GenErr

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Certain holes at our course drain really great, others not so. We began our round last week by being told in the pro shop that the course was cart path only. OK, we have a golf membership and we respect the course and try to abide by all the rules.

Hole #12 is a long hole, and me and my two golfing buddies were getting a bit tired, (we're all in our mid to late 70's). After respecting the cart path only ritual for 11 holes, I ventured off the cart path to get to my ball on the other side of the hole - the ground was dry at this point. Lo and behold the pro shop manager happened to be out and "huffed and puffed" over to berate me for leaving the cart path. I said very respectfully "but the ground is dry and we did no harm, and you should have changed it to a 90 degree rule." His reply was "I don't care, I told you cart path only, and that's that" as he stormed off. This is typical behavior for him!

I don't think we were wrong!
 
Negative sir, you dont make the rules, the course does. If you warrant a blue flag for special circumstances, then different story. You knew the situation and you disregarded it.

The manager knows you were wrong, and I'm impressed he let you know.
 
It makes it really hard for the course to enforce the rules if they don't try to enforce the rules.
 
I see both sides to this one.

First, the rules are the rules and I understand the course saying it is cart path only and then getting mad that someone doesn't follow their direction.

But the other side is we see it all too often, where a course sets something like cart path only and gets tied up doing other things and doesn't lift them at the proper time. Recently I went in at the turn and asked if CPO had been lifted and the guy there was clueless as he was chatting with friends. He said "let me check" and radioed someone who said "yeah its fine".

I still wouldn't go against the rules, but would like a person to handle it better such as "We understand it appears dry here, but the rest of the course is not and we don't want others to assume its been lifted"
 
"Cart Path Only" means just that. Just because a golfer pays their green fees doesn't mean they can arbitrarily change the rules for their own benefit.

Too many times when golfers see other golfers skirting the rules, they will also ignore those same rules.

Just hit the ball closer to the cart path.
 
Certain holes at our course drain really great, others not so. We began our round last week by being told in the pro shop that the course was cart path only. OK, we have a golf membership and we respect the course and try to abide by all the rules.

Hole #12 is a long hole, and me and my two golfing buddies were getting a bit tired, (we're all in our mid to late 70's). After respecting the cart path only ritual for 11 holes, I ventured off the cart path to get to my ball on the other side of the hole - the ground was dry at this point. Lo and behold the pro shop manager happened to be out and "huffed and puffed" over to berate me for leaving the cart path. I said very respectfully "but the ground is dry and we did no harm, and you should have changed it to a 90 degree rule." His reply was "I don't care, I told you cart path only, and that's that" as he stormed off. This is typical behavior for him!

I don't think we were wrong!
You were wrong. Cart path only means cart path only. To be fair though, I think that most people dont respect it when its cart path only.
 
CPO could also be to reduce wear and tear in distressed areas. I wish my club would implement this more, or divert traffic in heavily worn areas.

"It's dry enough" is not a valid reason to disregard the course regs. Stay in your lane.
 
If you give exceptions to one, then you have to give to another. If someone else sees you, then they might think they changed the rule. "Hey I saw that guy off the path, so I guess it's ok now." Rules are rules & you should abide by them. With that being said, I would have given you a break & not been so stern about it, especially since you're a bunch of old timers. :ROFLMAO: And BTW, I ignore the cart path rule all the time once I get far enough away from the clubhouse. Bad knees, bad back, I don't want to walk any further than I have to. :eek:
 
Can't just disregard at our convenience or we're part of the problem.

CPO is a constant issue here at some because the courses and paths just weren't designed with that in mind. I'll get in their ear before a round or at the turn about changing it as it dries out or based on what I saw out there, but it's not our job to decide it.
 
CPO could also be to reduce wear and tear in distressed areas. I wish my club would implement this more, or divert traffic in heavily worn areas.

"It's dry enough" is not a valid reason to disregard the course regs. Stay in your lane.
Our course just redid the cart paths and instituted gates(posts) marking where to enter and leave the fairway. These work well to preserve heavily trafficked areas, if you move them occasionally. Its only been a month since they opened the front and all the sod they put along the new paths at the gates are missing or strewn about. Nevermind the people that ignore them and just go where ever they want.
 
Sorry, my man, but you were clearly in the wrong. They didn't say "Cart path only, except if you're old and tired and the ground is dry" or "Cart path only unless, in your judgement, it's ok to disregard it." They said "Cart path only."
 
I would have walked to get the ball, the as you get to the next hole, call the shop and ask if they have lifted it. Most likely will say no, but you'll have your answer. At best you can mentioned you walked across 12 and it felt fine, so if they were thinking about it, maybe they can have a guy drive to a few holes and test some areas. At the end of the day, if they said CPO, I would abide until told otherwise.
 
CPO was just lifted on my home course this weekend. Last weekend I saw a few idiots driving wherever they wanted to even though the signs all said "CART PATH ONLY".
Like others said...you were wrong to leave the cart path....in my opinion.
 
Ya have to agree with the super on this one. It was still CPO and you ignored because you where tired of walking. He could have maybe handled it differently or with more tact but he also got his point across. Pretty simple to follow the rules, call the clubhouse if you think it could be lifted.
 
The course sets the rules for a reason, so despite what you may think, it doesn't give you the right to ignore them
 
I wish we had someone on our course enforcing rules. Our membership respects the cart path only rule, but then all the guests start playing and their driving all over the course. There is never a marshal around.
 
You were fine, i am willing to bet that all of these keyboard tour types have drifted off the path at one point. I see no issue with you driving across the top of a ridge and back. Seriously. I have played hundreds of rounds at my local courses and i know the wet spots just as good if not better than the kid working the counter. Sorry but i just don't see the issue. That being said, if i don't know the course very well i will just aim at the paths the whole round.
 
I guess I was out of line on this one. Maybe it was a bad day for me.
Thanks for the feedback.
Don't feel bad.:D It happens sometimes. We ask questions here and, the good thing about THP is the answers are honest. Some of the reasons why are ones I didn't think of.

Hopefully you didn't get into too much trouble with the course!

I was playing golf one time. It had rained the day before I think and I was on the 18th hole. The course was not restricted for cart travel. I was on the 18th green and there was a low spot that was wet and had standing water. I wasn't thinking and drove my cart right through it... left 2 long, really long streaks across the turf of mud and the cart almost got stuck. After I made it through it was OOPS! So now I try to avoid areas like that like the plague on a course.
 
Don't feel bad.:D It happens sometimes. We ask questions here and, the good thing about THP is the answers are honest. Some of the reasons why are ones I didn't think of.

Hopefully you didn't get into too much trouble with the course!

I was playing golf one time. It had rained the day before I think and I was on the 18th hole. The course was not restricted for cart travel. I was on the 18th green and there was a low spot that was wet and had standing water. I wasn't thinking and drove my cart right through it... left 2 long, really long streaks across the turf of mud and the cart almost got stuck. After I made it through it was OOPS! So now I try to avoid areas like that like the plague on a course.
We went and played Ventana Canyon in Tucson a couple years ago. It had rained pretty good the previous night and that morning, and they told us it was CPO when we checked in. On around hole 6 or 7, my ball was in the rough on the far side of the fairway and I decided I was going to cheat over at least a little ways to shorten my walk to the ball. There was no standing water and the course didn't feel that wet while we were walking on it, so I figured they were just erring on the side of caution. As soon as I got off the cart path I could feel the cart starting to bog down and sink! Luckily I kept my speed up and got right back to the cart path, and didn't try that again for the rest of the day. The only thing worse than getting a cart stuck would be getting a cart stuck when you had been told and knew it was CPO!
 
99.5% of my rounds are walking, but see plenty of carts. One of our courses is notoriously wet and often has CPO days, and unfortunately some people think that it doesn’t apply to them because they’re a regular and they know the course. The challenge here is that someone else might see you cruising up the fairway and think it’s ok for them to do it too... but maybe they’re on the adjacent hole and it’s still soggy up ahead.

In this case, call the pro shop and ask. If it’s still CPO, you’ve got the answer.
 
I won’t get into if you’re right or wrong but I played at a course that was cart path only this weekend. If my ball wasn’t around the cart path, it was a miss by me 😅.
 
Certain holes at our course drain really great, others not so. We began our round last week by being told in the pro shop that the course was cart path only. OK, we have a golf membership and we respect the course and try to abide by all the rules.

Hole #12 is a long hole, and me and my two golfing buddies were getting a bit tired, (we're all in our mid to late 70's). After respecting the cart path only ritual for 11 holes, I ventured off the cart path to get to my ball on the other side of the hole - the ground was dry at this point. Lo and behold the pro shop manager happened to be out and "huffed and puffed" over to berate me for leaving the cart path. I said very respectfully "but the ground is dry and we did no harm, and you should have changed it to a 90 degree rule." His reply was "I don't care, I told you cart path only, and that's that" as he stormed off. This is typical behavior for him!

I don't think we were wrong!
Sorry you were wrong for breaking the Rules!! I don't necessarily disagree that they could have made it 90* rule but its was CPO that day.

I think CPO contributes to slower play. Often times people only bring 1 club and then they are going back to the cart. When this happens 4-10 times a round it will jam things up. considerably.
 
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