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

I have had on multiple occasions missed my fairway. Sometimes through, lately a little right, previously to the left.

Yeah... I'm that clueless dude at times wandering into other fairways making some idle chit chat.
 
As you are a hole ahead....I'd make sure I was very deliberate in my play from that time forward....making sure knucklehead behind realized he was the reason.
 
I had two different people pick up my ball on my hole this year when they were playing from another hole. Fortunately both times I had my ball marked in magic marker so I wasn't relying on brand, model and number. In one case it was obvious these people weren't serious golfers. I told them they really shouldn't pick up balls that weren't theirs unless there was nobody around at all. The other guy I have no idea what was going through his head.
 
I agree with the snowbird's snaking balls, pretty funny really. They seem to move as a pack and no ball is safe unless you are standing over it and then they may still come hovering over to take a look. One of the reasons for the 5 hr weekend rounds, no ready golf and packs of old folks looking for balls..it could be seeing where the ball went is a team effort and no one is really sure.
 
I agree with the snowbird's snaking balls, pretty funny really. They seem to move as a pack and no ball is safe unless you are standing over it and then they may still come hovering over to take a look. One of the reasons for the 5 hr weekend rounds, no ready golf and packs of old folks looking for balls..it could be seeing where the ball went is a team effort and no one is really sure.
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I was curious what happened on the next hole. Based on the OP this guy was in a group behind you, possibly with a group in between. He obviously slowed down your group. I'm imagining his group waiting and this guy blaming your group for the pace of play, instead of taking responsibility for causing the problem.

But who knows what is going on in this guy's life. Sometimes people aren't themselves because of what's going on. From your description of what happened it seems clear this guy was NOT focused on what was going on around him. Whether that's his natural state or a severe departure, who knows? I try to at least be open to that possibility and not judge the guy too harshly.
 
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.

It was nice to meet you considering the circumstances??

Actually the number of people that would call me a Richard that have met me is very low. I think? 🤔

I’d expect drunk, stupid, and a whole lot of other things before I’d pick up a ball. I don’t even pick up a lost ball if there is even .1% chance of someone looking for it.
 
I've had almost zero issues with ball hawkers at any of the nice courses around here.
But the second you play a cheap muni like Newlands, Guilford or Surrey its absolute open season on all golf balls. Your ball isn't even safe on your own green...its insane.
 
Only had a couple of weird things. The first one is on me. Once I hit a ball from a tee and went over the hill into a blind area. It was a Top Flite with my initials in magic marker. I mark all my balls that way. I checked the ball and saw my initials so I hit it back into my fairway with a safety. A guy off in the distance asked if we saw his ball as he hit in the same area. My buddy and I did not see it.

When I got ready to hit my next shot I kept noticing the initials looked odd. I picked the ball up and looked closely at it and the initials looked just a tad different than I normally write mine. To this day, I think it was the other guy's ball, but was initialed so close. I felt bad about it, but he was long gone. What are the odds that the same Brand ball with almost identical initials as mine? Needless to say, I pay a bit more attention now.

The second story. A buddy and I hit off the tee on the 1rst hole. Both of us land in a decent place for our next shot over the pond. My buddy hits his ball and it goes way left and lands near a facing tee box, yet is was in the general area and was perfectly playable for his 3rd shot. A guy walks over and picks up my buddy's ball and we are both looking on just bewildered!
 
I’ve resorted to playing yellow call away triple track balls with 6 purple dots because I play at courses where people are always scooping balls.
 
I was curious what happened on the next hole. Based on the OP this guy was in a group behind you, possibly with a group in between. He obviously slowed down your group. I'm imagining his group waiting and this guy blaming your group for the pace of play, instead of taking responsibility for causing the problem.

But who knows what is going on in this guy's life. Sometimes people aren't themselves because of what's going on. From your description of what happened it seems clear this guy was NOT focused on what was going on around him. Whether that's his natural state or a severe departure, who knows? I try to at least be open to that possibility and not judge the guy too harshly.
I agree and was to post something similar. This just sounds far too strange a thing to be a person just being a Richard. I have to think something esle going on here. This could be anything from the guy being a mute to simply having social anxiety situation to being embarrassed to some type of other malfunction or about a dozen other things i dont even know about and anything in between. Something just not normal in that entire story. It sounds too out of the norm for even being a Richard. has to be something going on there.
 
I agree with the snowbird's snaking balls, pretty funny really. They seem to move as a pack and no ball is safe unless you are standing over it and then they may still come hovering over to take a look. One of the reasons for the 5 hr weekend rounds, no ready golf and packs of old folks looking for balls..it could be seeing where the ball went is a team effort and no one is really sure.
We joke that they're like locusts - they pick the course completely bare of balls. :LOL: Usually when you go into the bushes looking for your ball you'll find several others, but not when the snowbirds are here. They go into the bushes looking for their ball and don't come out until their pockets are full.
 
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.

I have one playing partner like that. He will always default to driving the cart to the longest drive assuming it’s his. I’ve taken to identifying his ball for him (often NOT the longest drive) and watching him do the walk of shame back to his ball.
 
I'd like to find a way to give him the benefit of the doubt, but.... haven't been able to find a away. Probably best to laugh about it over beers in the clubhouse and for your 4some to turn that into a running joke. Might as well let it fuel future laughs.
 
Earlier this year I was playing one of the local muni's. There was a twoesome in front of us that played more like a foursome. On one approach shot, I pull my shot left and watch it land between the tee boxes on the next hole (The tee boxes were empty at the moment). As me and my cartner ride up, the twoesome is leaving the tee box as they're passing, one guy looks right at us and asks, "Are you hitting a Srixon"? When we replied yes, he jumps out of his cart, pulls it from his pocket and says, "I'll show you where it was" :oops::unsure:. I politely asked him if he waited until it stopped rolling before he picked it up? He gave me a dumbfounded look while his playing partner damn near fell out of the cart laughing.
At any rate, you meet all kinds of people on the course and this just allowed for another good story :LOL:
 
I was on the last tee in our 9 hole league sitting at -1. I'd never broken par so this was a big thing for me.

Striped one down the middle; it went down into a valley in the fairway. The bottom of the valley is blind from the tee box.

Watched 2 golf carts cross our fairway and go down thru the valley.

Rolled out there myself: no ball. I asked those guys, hey, it's a Bridgestone, 3 black dots, did you see it? Shrugs and "nopes."

My opponent (who saw the whole thing) told me lost ball, back to the tee, you're hitting 3.

Striped another one, hit the green, two putts for a 6 to finish at +1.
 
When I hit my ball into an adjacent fairway, I tend to head towards the furthest ball... but I'll wait until it's clear to do so. Normally the people on the fairway will ask if the ball they saw was mine. Yep. Then I'll just pick it up and get back to my fairway.

But it sounds like that guy had some social issue or was totally focused on what he thought was his ball. He might not have necessarily have been a Richard... just focused on his own thing and totally oblivious to everything else. Or he was in fact a Richard.:confused2:
 
Earlier this year I was playing one of the local muni's. There was a twoesome in front of us that played more like a foursome. On one approach shot, I pull my shot left and watch it land between the tee boxes on the next hole (The tee boxes were empty at the moment). As me and my cartner ride up, the twoesome is leaving the tee box as they're passing, one guy looks right at us and asks, "Are you hitting a Srixon"? When we replied yes, he jumps out of his cart, pulls it from his pocket and says, "I'll show you where it was" :oops::unsure:. I politely asked him if he waited until it stopped rolling before he picked it up? He gave me a dumbfounded look while his playing partner damn near fell out of the cart laughing.
At any rate, you meet all kinds of people on the course and this just allowed for another good story :LOL:
I had a guy pick up my yellow Srixon in his fairway. I asked if he saw it and he was very sure that he didn’t. Just his white ball. Two holes later I see him hitting into a par 3 with a nice yellow ball. I just shook it off. Im sure he was embarrassed that I caught him but at least don’t use it in plain sight.
 
I've lost several balls over the years to people picking them up, and I'm sure I have been the offender a couple of times as well.
But in the last 6 or 8 years I haven't bothered to pick up a "lost ball" in a fairway. I'll leave them for someone who needs it more than I do.
 
A rule of thumb, not sure if this is "official" or "known amongst golfers" but the higher hole plays first.

In this case you and your partner should've hit before the other guy, for courtesy more than anything. If he happen to hit like he did before you guys, so be it. Weird situation though hah.
 
I was curious what happened on the next hole. Based on the OP this guy was in a group behind you, possibly with a group in between. He obviously slowed down your group. I'm imagining his group waiting and this guy blaming your group for the pace of play, instead of taking responsibility for causing the problem.

But who knows what is going on in this guy's life. Sometimes people aren't themselves because of what's going on. From your description of what happened it seems clear this guy was NOT focused on what was going on around him. Whether that's his natural state or a severe departure, who knows? I try to at least be open to that possibility and not judge the guy too harshly.
From what I could tell, the other three in his group had hit their approach shots and had advanced partway towards the green while he was interacting with us. They were the group directly behind us. They did get to the green two holes later while we were on the tee box ahead, but that was as close as they got.

I hope it wasn't construed that I was trying to attack the guy in any way, it was more of a case that I was baffled by his behaviour. I have never, ever walked towards another golfer in their line of play whilst they appear to be ready to hit their shot. I also don't venture into another group's fairway unless they have already hit their shots or waved me over. Normal or not, it was very strange behaviour which I had never witnessed before at our course.
 
I agree and was to post something similar. This just sounds far too strange a thing to be a person just being a Richard. I have to think something esle going on here. This could be anything from the guy being a mute to simply having social anxiety situation to being embarrassed to some type of other malfunction or about a dozen other things i dont even know about and anything in between. Something just not normal in that entire story. It sounds too out of the norm for even being a Richard. has to be something going on there.
What struck us most was the quality of his second shot; clearly he knew what he was doing as a golfer. I was just blown away that he would continue to walk towards another golfer who was clearly ready to hit his shot. Reflecting on it, I think he couldn't accept the fact that his drive wan't longer than it was and was hoping that somehow one of our balls would magically be his.

Again, I'm not trying to run the guy down, it was just such a mind-baffling experience/behaviour that I almost couldn't believe it happened. Maybe it didn't - it might have all been a dream I had. But I doubt it.
 
I'd like to find a way to give him the benefit of the doubt, but.... haven't been able to find a away. Probably best to laugh about it over beers in the clubhouse and for your 4some to turn that into a running joke. Might as well let it fuel future laughs.
Oh, we'll get a lot of mileage out of it for sure.
 
When I hit my ball into an adjacent fairway, I tend to head towards the furthest ball... but I'll wait until it's clear to do so. Normally the people on the fairway will ask if the ball they saw was mine. Yep. Then I'll just pick it up and get back to my fairway.

Sunday we were playing and for some reason there were tons of shots being hit way long of greens (go figure, our course just replaced all our carts with ones that have GPS). At one point we were heading from a green to the next tee box, and there was a ProV1 sitting in the long grass. I looked over at an adjacent hole, and I could see three guys clearly looking for a ball. I called over "ProV1?" to which yes was the reply. "it's right here" I pointed as I walked past.

Being the first tee time out every weekend, we usually know the group directly behind us. Saturday I had never seen these guys before, despite them acting like members while we were waiting in line to pay our greens fees. Maybe they were, maybe not. It was just quite possibly the oddest actions from another golfer I have ever witnessed.
 
I've lost several balls over the years to people picking them up, and I'm sure I have been the offender a couple of times as well.
But in the last 6 or 8 years I haven't bothered to pick up a "lost ball" in a fairway. I'll leave them for someone who needs it more than I do.
I think we've all lost a ball or two to an inadvertent pickup by another player. Sometimes we see the incident happen, sometimes not. Unless it's 3 feet deep into the woods I don't pick up golf balls; even then I usually toss them into the fairway for the group behind to pick up if they choose.
 
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