A Nice Day on the Course with a Stranger

[jsr451]

Most memorable for me was a few rounds 25 years ago.

I was staying in Jupiter Fl and wanted to play Emerald Dunes. Traveled there and after a few holes caught up to a gentleman from Mid-West. We didn't talk anything but golf and our day'

We had a few beers and agreed to play the following day together. We both did not talk anything personal. It was just playing. We both had nice rounds. Again we had beers but then spoke about some personal things. He was a Pediatric oncologist trying to relax. My wife had a miscarriage about a month before trip to Florida. Never told him about that. It just stuck with me how lucky we both were to use golf for a distraction.

[Qqq123xx]

> @HatsForBats said:

> > @Qqq123xx said:

>

> > The Bad. End of trip went down to Pueblo to play the college course. It was wide open except for two 40ish guys and a woman. Joined up with them. Rest of round was them totally ignoring me. Helped them every time they lost a ball, even found one. Nothing. I lost ball couple times no help from them. About 8th hole I was hitting first and turned to add something to conversation....and one guy points to my ball and says "just tee off." Alrightythen. Last hole I chipped up last the woman took the pin out and put it across my line. I was away and they all putted out, turned and left. Not a word. Wanted to go into clubhouse but they were there and enough was enough. On first tee I asked to play thru to get out of their way and guy just turned and looked at woman who smirked. Should of known then it was going to be a long day.

>

> There has to be something more to that story. You say you joined up with them but had asked to play through on the first tee? I get why you asked to go ahead but how did you end up with them? They invited you along and then ignored you the whole day

Pro told me to do either.

[Langlands]

> @shortstop20 said:

> > @2bGood said:

> > A friend of a friend got paired with Omera and Tiger at Pebble (about 20 years ago). Tiger's deal is he did not want to talk to anyone during the round. Omera wanted company during the round so they invited him to join as a single as long as he promised to not interact at all with Tiger AT ALL.

> >

> > Tiger did not acknowledge him the entire round. Then at the end thanked him profusely for not talking to him as he was 'working on something'. He then took him, his wife and Omera out for dinner that night. He said Tiger was super nice AFTER the round.

> >

> > Funny story (the long version is even better).

>

> Tiger probably wanted to bang your friend's friend's wife.

> Kidding, sort of.

 

That's probably what he was "working on".

[Ferguson]

I had a nice day with a stranger. Was ready to play when the starter rolled up with a guy in cart and asked to join me. I obliged. It was mid-afternoon and no one was around. I was no slouch, but he was dressed well. This guy was a player. Called himself Dave, a little cocky. The guy went on to tell me how he was “trying to qualify” for something and that my club (at the time) was the locale for one of the qualifiers, bla, bla, bla. After much discussion about himself, he went right back to the tips. I never played the tips. The starter nudged me and whispered – go back and show him around the place. At the time I was a stronger player. We teed off and so it went. He out drove me on every par-4 and par-5. My former club opened with two tough holes. I made two pars and he birdied the second. I then made birds on 3 and 4 but bogeyed 5. He was solid pars on holes 3-6 until # 7. It’s a tight dogleg left - shortish hole plays 365 from the back tees and 350 from the regular tees. He tees up and tries to drive the corner, hits a limb and falls straight down. I hit my tee shot to the right edge of the fairway and was back a little more than usual. He was still out. He hit his second shot and caught a tree branch and came up short and he was pissed. The expletives were flying. I hit my shot pin high and had about 15 feet for bird. He hit a chunky third and missed his par. I could see his face was red and he was mumbling (f-ing short hole…). I hit a firm putt and it went down. As we finished # 9, I beat him by one shot. Clearly not used to being in that position against a club member, he briskly shook my hand and left the green. He was not interested in playing with me on the back. It was the most hyper-focused I had ever been playing golf, ever. It was when I dropped the flag in the hole that I gained a new perspective about golf. I learned it’s not about how good you think you are – it’s about comfortably focusing on the here and now allowing your brain to let you trust your body and swing. I describe it as peacefulness. I played the back nine with another member and shot even for the day. It was a nice day with a stranger in that I learned something about myself.

[lumberman2462]

I played with a guy once at a course in Destin, FL that had a ziploc bag full of pills and a portable defibrilator in his cart....

 

I never asked but I always wondered what that was all about. He was a nice guy and quit at the turn.

[DPort]

I ended up in a group of three women in their late 60s and 70s earlier this summer and left feeling pretty damn good about my game! They were very impressed by my long shots. It was like having your grandma tell you how strong you are as a child while helping carry in groceries or something.

[scores]

I have been paired with all kinds I am a 4 handicapper and the worse is when you are paired with a beginner (happened) this year, that plays the back tee s and insist on lining up every putt for a twelve !! I helped the kid on the 17th hole he asked me why I did not help him prior . I told him and gave those two reasons where he could have made the round more enjoyable for me!

 

Overall polite and nice but stubborn! On laying the championship tees !!

[xkilgorextroutx]

Got paired up with an older gentleman at a course I had never played before a few years back. Very chatty, very knowledgeable about the layout so it was a fun round.

 

Until around hole 7. We got stuck behind a twosome who admittedly were not as good as they thought they were. We'd watch them play a par 4, and by their 5th shot they'd be on the green finally. Laying down on the green to line up shots, walking around the entire green to line up a 5 foot putt (and missing), it was painful. My partner for the day decided to start screaming at them to try and get them to speed up. Shocker - it didn't work. Multiple expletives, asking if one was betting on sleeping with the other's wife, etc. Man, was it uncomfortable. I bailed around the 12th hole, claiming the round was running late and I "had to work that night".