Joined Up With Someone Really Odd....

I don't mind going out as a single. Gives me the opportunity to meet some new golf friends and even if they don't join me up I get to play.

So they set me up with this guy who also showed up as a single and things are going smoothly. He said "if you don't mind I will drive, I am already moved into the cart." Well I didn't care one bit so I moved onto the cart and off we headed to #1. This is when things got a little weird.

We get to the first and I stand up, proceed to pull out my driver, and am completing a little stretching next to the cart. He says "Mind if I take the first honors?" to which I reply "Nope, not at all."

I move onto the tee box well behind him and stand perfectly still. He is lining up his drive and then turns around and says "Would you mind just staying in or next to the cart while I tee off. I find it distracting to have someone else on the tee with me."

Ok...

So I move back over to the cart and he drives one right out of bounds to the right. He then hits another one almost OB and moves to the back of the tee. I figured if I said the same thing to him he might get the point so I ask him "Since you want me near the cart while you are hitting how about you return the favor."

He replies "Well I can see this isn't going to work" and he takes his bag off of the cart and walks off back towards the clubhouse.

I finished playing alone and had a great time. Had not seen him before and I play this course all of the time. And I haven't ever had anyone ask me to "Stay in or near the cart" before. Shadows, movement, and any noise I could understand. Not sure what his real deal was but I was honestly glad we didn't end up playing together. I was about 40 feet behind him by the way - nowhere even close to being in his line of sight. He was just being a DB for some reason. I wonder, if I hadn't told him to return the favor (didn't seem unreasonable given he had asked me to do the same thing) what else he might have done. I guess while he was putting I would have had to wait until he was done putting out before I could come onto the green????

Interesting to say the least.

Was he wearing all Nike stuff?

He probably "shoots in the 70's" too. I've ran into some characters, but I've never been asked to stand in or by the cart before.

Well that escalated quickly. I have a feeling this story could have been epic if you both could have 'survived' 18 holes in the same cart.

That worked out well...being stuck in freezing Chi-beria, how'd you play?

[quote name='Playaway' timestamp='1391823985' post='8620123']
Was he wearing all Nike stuff?
[/quote]

totally man

So maybe I am a jerk but I would have said no, I won't wait at the cart while you hit. Some of the courses I play you have to walk 30 yards or up trails to the blues. No way am I going to wait till he hits, walk to the tee, go through my routine, then hit.

I guess it's just as well he walked off huh? You probably would've whipped him good and he could not have handled that. But it sure would've made for some good stories here though. Too bad.....

Maybe he was passing massive amounts of gas on the tee box and was trying to spare you! The story definitely would have been more interesting if you played a hole with him. Though if you have a short fuse you also might have ended up in jail. We are all snowflakes.

I'm waiting for the day when 'the other guy' actually shows up in a thread like this and paints his side of the picture. Where are you 'cart guy'?

Sure can meet some interesting people on the golf course. Its a shame you didn't get to play at least 9 holes with this guy. I bet the story would have been fantastic.

I'm convinced there are more of these types of people in the golf community than we care to recognize...

I've been fortunate enough to have never been paired up with someone like this. If I ever am, it's going to be a great round. I may attempt to get some of the round on video just for some WRX humor.

That's pretty wacky.

Once played with a threesome w/me a single, two guys totally normal other guy refused to even read his line until my ball was marked and I was completely off the green no matter where my ball was on the green it was "tooooo distracting". So next hole I dug out the biggest marker I had in my bag which wasn't very big and soon as I put it down he told me if I didn't mark with a penny there might be issues. One of the other guys came over and gave me a penny to mark with and said he's an ok guy just put up with this nonsense and anything else is a non issue. He hadn't said word one to me up to this point other than mark my ball and get off the green, after I put down the bright marker he got the hint and actually came over and apologized about being such a head case when putting and we had a nice round from there on. Turned out he was an okay guy, little gruff and winy in general but who isn't some days.

I play as a single frequently when I travel as my wife rarely plays (although she has played great tracks like Pacific Dunes or Whistling Straits-Irish on occassion). There have been rare occassions where I get paired with someone that I won't be sending Xmas cards to, but most times the round is at the very least tolerable.

The one time where it was less pleasant, thankfully my wife was actually with me. We got paired with a gentleman, and I use that term loosely, at Bear's Best in Vegas. Beautiful day, round moved at a good pace and this guy couldn't be happy on the course for two seconds. My wife is an awful golfer and would have given this guy a good go, but for some reason he was pissy from the very first tee box.

I have many more memories of being paired with great people that make it that much more enjoyable to play with. Guys like the Islanders out of San Diego that I played with at PGA West Stadium, or Steve at Chambers Bay, a political lobbyist from DC, or Cody, an actor, also at Bear's Best, etc. How tough is life when you're out on the golf course for fun really???

That's hilarious
What a weirdo

LMAO, Dude, to borrow from PeanutsDaddy, that had EPIC written all over it, LMAO

If you ever get to Pittsburgh, you call me, we're playin, you can stand wherever the hell ya want to, and you can drive


Fairways & Greens My Friend,
Richard

[quote name='Forged4ever1' timestamp='1391830797' post='8620807']
LMAO, Dude, to borrow from PeanutsDaddy, that had EPIC written all over it, LMAO

If you ever get to Pittsburgh, you call me, we're playin, you can stand wherever the hell ya want to, and you an drive


Fairways & Greens My Friend,
Richard

[/quote]

Count me in Richard. We'll make the round an EPIC event to celebrate your continued good health. I'm sure we all have a few 'warts' to bring to the round.

[quote name='gxDD' timestamp='1391825775' post='8620309']
I'm convinced there are more of these types of people in the golf community than we care to recognize...
[/quote]

If you do the math, 50% of the people on this site are in the lower half in terms of golf etiquette.

You lasted longer than I would've. I would told him to go get f'ed as soon as he told you to go wait at the cart whilst he teed off!!!

The italian jersey boy wouldda came out of me fast . Iam suprised you lasted that scenario without goin nuts.

[quote name='PeanutsDaddy' timestamp='1391825333' post='8620259']
I'm waiting for the day when 'the other guy' actually shows up in a thread like this and paints his side of the picture. Where are you 'cart guy'?
[/quote]


That's what I was thinking... probably something like "I was out to enjoy a round of golf, so get this, I ask this fellow to wait by the cart as his presence on the tee box with me was simply domineering. He finally obliges, but now I can hear him breathing, constant breathing... I try to tee off, and naturally hit my first shot out of bounds- why? because I hear his heartbeat pounding in anticipation of [b]his[/b] shot! It's always his shot, to the other guy, never [i]my[/i] shot! So I tee up another ball, and by now, his eyes are blinking- LOUDLY! oh yes! but I as the perfect golf gentleman ignore the slams of the giant shutters opening and closing over his staring eyeballs, and attempt another shot,[i] breathing, heartbeats[/i], [i]blinking[/i]!!! How could one enjoy a game with such ludicrous distractions? Then when my second attempt to kindly get the game underway is a failure, he plunges on to the tee box like a gazelle, and expects me to await in the outer areas so that he can take his shot distraction free! As any kind and mild mannered gentleman would at that moment, I announce that under the circumstances which he has created, I have chosen to continue my game on another day, and I thanked him (although it was unnecessary to do so) and politely departed the scene in quiet but determined haste."

Once in a while, I used to meet up with a guy who told me never to stand behind him while on the tee or anywhere else. He chastised me for standing about 40 feet away one day. He was a decent guy, a local famous ex-jock football player from the 1930's or 40's.

I like to play alone as I grow older, not because of odd behavior of others, just I enjoy the freedom. As a guy remarked on this site some time ago, it's the septic tank theory. How true.

Play well and enjoy.

Whenever I'm paired up with weird I just embrace the crazy and play into it.

Played once with a guy that kept hearing things in the woods. Although I never heard a thing I kept agreeing with him and even 'heard' things when he didn't.

Big fun.

OP, why did you ask him to go to the cart while you hit if it doesn't bother you that he's on the tee?

Guy definitely sounds a bit off, but why deliberately antagonize the guy? I'm sure it worked out for the best, I guess I just see that as a little passive aggressive.

When I first read this I thought "Really?" living in a tourist area I get paired up quite a bit with visitors. In fact the pro at my home course will sometimes pair me up with some better out of town players because I know the course so well. I have never ran into anything remotely like this. I guess I have been fortunante. I have met quite a lot of fine people from all parts of our country and Canada too. I get calls on a yearly basis from folks I have met over the years when they get here. In fact their courtesy is usually outstanding. I have had people ask me if marking their ball with a poker chip bothers me. I tell them naaw (southern for no) that nothing bothers me on the golf course but me. since I don't play competition any more I have time for FUN.

There's a guy at my club whom I got paired up against in the first round of our match play event last year. He hates it when people stand within his peripheral vision (that's how he describes it) when he's teeing off. I quickly found out I have to be standing almost off the tee box in order to appease him. I don't get it, but whatever.

That round of golf had some possibilities to be sure. This could have been the best thread of 2014 so far.

I broke a rule I have of never playing on a weekend last summer. Got paired with a man and his wife. This was her first time ever playing or even hitting a ball. She wiffs the first 3 swings off the tee. Finally she rolls one out there a few yards. She's blaming her husband for not making her clubs better. We finally get close to the first green and he tells her to hit a 9 iron. She's looking in the bag and starts yelling at this poor guy that he made 2 9 irons. He gives me this im sorry look and walks over to her takes the club and turns it around and shows her its a 6, not a 9. Half way down the fairway on number 2 she's talking on her cell phone and wont hit her shot until she's done.

After god knows how many strokes we make it to the green and she's complaining about how long is this going to take, Im hot. We finish putting out and he walks over to me says, I think we're going to head in, my wife is getting over heated. In my head I was thinking....So am I!!! If I wanted to listen to this crap I would have brought my first wife.

I finished the round alone and enjoyed the rest of the day. after the round I told the guy in the pro shop...YOU OWE ME FOR THAT!!!

That was the worse 2 holes of golf I've ever experienced in 40 years of playing.

I almost wish we had finished at least 9 to see what other quirks he had. But what really was odd about it was that right up to the first everything was totally normal about the guy. Guess you never really know about people. My first clue should have been all of the Nike gear he was wearing and using.....

Got a laugh outta that one and had to use it. All kidding aside he seemed completely normal.

I think the OP handled the situation perfectly and it's better to send him back to the clubhouse on the first tee than endure 3-4 hours of nonsense.

My guess is the guy is a hack who is uncomfortable playing with strangers already and your response to return the favor was the final straw.