really ugly and wanting to remove myself from the situation I play a fairway as quickly as I can and never look at them again thankfully my ball lands right next to my partners. At this point they ride off, my wife said they were all elbowing one another ready to give us some more crap but after seeing our shots they just drove off with out any further comments. They were younger but clearly old enough to know proper course etiquette and I suspect they all had more than their fair share of alcohol in their system.

I immediately regretted yelling out to them that it was "not their ball" but it was obvious his intent was to keep my partners ball which I have had happen one too many times to my self and clearly hearing him ID the ball (my partner had a very clear mark on his ball to identify it as his, you couldn't miss it) before he picked it up there was no reason for him to pick it up at all much less start walking away with it. I am the type to speak up and call someone out when they do something inappropriate and it bothers me if I don't speak up. I just feel like this was one of those no win situations. At what point do you shut up and just let someone take your ball? :confused2:

I am going to go with never. You were in the right, completely. You have nothing to feel bad about, they were basically going to steal your partners ball, and it seems it would be obvious that it belongs to the people teeing off on the hole coming from the opposite direction. Good for you for saying something. JMO
 
One of my biggest pet peeves is a lot of the folks here in Southish/Centralish Florida are what I like to call "ball collectors." If your tee shot is off left/right, you have to keep an eye on it as someone will be picking them up. Played a round last week, I hit it right but it was clearly up, in between the hole I was on, and the adjacent fairway. One of the guys I was playing with hit to nearly the same spot. We see a couple coming up the opposite fairway near our balls, then go out to theirs. We get to where out balls should be, nowhere to be found, and the two are long gone up to the green. Had to drop and hit, and was ticked that they did that. If they werent 80+ years old, I would have yelled, but just decided they could have the ball and let it go.
 
I never pick up a ball and keep it unless its in the woods.

Agreed.

Just this past Sunday one of my playing partners hit into a greenside bunker. When we got to it there were 2 balls in the bunker, one his and another "mystery" ball. Luckily we could see the markings on both and knew which one was his. This hole is all by itself with no adjoining fairways so there was no way someone had hit it there recently. We still left it there.
 
You did the correct thing. I never pick a ball up that isnt mine unless its in the woods or in a pond. As a matter of fact I have seen the same ball in the same spot for several hours due to others not picking it up. Played two rounds a few weeks back and a ball was just off the back of a green in plain site but no one picked it up. I still didnt mess with it after the second round. You just never know.
 
I only pick up stray balls if I fish them out of a hazard while looking for my own. I don't touch a ball which has any chance at all of belonging to another player on the course, even if I'm fairly certain that it doesn't.

I hate hitting a tee shot into the rough between adjacent fairways when I see the group on the other hole already heading toward that area. You just know that if they aren't fairly experienced golfers that your ball is going to be "lost" when you get there. I've marked my ball with a personal identification mark for 25 years, but even that doesn't seem to stop some people. This year I bought a "Tin Cup" to stencil a shark on each ball. so far I've been able to convince any light-fingered golfer to relinquish the shark back to me. It's pretty hard for anyone to dream up a plausible reason for having a ball in his pocket with the same brand, number and the blue shark on it. :stickbeat:
 
You did the correct thing. I never pick a ball up that isnt mine unless its in the woods or in a pond. As a matter of fact I have seen the same ball in the same spot for several hours due to others not picking it up. Played two rounds a few weeks back and a ball was just off the back of a green in plain site but no one picked it up. I still didnt mess with it after the second round. You just never know.

Similar thing happened yesterday, hit a ball onto the opposite fairway, when we finally got around to that hole (3 holes later), it was still there. At least 5 groups must have passed by it, and not a single person picked it up.
 
I never pick up a ball and keep it unless its in the woods.

Spot on. I never take a ball from another fairway either
 
If the ball isn't mine I don't touch it. Period. Balls aren't that expensive to where I need to pick up others balls for my collection. And, you never know when it's from a a golfer on the side hole.
 
I'll only pick up a ball if I know it is lost. If I find one with dried mud spots on it, it's probably been there a while. Or on a hole that is away from the others on the course. Most of the time I leave them because usually, you never know for sure. Now when playing a links style course, where the holes follow one another and don't backtrack, if you find a ball, it's lost.

If I know they are picking up my ball I'll let people know. I mark mine so it's pretty obvious.
 
Times to touch another player's ball:

BALL IN PLAY
conceding a putt;
marking a partner's ball on the green when he/she is raking a bunker;

BALL OUT OF PLAY such as:
fishing a ball out of a water hazard;
retrieving a ball from out of bounds;
in a scramble when the ball in question is not going to be used.
 
At what point do you shut up and just let someone take your ball? Never!

I yell "Dont touch that ball"! Yeah, I get some dirty looks too. I'm just not gonna give up balls and strokes because some ??? doesn't know the game. I still pick up quite a few myself but never if there is a chance it might be a ball in play.
 
I bet they think twice about picking up a ball that isn't theirs in the future.

There is a reason a wayward ball is sitting in your fairway, just leave it alone. Point it out to someone looking for it and be on your way.
 
Just to cover some things brought up by others, my partner hit a nice long drive other than being in the left rough it was perfect as the left side gave a better angle to come into the green. And yes I do have a good voice to be heard long distance, as a former teacher I could definitely get students to sit up and listen when needed. It really drives me crazy how often people pick up my ball, if they throw it back down rather then pocket it how am I to know what the lie was like before they moved it.
 
I don't see a issue with keeping someone from picking up a ball that was not theirs. Just don't lower yourself down to the level of the course trolls.
 
I never let people take my ball. I will always say something. Theres always that guy that will drive into your fairway looking for his ball and try to take yours after you just split the fairway. I have had several people deny that they took my ball and will try to say that my initials aren't on it, even though I can see it in their hand.
 
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