"Distance Insurance" a.k.a. impossibly hitting into the group ahead

you know that guy who power slices it 210y into the trees but swears his b-swing fairway finder carries more than "three-hundo"? that same guy who always waits for the green to clear on downhill 350y par 4's because, you know, etiquette -- even though his drive is more likely to be followed up with a provisional than a "good ball"?

why not wait until the group ahead is clear and offer him $50 and a super profuse apology to the group ahead (on his behalf) if he miraculously hits the cart path and then a trampoline and then a stork picks up his ball and drops it 20y short of where the group was? wouldn't this make a better story than all of the passive-aggressive accounts you can find strewn here and in other forums about those annoying, delusional, duffers?

anyway, that's just my $0.02...

edit: added bit about waiting for the group ahead to clear. safety first, folks!

I just tell “that guy or group” that I don’t hit that far, and hit when the party is past my average carry distance.

After three or four holes of me hitting 40-80 yards past them, they step up to the tee sooner.

Pace of play is a slight peeve of mine, and I’m pretty happy with rounds less than 5 hours.

To date, no one I’ve met has complained about the occasional ball that rolls past them. Just be polite about it and don’t do it every tee shot.

So your solution to "passive-aggressive accounts" is to be a dick? OK It's your $50.

But then hopefully whoever got that money off you would come on here and start a thread; about the know-it-all knob jockey he took $50 from for cold topping his 3W

i've got $50 that says the world is spherical. you want some of this action? ;)

my solution to people who are passive-aggressive is to be direct. e.g. annoyed because someone is delusional about their distance? put up or shut up, simple as that. no condescending remarks or sniggering or teasing... unless they balk like a chicken-head at rising to the occasion.

This thread seems to be begging to jam up the course. I'll take the guy who waits over the guy who thinks his 3wood goes 240 and ans as soon as the group in front is 242 swings away. Breathing down the necks of the group in front of you rarely helps anything.

True story. Several years ago when I took up this game. I had wicked driver issues. I had a high right miss that was 60 yards offline but often hit flush. So the ball was gone. As in off the planet. It was mostly a mental block for the high tee height. Plus I was a beginner who possessed speed. That equals bad things. But. It also holds a word called potential. Every now and then I’d square one up and shock everyone and myself .

so it’s during my first ever real tournament round. Our county 3 day tournament. 3 somes. Paired with one nice guy and one know it all 50 something who obviously had played his whole life and had no time for me.

By this time I had a practice of only pulling driver on wide open par 5s. I had a strong 3 wood and hit it pretty well off the deck. So I played that. Which handcuffed me. But I stayed on play and kept up.

so we get to the first par 5. I pull driver and sure enough. Pump one OB. Over a street and into a back yard. Re-tee and repeated the scene. Finally re-tee a third and bunt one in play.

go to 2nd par 5. Same thing pump one OB deep into the trees. Re-tee and hit 3 wood up the middle. It’s at this moment the 50 something guy starts chirping. Mumbles something like “ why are you here “. Not sure that’s what he Said. But it’s in the same vein no doubt. I ignore it.

go to 3rd par 5 of the day. There’s no OB right. So I pull driver again. Again high right miss. Into trees. When I get to the ball I have a wide open look at the green. And. My ball is sitting up on a tuft of pine straw. Really teed. I shoot the distance and I’m 240 front edge and 265 back. No reason not to swing at it. No water. No OB. So I’m waiting for the green to clear.

this 50 something asshole sees this and strides over my way. Gets about 20 yards out and starts “ havent you held us up enough .... what are you waiting for “. So I do the only logical thing for a newbie to do. I ignore him. And just stare down my shot. And walk into it. Green still full. As god as my witness I hit the strong 3 . Piped it and ended up flying it to the back of the green over their heads and over the back by a yard or two. I’m fuming. In hindsight I realize I shouldn’t have done that either , havent since and won’t again l.

I head to the green with a wedge and putter in hand. Wave to apologize to the group ahead ... Chip up and make a short putt for birdie. . I stare in my guys direction , still haven’t said a word. He was silent the last 5 holes.

point. There is no reason to pressure somebody to hit into a group if they believe they can make it. No matter how unfounded their belief is. You never know when you’re the impetus for killing someone when you press a guy to hit into a Group. And also. Don’t give in to the pressure. If I had my time to go over I’d have walked his direction and ran him back across the fairway instead of being rushed to Go ahead.

I have seen guys drive it 210 (a good drive for them), and have 230+ left and wait for the green to clear. Sure, one can argue safety but at best even if the guy mashes his 3-wood it won't reach the green on the fly.

point. There is no reason to pressure somebody to hit into a group if they believe they can make it. No matter how unfounded their belief is. You never know when you’re the impetus for killing someone when you press a guy to hit into a Group.mostly agree, except with the unfounded part. and you're talking about goading someone with some speed into making a dangerous decision -- to be clear, i would never recommend this. ever.nope, not the point at all.

this is exactly it. we're talking about the guys living in fantasy land.

since some of the other folks have a hard time understanding the point i'll give another example: you're a WRX'er. you drive it 350y "on the reg" (at sea level, obviously!), but you've been known to pump it out there 400y with a helping breeze and a little speed slot. and don't even get me started on those hard-packed summer fairways, amirite??!! so now you wait for the green to clear on 430y par 4's because "safety". you never know, right? a little puff of wind could spell d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r!

of course i'm the same, and i'm planning a golf trip to the mountains where i'll be teeing off at elevation. this means i'm going to need to wait for the greens to clear on par 5's -- especially those medium-length 500-yarders with doglegs that take off a little bit of the distance. but even on the straight 500y "par feezies" i have to be careful because adding 5%-10% carry to my normal 350y sea level carry puts me smack in the danger zone with a helping wind. simple mathematics, right? bryson ain't got nothin' on me. and obviously i fully expect my playing partners to support this because, ya know, "delusions" "safety".

p.s. if your sarcasm meter isn't going straight through the roof you should probably get that checked out.

Yep. And I get that too.

ive just experienced it several times from guys who don’t know my game. Most are nice about it. But still giving the neeedle to urge you along.

I guess ok the grand scheme of things I don’t see the need to dictate someone else’s shot. Most ( not all ) folks will figure it out eventually themselves. But for me. If I’m inside 30 yards of max known possibility , I’ll wait. For one because subconsciously you’re over the ball thinking about hitting someone. Not good. And two. 30-40 more seconds a round is absolutely not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. It irritates some because they are mentally fragile. It won’t effect me one bit. So I think it’s the fidgety ? Guy saying “ hurry up”s issue.

Show respect for others; applies to both sides of the stories - those in front and those playing with you.

Friend of mine hit into a par 5 from 250+ out and the ball trickled onto the front of the green and the guy on the green went ballistic. Some people have irrational responses to balls hit up on them.

100% agree. so maybe you just wait till the guys ahead are clear and tell the needlers to put up or shut up if the ball lands reasonably close? absolutely. this approach would solve a lot of issues both on and off of the golf course.

yeah, even guys on tour occasionally do this on accident. at long as it's a one-off with plenty of forewarning there really shouldn't be a problem.

the people who hit into groups repeatedly or with malice (e.g. out of impatience) should get beaten like a red-headed step child reported to the pro shop and escorted off of the property immediately. a friend got snipered in the back of the knee by someone who kept hitting into their group and he could hardly walk for a month, let alone play golf. there should be zero tolerance for that kind of behavior and it should never be encouraged.

i edited OP just in case people misunderstood the point; i was talking about people who thought they could defy physics, not people who hit it long enough but very inaccurately. safety first!

Played a few years ago with a friend who was a beginner. Strong guy, wicked slice. We were playing behind an interesting group. One guy was the size of Dwayne Johnson, shaved head and wicked ink all over. He had a very skinny, small dude playing with him.

We let our beginner tee off first, as he was barely getting it by 200 yards on a good swing. We usually waited for the guys ahead of us to be at least 250 away, as there was no rush. On a slight dogleg par 5, we get up to the tee, no one ahead, hole turns at around 260, and our noobie NUTS one straight down the middle, slight fade, we think about 270 or 280. A few seconds later, the skinny guy comes into view holding a ball, looks at us, drops it on the fairway, proceeds to stomp it into the ground and walks off flashing both middle fingers.

We never found the ball, and decided to slow way down, no point in getting The Rock activated. Not sure if I have any moral to this story, other than just wait at the best of times, no point in anyone getting injured. In all my years I have never played in a group that hammers it into the one ahead of us, so this was an anomaly. Still, could have turned out ugly.

It's always the small men that you have to watch out for.

Best thing to do methinks is find a legitimate long hitter that hits an iron farther than your friend's driver.

Yup. The dude in my story busting my chops might have went 5ft7 135. As Roy D Mercer said “ how big a ole boy are you “? Well. After designing and building every work space , cabinet and storage shelf myself in my shop , I was accused of “ building this for giants “ by a employee. Lol. So I can manage. But am quiet enough to be called anti social. So yes. It’s always the little dog running around beside the big dog yappin up a storm.

I couldn’t get past “hundo”.

this tends to happen with age. fortunately, there is help.

You really don’t have to start saying “hundo” just because you are old.

I’ve not once had an encounter where groups in front of me thought we were “pushing them”. I’ve rolled past my fair share of groups over the years, but never once did I ever have a complaint. I’ve had a few balls roll past me as well. It’s not a big deal unless the ball swooshes over your head, but never had that happen either.

I wait in the fairways for them to clear the greens, and am polite and strike up conversations at par 3s. Same goes for this who hit past me. I generally complement the shot. There’s never an issue.

The waiting game does really pack things up. I’ve never been in a situation where waiting is better when you know when it’s safe.

Know your game.

Haha, totally agree. I’ve never had someone complain about a ball rolling up the green, partly because I’ve only done it one time? I’m usually left or right LOL.

So when you are rolling balls past the group in front a fair share of times it's from the tee? Since you've only done it once at the green.

That's really not on IMHO. Rolling one up to the apron on a par 5 when you know your yardage/rollout fine, but hitting into people off the tee?

Do you not know your yardages? Or maybe your club encourages it for PoP purposes and everyone is onboard?

Otherwise IMHO there's zero reason to be chasing your ball up on a group in the fairway. If they are slow, get the marshals involved or if you catch up to them on the tee ask them to pick up the pace or allow you to play through.

Social-distancing is required.

Just don't google: social balls distancing

winking frank thomas has nothing to do with saying "hundo". he's there to help our fellow WRX'er get his ball past a hundo. get it? hurr durr funny jokes...

Who said anything about hitting into anyone? Rolling the ball through the last person while they are walking away is not hitting into people?

Yes, like most who I play with, I do know my yardages quite well. We are encouraged to move forward as quickly as possible. Right, the marshals generally tell people to hit more often than to hold off, and I'm actually one of the few they ask to hold back a bit, and I do. Most people who play our courses know that pace of play is an issue, and understand to keep things moving forward.

There's no ego nor "pushing" involved, you just play when you are ready to play.

perhaps you misspoke, but "rolling the ball through the last person while they walk away" would be considered hitting into people in my book. at worst, a hard bounce or gust of wind could turn "rolling" into "bounding", and a potentially annoying experience into a dangerous one. if you personally know the people in the group ahead and they're OK with this, go for it. but i believe it would be wrong to do this to a group of strangers when you could just wait for literally 5-10 seconds for them to walk completely out of range. if you feel the group ahead of you is holding you up on every tee box use your words to sort it out.

To be clear, my responses were intended to address the folks who wait an extra 100 or more yards, and not ones who wait an extra safe 20 yards or so.