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Picking up another ball - Bad bad bad

Metroid

Metroid

Australian Golfer
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Location
Australia
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Hey guys.

This weekend I was out with my wife playing a social round. The hole is a dog leg to the right, about 400 meters (which for you Americans is about 440ish yards). Perfect 250 meter drive, up to the top of the corner.

Watched someone on the next hole as my wife hit, chunk a low slice that rolled down our fairway, probably 20 yards from my ball.

I watched the group in front come over to our fairway, check both balls, point out where his was, then walk back and pick mine up. We're not out of sight, clearly coming up the fairway to both our balls. Mines clearly clearly marked with a massive green line all the way around for putting alignment as well as other marks.

After approaching they initially looked confused about what I was asking, and then said oh were you playing a titleist Pro V1x too, pulled out my ball and handed it back. I asked if his was marked similar but the guy just walked off.

Has anyone else had this happen and how did you deal with it?

To say I was annoyed was an understatement. Firstly that they picked up a ball with a group on a fairway that were yet to reach it, secondly that they appeared to try and hide that they were talking an expensive ball just because it was there.

Probably over reacting but just interested to see how often people have this happen, actually whitnessing someone essentially stealing another persons ball very obviously in play.

Cheers as always guys, Met.
 
I play in a Monday night league. It was our match play tourney. We were the first off and got stuck in front of some folks who were new to the game (which is fine I am all about people learning the game) So the last hole is a 595 yrd par five. I know I can't get there in 2, but I can get close with right wind conditions and a hard fairway. I hit a perfect drive hits the down slope and just rolls forever. I get to my ball the other group is walking to the green. I pull a 3 wood and crush it to about 30 yrds from the green. When we get there my ball is gone. I take a penalty stroke and halve the whole which leaves our match even and I lose on the next play off hole. We get to the club house and the group in front of us is in there having a beer. I ask them if they saw my ball, they said no but they "found" one. They thought someone left it there and went back to get it because "they don't like to pay for balls"...
 
I've seen it happen at my course....it's happened to me. I watched a kid who was playing the hole next to mine walk into the middle of my fairway and pick up my ball. Funny part is, since I know it happens at my course, AND I'm a fan of the movie "Pulp Fiction", I write " Bad Mother f**Ker" in big letters where it says prov-1. I approached the kid and got it back...his father apologized but the look on the fathers face when I told him to get the ball that says "bad mother...." Out of his sons bag that it was mine was priceless.

One day, same hole I come up over the hill and see 3 women standing over my ball in the right rough . Their hole runs parallel in the opposite direction. They are just starting at it. Then they see me....all I said was "titleist 1?"...they just looked at me and one of them nodded and they walked off. I get to the ball and you can't see "titleist"....just "bad mother ......"

I love it.
 
Its pretty simple. If it is your ball, play it. If it isn't, step away from the ball, and go on your way!

Guy in my group this weekend was determined to grab a ball that was in the middle of our fairway. Problem is, he couldn't see the people on the teebox from the adjoining hole.

It sucks to have your ball disappear out of nowhere, especially when it ends up in someone else's bag.
 
who really ever knows what the heck people are thinking when they do things. Sometimes people just get tunnel vision and sometimes its honest "misthinking or plain stupidity and other times its intentionally sneaky or selfish. I really have no clue. I've seen others do things that just make no sense at all and leave you scratching your head as to what in the world could this person possibly be thinking. And I really just don't know. I would love to get inside their head at the very second they do it just for scientific study. If its sometimes an intentional selfish sneaky or lack of concern or common sense for others then they deserve a smack but if its just a brain fart? I mean who knows? How can one possibly be in a fairway where others are on a tee and pick up a ball? I just don't know. I never pick up any ball that is plain out in play and even rarely pick one up that is not so open and out in play if there are any adjoining holes cause you just never know.

This is one of the reasons its good not to play $4 and $5 balls. People see dollar signs on balls. Quite frankly I feel far too many people are playing these prov's who really shouldn't be and probably hurting their game by doing it but don't even know it. But that's another subject.
 
This always annoys me. I have watched someone pick up my ball. Went over to confront them and had them lie to my face saying they didn't pick up a ball. So maddening.
 
checkered said:
This always annoys me. I have watched someone pick up my ball. Went over to confront them and had them lie to my face saying they didn't pick up a ball. So maddening.
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I've had the same thing happen to me one time. I wasn't overly pushy about it, but let him know I clearly saw my ball land where he picked one up and he was adamant it was his. He wouldn't pull it out though because it was a unique logo ball that would be a dead give away.
 
I hate when that happens, Usually I actually catch them before they do it. Either way its bad form.
 
I used to be one of the few guys playing yellow balls at my local GC, so it didn't happen as much as it almost happens now. Last week a guy going the other direction started playing my ball. I tried to tell him twice and he purposely ignored me... I am assuming because my lie was a lot better. After he chipped on and putted in I brought his ball over, handed it to him and told him to add two strokes and keep the ball.
I learned very early in my golf career to never pick up balls that were not mine. I was new to the sport and lost a lot of balls and assumed that most people did too because I also found a lot of lost balls. One day I found one in the fairway and since there was no one around I assumed it was left behind... unfortunately it was not and it turned out that I had pocked some dudes ball. I walked back and placed it where I had picked it up from and of course I apologized profusely but dude was understandably steamed and I was incredibly embarrassed. Lesson learned that day.
 
Hasn't happened to me but have seen several people try this with playing partners balls.
 
This has happened to me multiple times too. Difference from most of the other posts here is it has happened to me multiple times within my own group.

My future father-in-law is a very difficult person to golf with for a lot of reasons. One is he is generally ignorant of everyone around him, including his playing partners. Multiple times (including yesterday) he has driven up to where he thinks his drive or shot is, which is always a lot further than the ball actually went. He'll find a ball up there, inspect it, determine it isn't his, and pocket it. Of course, as you'd expect given our age difference (34 v. 68) I hit the ball a lot further than he does and that 'unknown' ball is actually mine. He's hard of hearing so he either doesn't hear (or ignores) me shouting it is my ball, and being on a golf course I can only shout so loud because I don't want to disturb the other players. He then drives backwards and finds his ball where I'll ask him about the ball he found with a conversation that generally goes like this

"Can I see that ball you found?"
"It's just some old ball. Someone wrote 'DJB' on it."
"You know those are my initials, right?"
"Oh, that's weird. So where's your ball?"
"In your hand."
"Oh, it was up there right behind that tree. Make sure you put it back there."
 
This just happened to me on my last round. I went left off the tee with my driver, but the ball landed just into the rough so not a penal shot. As I was watching another member of our foursome tee off, I saw a guy walk into our rough from the adjoining fairway and pick up a ball. At first I thought he may have hit one there from his fairway, but then saw him turning the ball over & looking at it; again, this was just a few feet into our rough, not like it was on their hole or anywhere close to it. I said to one of my friends "I think that guy just took my ball...." and after a few seconds I yelled out "Hey! HEY!" to the guy, who picked his head up, looked at us on the tee box, and booked it back to his fairway and took off on his cart.

I was dumbfounded. I mean, how can you NOT see a foursome in the process of teeing off 200 yards away from where you are? And then have the nerve to take off when you're called out on snagging someone else's ball in play? It's one thing to find a ball abandoned in the rough when there's not a soul around... it's another to pick one up in full sight of the guy who just teed off with it less than a minute earlier!
 
I'll never forget the time a guy comes up to me and says "you just hit my ball", and then follows that up with "and you hit at the wrong green."
 
checkered said:
This always annoys me. I have watched someone pick up my ball. Went over to confront them and had them lie to my face saying they didn't pick up a ball. So maddening.
Click to expand...

I've had this happen a couple of times and it is infuriating. Earlier this year, I had a guy come from another fairway going the opposite direction from me and hit my ball back to his fairway. Luckily he sliced the ball so bad that it stayed in my fairway. I identified my ball by the marks and I picked it up. He got totally ticked off and came to give me a bad time. When I showed him the ball with my marks on it, his embarrassment was evident by the redness spreading across his face. And...it turns out, he wasn't even using the same brand of ball !! Just because it's a yellow ball, that doesn't mean it's yours dummy !
 
I see this occur out in the course way too much. It's mind boggling how people
Just pick up balls from the middle of the fairway without checking to see if someone may be in the adjacent fairways.

Guess some can't handle golf ball prices or they like my B330-RX with my name on it.


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I've seen this, and it is annoying. Part of the reason why I never make my playing partners take a penalty for a lost ball if we know it landed somewhere safe.
 
I have no idea what possesses people to pick up someone else's ball or just in general pick up a ball that could be someone else's. Now if you are on a near empty course and no one is around that is one thing but if the ball could reasonably be someone else's from an adjoining hole then leave it alone. It's $2 to $4, you can't be that hard up for cash that you have to steal a Titleist.
 
I was playing in my club championship and the group in front of us was not in the championship. I smacked a drive around the dogleg left and landed in the perfect position. One of the guys up ahead could not find his ball and saw mine and did the "see if anyone's watching motion with his head" and proceeded to play my ball.

I didn't hit into them. At the time I teed off when they were driving to the green but the one guy walked back 100 yards and played mine. It was the only ball I "lost".

Fortunately my playing partners saw what happened and let me drop around where my drive landed with no Penalty. I just cannot believe the nerve of some people.

If I see a ball that isn't mine out in the open I leave it and always assume that it's someone's errant shot and that person will be playing it.


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It's a frustrating thing when you know someone picked your ball up. That's why I rarely ever pick up a ball that isn't mine.
 
Last weds I snap hooked a drive to the next fairway over. Sure enough guy and woman comes along stops and picks up my ball. In plain site. I yell "Hey, I'm playing that ball. It's mine." Guy yells back "It's my wifes ball." So I finally get over there after a dead sprint. I say to him "Your wife likes Frog's?" He says "What's that got to do with anything?" I reply "Because that's my ball with the Frog on it..." The frog was sitting upright in the ball holder. Then I pull out a ball out of my pocket with the same stenciled frog on it. They gave it back after apologizing.
 
This is the kind of thread I enjoy reading, good stories of things that happen to us out there.

This happened to me a couple months ago, I hit into the trees on the right and could see my ball from the tee box and knew I had a big gap to come back through in the direction of the green. As we were driving up the right side of our fairway the group on the adjoining fairway stopped in the same area. A guy (our mayor) looks at some balls in the area and proceeds to play mine and hits the green, I got there and said "nice shot, too bad it was my ball". Up to green he goes and retrieves it and puts it back as close to where it was. He then plays his which had no view of the green, karma..
 
I've had balls of mine disappear after another person/group on an adjacent hole "finds" it and takes or plays it, it's annoying but I can live with it. I play enough evening rounds to find about as many as I lose, and that's while only picking up balls where I'm 100% positive it's not being played by someone else.

There has only been one occasion that really irritated me... Playing in the Member/Guest at my boss's club this year. I hit a nice drive up the right edge of 18, it doesn't draw and trickles into the rough. The teams on 17 get to the spot before we do, one of them plays my ball. I find his ball next to a bush a good 40 yards closer to their tee than where my ball was. We drove over to them to inform them they played my ball, the guy says he was playing a Callaway too and figured the unfamiliar black dots around the logo on the ball he played were a manufacturing defect...
 
emart2173 said:
Hasn't happened to me but have seen several people try this with playing partners balls.
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Yeah well it was hard for me to confuse my ball with yours and T2GRN18 on Saturday when you guys were 50 yards ahead of me. Can't play that off as an honest mistake. Ha

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I had my valuables pouch fall off my bag on a hole and I went to go back to retrieve it. I saw the couple on the tee box walking off so I ran over to get my baggie. The guy yells at me "That's my ball!" I look over in confusion and he yells again, "That's my ball!". I hold up my pouch and he yells back, "Sorry! I thought you took my ball!".
 
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