Hitting up on people ... How close is not okay

One time the group in front were sitting in the middle of the fairway. (It's not a long hole, they were like 170 away)

Guy playing a parallel hole carved one way right and nearly hit them. He did yell fore but they didn't hear.

I was standing on the tee waiting and they assumed I'd hit up on them, started hurling abuse at me.

That was a tough one, because the guy was so angry I thought he was gonna blow a fuse. Took three holes for him to calm down and listen to me explain it wasn't me.

I nearly got my head punched in for norhing.

It's golf people, accidents happen but seriously, you gotta chill.






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I've hit into a group in front of me four times, and each time I was with my dad and he said I couldn't reach. The last was in Ft Myers, and a man and his wife were in front of us. On a par 5, they drove off around the dog leg so I hit my tee shot. It draws and gets to the corner of the dogleg and goes around the mounding that runs down the left side. A second later, the guy comes out from behind the mound with his arms up, I yell an apology and we take off down the fairway. Mind you he had to walk out to where he could actually see the tee box we hit from. We get out to the fairway and the guy is waiting for us. I apologize again, tell him we saw them drive off so we thought it was clear. Incensed, he yells that the ball landed a foot from his wife and could have killed her. She says, "It did not, it landed back there and rolled up to us. How could they have known we were still behind this hill?" Some people just have to be angry and look for a confrontation, and this guy's wife had obviously long been tired of it.

sounds to me like he's sexually frustrated,....yet somehow she's not.
Ill give ya minute to figure out how that may be the case.
 
the only thing i can sometimes be guilty of is if a hit an errant shot towards another hole I sometimes dont yell "FOUR!"
Its not at all intentional, but its got to do with my lack of good ball tracking. What i mean is that because I know Im a poor follower of the ball I tend to try to pay as close attention to not losing eye sight of it. And my attention effort and concentration is so focused on wanting to make sure i follow the ball so i dont lose it that i dont notice or think about the fact there are people over there.

Ive gotten better at this but it still happens.
 
A guy I play with won't take it after the first time. If we get hit into once, we will agree it was a mistake. But if it happens again, he's pretty ruthless....as long as its a blind landing area or something and the group teeing off can't see. I've seen him ride up to the ball and chip it into the woods, or into a pond. He will run over the ball with the cart. Anything. I can't say blame him. A couple of the times he's done it we've almost been pegged.
 
My FIRST round playing without my dad, just me and my friend as teenagers, on the very first hole....

Decently long dogleg right, I pulled 5 wood with the intention of being in the 100 yard range. The group in front of us had long moved away from this area and were on/near the green. Ball goes right. Hits cart path. Hits cart path again. Hits cart path several times more. Takes the bend in the cart path and ends up about 20 yards short of the green. Mind you, I'm an unathletic, awkward, anxiety laden 14 year old and hit a 5 wood on a 415+ yard hole.

Old people. Everywhere. I apologized, and started to explain, but they chewed me and my friend out for a solid 5 minutes. Told me they'd get me banned from the course, young people are ruining the game, etc. Made us play through on the next tee while they death stared us... It was mortifying. Nearly quit entirely. I'm pretty careful about hitting into folks now, but also careful to measure my reaction when I'm at the receiving end of what might have been a complete accident.
 
My thought is that you could make decent contact, but thin the shot and end up with a line drive into someone's head. So if there's even the remote possibility of that, you wait.
 
I sometimes play with guys that say things like "ahh they're like xyz distance so totally safe to hit". I'm always like, "why"? If we are right up in another group's grill there is really nothing to be gained by not waiting another 60 seconds. Having a ball land even 30-40 yards behind a group in front is still too close. I.e. if the group in front can hear the ball land, they are too close. I am all about pace of play, to a fault sometimes, but hitting in to the group in front doesn't help even a little because if you are that close to them you are just going to have the situation come up over and over again with no change in the actual pace.
 
Hitting up on people is not cool. If it happens once I'm not happy, if it happens again you are in deep sh*t.
 
I have a distance by driver-length rule. If your ball comes within 5/6 driver-lengths of my cart, you've hit into me. If I'm playing with a slow group, and we're holding people up, we'll let you through next-tee, I'll give you a bit of a light-hearted talking to if you're apologetic about it and genuinely sorry and not a jerk, accidents happen, sometimes the stars align and we crush one, no worries.

But, if it happens again, I get irritated, especially when there's a logjam and nowhere to go. I nearly got hit three times within a seven or eight hole span by the same group a few years ago with not so much as a courtesy wave or a "fore!" and on the third one I picked the guy's ball up, put it into my pocket, and gave it back when they finished, with a very stern talking-to, explaining that if it ever happened again, they could choose whether the ball went into the lake or into my bag. Bit of a hothead, I used to be. Now I'm much more relaxed.

Lesson here: If there's even a modicum of chance you can nail someone's group, just take the extra three minutes and wait. Your fellow golf enthusiasts will thank you.:thumb:
 
I had this conversation with a buddy tonight while playing nine.

The opinion was mutual. Don't be a Richard, wait for the group ahead to be a full shot away from you, or expect to hear about it.
 
Didn’t read all of the responses but I read quite a few and I think it’s more about the group ahead of you. If I was in that group, even if you came up well short, how do I know that’s your max? Maybe you missed it and I’m thinking, wow a better strike would’ve taken one of us out. Add in that you already hit into us. Now I’m thinking everyone in the group will be hitting into us and which ball is gonna end up coming close to me. Now I’m concerned for my safety. (Which is kinda funny on here but not in the moment I’m sure)

I’d be mad mainly cause I hate when the group behind is right on my tail. I can’t go any faster likely because there’s a group ahead of me so don’t rush me when it’s finally my turn to play.

Anyways, i get where you’re coming from with the OP. But you have to think if YOU were the group ahead. Would you be okay with what you did? Thanks for the discussion btw


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ANYTHING close is simply not OK. I get the frustration over slow play but 'warning shots' aren't acceptable. Golf balls can do serious damage. I wasn't there when it happened but I know a lady who suffered a skull fracture when a wayward tee shot from the group behind her nailed her directly. A couple years ago I was nearly knocked over when a second shot into a par five nailed me, and it was on the first bounce. Blind approach so no warning. My back was to to the fairway watching others in my foursome finish up. Luckily it hit me square in the wallet or it would've hurt much worse.
 
An elderly man that my family knew when I was growing up, was driving down the road by our local course, and an errant shot hit him in the head. I don't know the exact point of impact on his head, but he was left blinded in the left eye.

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