Pardon Me: Have you seen my ball? An interesting interaction

Junkyard

Will Travel for Golf
Albatross 2024 Club
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So we had quite possibly the most bizarre interaction this morning with another golfer that I have ever experienced. A picture is necessary to understand what happened:
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My group had hit our tee shots on 5 and had walked down the hill, arrived at and identified each of our balls. Dave at position A3 had taken his practice swings and was ready to hit his approach when golfer from 4 tee comes walking across our fairway pushing his golf cart. The dotted line is his walking path. As you can see, he walked past A1 (John), X (his ball) and came over to mine at A2 before continuing on to Dave's ball at A3. As he approached me, I said "this is my ball" John says "there's two balls down at the bottom, one must be yours". He says "what's going on here, one of you must have...." and walks straight towards Dave, who has addressed the ball and is waiting to hit. Dave said "this is my ball" to which guy replies "well this is ridiculous". John again says "there's two balls down there - one is mine, the other must be yours". The entire time both Dave and I are ready to hit our shots, and this guy continues to push his cart around our fairway blocking our path to the green. At this point I said to him "what ball are you playing?" to which his response was silence.
Finally, he decides to go back to ball X, which lo and behold turned out to be his. Remember, he's in OUR fairway and two of us are ready to hit. He pulls out his rangefinder, shoots the flag, pulls a club, takes a practice swing followed by his actual swing and watches the entire flight of the ball. He puts the club back in the bag, and slowly pushes his cart back to his own fairway. The worst part? We could tell by his second shot that he was not a hacker, but apparently we were inconveniencing him since we were trying to play the hole that he happened to waywardly hit his drive into the fairway of.:banghead:

Has anything similar ever happened to you? What would you have done or said in this situation? If I happen to hit my ball into a fairway that someone else is using, I wait until they clear before approaching unless they motion otherwise. This guy just went about it like we weren't even there.
 
Ugh, some people!

Similar story from this year:

Hit my tee shot a little right into the rough on a short part 4, ball was sitting up and I could see the ball off the tee box. The 10th hole parallels the 9th (I'm on 9), it was path only on 9 that day because it is at a low point on the course and holds water longer than the rest of the course. I park my cart, grab a few clubs and start walking to my ball. A cart comes over the mounds that divide 9 and 10 and the guy gets out, looks at the ball, grabs a club, looks at me and then hits it...shouts "that was a Wilson 2"...I'll remind you I could see my ball the whole way from the tee box so I knew he just hit my ball...some people just suck. Now I had to walk all the way back to my cart to get another ball.
 
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I ignore the guy as he lasers and hit the ball to the green. I give a courtesy heads up and take my shot.
 
Oh yes, and the worst is the guy picked mine up and continued to hit his. The 3 of watched him pick it up and he still tried to deny it, after a bit of back and forth he decided it was best to say he did and he took it out of bag. :mad: His excuse was he didn't see us coming down the fairway so he figured it was a wayward ball, never mind the other 3 balls that where within a ten yard radius.
 
Not exactly. But a month or so ago, I had a woman run across our fairway as I was getting ready to hit (literally had started my backswing) and scream 'is that a RED BALL?!!!'. Of course it was, because my preferred ball this year is the red Callaway super soft matte finish. 'Yes' I said calmly.... 'I'm playing a red ball today'. She stood there as if she really thought, not only was I playing someone else's ball, but I picked the most conspicuous ball on earth possible to steal. She said again 'I'm playing a red ball'. I said 'I'll keep an eye out for it'. She did not leave. I finally had to say 'Maam, I promise you, this is the same red ball I've been playing all morning, but if I see another one, I'll let you know...'. She finally left but I could see her angrily talking to her friend and waving her arms as if she had suffered some great affront. Crazy, cause, you know - there's only that one red ball they sell just to her... :rolleyes:

I made up my mind, if I did find her ball, that baby was going in the bag :cool:
 
At least he didnt pick up one of your balls and then lie about it. That seems to be the trend lately
 
lol had a similar thing happen last month. We just told his friend whatever then 5 holes later he realized maybe it wasn't his and left it in the middle of the fairway for us.
 
For sure, people have gone to my ball and picked it up or even played it, when theirs was no where near. But if skme walked in front of me and the group, we wouldn't be sitting there silently when they hit. I think there would be an early MAAAASSHHEED POTAAATTOOOS during his swing.
 
cognitive dissonance. I have played with people where we each hit a ball into a a simlar area and one ball is clearly in a better position than the other. Of course they can't accept the situation if their ball is the one in the worse situation. I always say, my ball is marked, do you want to check it? They look at my ball like they are trying to will it to change into their ball. Even after we hit they keep looking back at where my ball was.
 
You should feel honored that he even acknowledged your presence!! You should know it’s HIS world and he’s allowing you to be apart of it. So lucky you are!
 
Crazy he would've walk right past his and even when told twice still proceeded as he did. Nothing surprises me anymore, ugh:confused:
Those obvious ball thieves ... :mad::beat-up::mad:
Saw one almost get his a$$ beat TWICE for the same ball a couple years ago. Again a ball we never lost sight of, right in the middle of the fairway. Yes it was about 50 yards past where the the rest of us were playing from because my cartner 'abuses' us like that all the time (aka 6'4", strong like bull, 15 younger). We watch the guy drive out into our fairway and grab my cartner's ball in plain sight of all 4 of us ... while we're yelling to leave it. I drive over to his group and my cartner confronts him, guy of course denies it. I thought for a second this might be it ... I'm about to witness and have to testify about a serious assault. You could tell the guy the thief was sharing a cart with was uncomfortable. Also a big physical guy unlike the thief. Well my cartner calmly picks up the other big guy's Pro-V stating 'better than getting cops involved or being kicked off the course' upon which the other big guy blows a gasket ... at his little buddy. Told him to give my cartner his effing ball back or HE was going to kick his a$$.
 
I ignore the guy as he lasers and hit the ball to the green. I give a courtesy heads up and take my shot.

Same here. If he's not in my way, let's play ready golf! And I also don't care what he hears!
 
I’ve had some funny encounters like this that have had all of these elements (but not all at once, so you win the lotto there). Some people don’t get it, and that’s fine I guess
 
Freaking Richards man. They really make you wonder what goes on in their heads.
 
So wait....they're PUSHING the cart all about the fairway, all the while?? :unsure:
That's a lot of beer.
 
Some people just don’t get it. Good patience on the part of your group.
 
I have had some interesting encounters, but the best one recently was at a course when a tree lined rough separates two holes, both par 4s I think. Anyway, I drive my ball and it rolls right about 3 paces off the fairway and to the rough. Guy (total bro) blows his tee shot was right, into the same rough area. We end up there at the same place about the same time.

I wait to my ball with my 7i, and he rises over to be and said it’s his. I tell him it’s not, so to please move. He says he is playing a Bridgestone and I say “cool, me too. But this one is mine.” He says he is sure it is, to which I say “look at the f’ball, unless you are BigDill, like that ball says, it’s not your f’in golf ball.” He walked away but was a bit hot. I stuck my 7i on the green, and gave him a club twirl.

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I see similar antics most practice days.

Our short game practice area far side is at 2nd hole green, and 3rd hole tee box. The sg area is about 20 yards from those two holes. Where we hit most of our practice balls from, is next to the parking lot any wheres from 80, to 160 yards to holes 2, and 3.

Consistently, for what ever reasons, golfers moving from hole 2 to hole 3 will make a mad dash in their cart across the middle of the sg area to the parking lot. Get something out of their car, and return to the #3 tee box.

The assumption is that they are sneaking food/beverages on to the course.

Several times after taking my stance, making my swing, when looking up at my ball flight, there will be a golfer heading for his car. I've never hit any of these golfers, but there have been a few close calls. I figure it's just a matter of time.
 
people in my fairway are now targets......just sayin'. I you have to go to another fairway other than the hole you are playing.....you do not have honors. "nuff said"
 
That is a bizarre scenario. Good chance that person was an only child!
 
I've never had a direct face to face interaction like that, but when the snowbirds are here during the winter, they'll steal any ball that doesn't have somebody standing directly over it holding a club in their hand. If you hit a ball out of your line of sight, you'd better get to it quickly or it will be gone by the time you get there.

As to the situation in the OP - my ball is clearly and distinctively marked, so there's never a doubt which ball is mine - and if I land in somebody else's fairway, they have the honors unless they tell me to go ahead and hit first.
 
playing partner, let's call him Container Pool Guy, hits a great shot up to the blind 9th green. looks like it's on, we watch some idiot run up from the adjacent 3rd tee and grab a ball and run off. we get up to the green, no ball!

we ask the idiot, hey did you take it? he says idk, i think it was mine. ....:banghead: Container Pool Guy is not happy at all (ProV1 i believe) and is continuing to grill idiot guy, at which point idiot guy pulls out a range ball "is this yours?"

:banghead::wtf:
 
My ProV is always "mistaken" for their Maxfli 4 with two scuff marks. And my ball is white. Yours is YELLOW.
 
Found ball story, not really related to this post, but ...
I was playing a match years ago when my opponent hit his ball into the trees. We all went trudging in to help find it. I located a ball and yelled to my opponent, "what kind of ball are you playing?" His response "what did you find?" LOL
 
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