Major Oops

So, after mowing trails last night I got out my Walter Hagen Driver and another modern driver to compare. I was just going to hit some easy shots out into the pasture. Nothing too strenuous, just nice easy swings.

First swing with the Hagen was a quail high line drive going slightly right. Suddenly, as if in slow motion, I stood there watching it head right for the solar powered electric fencer, located about 100 yards away.

It's amazing how time stood virtually still. I heard my self saying, "oooooohhhhhhhhhhhh Nnnooooooooooo........." Except I think I said something else.... Then Crack!

In the background I hear, "Did you just hit the fencer?"

I couldn't have hit that thing if I had tried 100 times. Walked down to take a look and sure enough. I shattered the glass, but hey! Good News! It was still working... he he....ahem...

Pretty sure I lost at least 1000 points last night.

:swoon:

So, after mowing trails last night I got out my Walter Hagen Driver and another modern driver to compare. I was just going to hit some easy shots out into the pasture. Nothing too strenuous, just nice easy swings.

 

First swing with the Hagen was a quail high line drive going slightly right. Suddenly, as if in slow motion, I stood there watching it head right for the solar powered electric fencer, located about 100 yards away.

 

It's amazing how time stood virtually still. I heard my self saying, "oooooohhhhhhhhhhhh Nnnooooooooooo........." Except I think I said something else.... Then Crack!

 

In the background I hear, "Did you just hit the fencer?"

 

I couldn't have hit that thing if I had tried 100 times. Walked down to take a look and sure enough. I shattered the glass, but hey! Good News! It was still working... he he....ahem...

 

Pretty sure I lost at least 1000 points last night.

 

:swoon:

That sounds exactly like the reaction #1 son received when he broke his mother's windshield a number of years ago. He was practicing hitting wedge shots from out at the end of our septic bed. Hoisted one up, majestically over a 60' red pine only to hear that dreaded crrrrrack as the ball hit home!

Funny, how stuff happens like that. If you tried to recreate it, you couldn't do it.

Yeah, and a good reminder on how dangerous an errant shot can be. I had been hitting over the horses occasionally, but probably shouldn't be doing that anymore.

This reminds me of a senior member at my old golf club. The fourth hole (370 yards, dogleg to the right) runs along the parking lot (hidden in a forrest to the right side of the hole: out-of-bounds of course). You would hardly ever see someone actually get a ball in to the parking lot as it would usually deflect from the trees and it required quite a long and high and ofline hit to even get close.

So one day this senior member hit his drive on the 4th that did go straight for the parking lot. And he heard a big crack when his ball landed. So he walked over to the parking lot in fear of what he would find there. He hit (and broke) the windshield of a car. And not just any car: his own car. His own new car that he had bought the day before.

This reminds me of a senior member at my old golf club. The fourth hole (370 yards, dogleg to the right) runs along the parking lot (hidden in a forrest to the right side of the hole: out-of-bounds of course). You would hardly ever see someone actually get a ball in to the parking lot as it would usually deflect from the trees and it required quite a long and high and ofline hit to even get close.

So one day this senior member hit his drive on the 4th that did go straight for the parking lot. And he heard a big crack when his ball landed. So he walked over to the parking lot in fear of what he would find there. He hit (and broke) the windshield of a car. And not just any car: his own car. His own new car that he had bought the day before.

Karma?

:rofl:

I remember playing some years ago at my home club, and the car park was pretty close to the 7th green, a par 5. I hit a wedge at the green and it started to drift on the wind towards an Audi in the car park. "Damn [or something roughly equivalent],", I said,"I wonder who owns that?". And as the ball hit the wind deflector on the windscreen wiper blade, my playing partner said "I do", followed by "I probably should have parked a bit further away".

Memo to self: Do not park in the row next to and facing the 18th green at the home course.....

From my front yard to the horse barn on the lower part of my property is exactly 70 yards. The horse trailer is 60 yards, and it is a perfect target for my LW. The only fly in the ointment of the setup is I have to hit over the driveway, which normally is not an issue. On a very rare occasion however I have been known to skull a wedge, and my daughters previous car had a couple of ball dents in the drivers side. I only do that now when there is no car involved since she just got a newer one.

A golfer needs to practice when the urge hits, no?

I took up the game as a 15 year old, and used to go over to the local park to hit irons (I had John Letters Gary Payer Mk4 Master Model 3,5,7,9 irons as my first "set").

I remember the first time I ever properly hit the 3-iron - had been struggling with it but all of a sudden I got the technique and the timing just right and the ball launched and soared, powerful, up and up ... a thing of beauty ... carrying about 60 yards further than anything I had hit with it before .... up up and over the perimeter fence and into someone's garden ... and presumably straight through their conservatory glass or some other window as the loud crash ended my elation in the shot and had me hurriedly picking up my other clubs and legging it in the opposite direction as fast as I could run.

When I went back (without clubs) a week later, there was a new sign up saying "Golf Prohibited", so I switched to practice in our garden at home after that, using those plastic holey practice balls, and annoying my non-golfer father by adding divots all over his lawn :)

I took up the game as a 15 year old, and used to go over to the local park to hit irons (I had John Letters Gary Payer Mk4 Master Model 3,5,7,9 irons as my first "set").

 

I remember the first time I ever properly hit the 3-iron - had been struggling with it but all of a sudden I got the technique and the timing just right and the ball launched and soared, powerful, up and up ... a thing of beauty ... carrying about 60 yards further than anything I had hit with it before .... up up and over the perimeter fence and into someone's garden ... and presumably straight through their conservatory glass or some other window as the loud crash ended my elation in the shot and had me hurriedly picking up my other clubs and legging it in the opposite direction as fast as I could run.

 

When I went back (without clubs) a week later, there was a new sign up saying "Golf Prohibited", so I switched to practice in our garden at home after that, using those plastic holey practice balls, and annoying my non-golfer father by adding divots all over his lawn :)

That may have been as equally a great a sin as the broken conservatory glass judging by the typical English lawn that has been manicured with a greens mower. I seem to recall that most of my relatives had lawns of that ilk in their gardens and they all had reel mowers to maintain them.

[Added] I'm just as guilty of this sin. My lawn has a few areas that are filled with divots, particularly early in the spring when I'm working the rust off. But, being the head greenskeeper of my property, I'm allowed a little leeway! ;)

On a very rare occasion however I have been known to skull a wedge, and my daughters previous car had a couple of ball dents in the drivers side. I only do that now when there is no car involved since she just got a newer one.

 

A golfer needs to practice when the urge hits, no?

You're probably fortunate your daughter didn't get a sudden urge to hit something (or someone.) ;)

Not sure this is completely on topic, but I think my earliest memory of anything golf related happened when I was about six, and being a bit inquisitive, I wanted to see if a golf ball could be inserted into the tailpipe of the family's 59 Impala. It was a good fit, and seemed to roll forward. Unable to retrieve it, I went in and told my Dad. He came out to attempt to start the car, with my role to witness if the ball calmly exited. It didn't...it came screaming out with extreme velocity into my shin bone.

That hurts just thinking about it...

hahaha

These stories remind me of one about 13 years ago. My first Boston Terrier loved any kind of ball to play with. I had her outside and was hitting little flops with the 60* wedge. She was leaping and catching them on the down side. I was having a blast and started flopping them over her head laughing all the time. Now I was pretty sharp in those days especially with the wedges since I played or practiced every day. Then the common sense light bulb went off in my head what if I blade one? I might take her head off or hit and kill her. I stopped then and there much to her dismay. I ended up getting some whiffle balls and she did not know the difference so the fun resumed. The Boston I have now could care less about any ball she will just look at it

Biggest oops was hitting a goldfish bowl with my backswing, moments after being warned to take it outside, the golf club, not the fishbowl.

Oops indeed!

Biggest oops was hitting a goldfish bowl with my backswing, moments after being warned to take it outside, the golf club, not the fishbowl.

Porcelain sink: doing some practice swings in front of the mirror in my bedroom...

I now have a full length mirror that is stationed outside in the good months and moved into the garage during inclement weather.

All these windshield stories remind me of the wealthy guy here who earned notoriety for cracking his own windshield, but then claiming that it had happened whilst parked at his club so as to recover the cost of replacement under his club's insurance policy. Alas for witnesses. That little misstatement ended up costing him rather more than the cost of the repair. Oops.

Brings to mind a high school golf match in 78' that I was playing in...I believe it was at a very exclusive country club in Carpinteria, CA (not our home course). My buddy and I were teeing off on the 18th, slight dogleg right up a hill to the club house. The fairway was lined by huge euciliptus trees on the left that also hid the road to the club. Hit mine into the right rough while my buddy hit a high bomb toward the far left corner into the trees....hearing a crack the 4 of us thought it was just the trees. Upon finishing the round we noticed a car pulled up in front of the club...one with a hole in the windshield...a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow...quite the sight! One of my better rounds too ;)

Brings to mind a high school golf match in 78' that I was playing in...I believe it was at a very exclusive country club in Carpinteria, CA (not our home course). My buddy and I were teeing off on the 18th, slight dogleg right up a hill to the club house. The fairway was lined by huge euciliptus trees on the left that also hid the road to the club. Hit mine into the right rough while my buddy hit a high bomb toward the far left corner into the trees....hearing a crack the 4 of us thought it was just the trees. Upon finishing the round we noticed a car pulled up in front of the club...one with a hole in the windshield...a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow...quite the sight! One of my better rounds too ;)

I've got to throw in my own windshield story. A story I will repeat from some local guys I know from a few years ago. They go out of town every year to play a 2 day, 2-man scramble. Day one, one of the guys wins a closest to the pin contest and the prize is a gift certificate for a free windshield from a local glass company. Some local guy that he doesn't know, needs a windshield replaced and offers to trade him a dozen balls for it. The guy figures he might as well, he's 100 miles from home, what the hell does he need with a windshield that he will never be able to use, right? Day 2 rolls around and the guy tees up one of his new balls that he traded for on the 1st tee, and promptly ropes one into the parking lot and takes out somebody's windshield. A windshield that he now has to pay for. Classic!

My brother was five years older than myself and he never failed to set a great example for me, like the time he taught me to play golf in the house. He was 14, I was 9 and we did NOT use wiffle balls. We were bright enough to do this when the folks were not home and enjoyed the game for two months before I discovered the carnage that could be inflicted on a helpless coffee table. Needless to say, golf clubs were banned from the house from that point forward.