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Greatest golfing character you've met


Keen2bDumb

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I've taken to joining up with groups when I'm playing single, usually because play is congested, to speed things up, and so that I'm not pushing the guys in front of me (I'm scratch, and play a par 4 in 7 minutes lol).

 

You tend to meet people, and hear the most interesting stories.

 

I met one man who was intriguing to say the least. The pro in the clubhouse paired me up with him for the day. He was chill the first 5 holes, and it got interesting. He apparently had played the Nike Tour, which he played against the best in the country and was the best ranked amateur golfer in Florida in his time. He was an excellent character, almost chilled out, but also intellectual, and would go over stories of seeing Nicklaus on the range, and why his upright backswing forced a fade pattern, and how the wrists in his own swing worked to a level of detail unparalelled, but he somehow made it easy to understand. He then went on to discuss beer and which brands outweigh the others, 20 seconds later. Just a phenomenal man, and has a great heart for the game, eccentric, but intriguing.

 

Who's the most interesting character you've met on the course?

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nice!

One time i played with an NHL head coach....i am not a hockey fan at all. I had no idea who he was. After about 8 holes i turned to one of my playing partners and was like "man this guy sure loves hockey", and he was like "you're kidding right?".

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I'm a big hockey fan. I live in NC, so I'm a Hurricanes fan. Caniacs is what Hurricane fans are called. They won the Cup in 06, and Brett Hedican, #6, was one of my favorite players. I was born in Boston, so I'm a Bruins fan, too. I've found hockey people pretty down to earth. It would be a lot of fun for me to get to play with a player or coach. I've played with a few minor league players, and they were really good guys.

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Met 2 dudes who were having a money game between themselves. Starter put us together on 3. Just told me to keep up, so I did. I find it heightens the senses playing with someone unexpectedly. One guy, let’s call him chill guy, had flown in to see his buddy who had just relocated to NC from out of state. Well chill guy had gotten up with a local country club for a couple free rounds to “enquire about membership”. Wanted to know if I liked the course? Said “yeah it’s pretty nice, I know some busy professional types that live out there”. They were doing some money thing where they Push it. Somehow doubling the stakes. I’m not a gambler so I stayed out of it. Was fun seeing some stakes on putts and shots. Like standing at a tourney, in a way. Anyway, these 2 dudes were really easy to play with. I can tell chill guy is one to make the most of a trip. Ahhh to be single and have disposable cash...

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Ironically, I've been to one playoff NHL game in my life and it was the Canadians/Hurricanes game where Saku Koivu hurt his eye, in 2006. I was at that game!

Congrats on the title! I remember that team as my hockey loving friends said you guys were really good

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Last Sunday I was pounding around the local muni by myself. It was late in the afternoon and not too many people. I was just practicing keeping my new Cobra F9 in the fairway and working on getting better. I am in my late late 50s. Some impatient gadfly guy who was 65 drives up the cart asked if he could pair up. I wanted to say no but said yes. He said his back was not great and was wearing a knee brace.

He was driving a Cobra F7 and was not usually in the fairway. My F9 was finding the fairway all the time but I need to be longer. His iron play was pretty good but he is a bit of a hacker like me.

So we are on a par 4 that is about 400 yards. I hit my drive in the fairway maybe 200-215. He finds a tree on the left and maybe goes 130 yards. So he has a so so lie by this tree and is 250 to 260 out. He pulls out a fairway wood or hybrid. He his the ball within 18 inches of the whole. It was weird like I was in a dream. It was a pro shot. I thought I had imagined it or something but it was real.

He turned out to be a decent guy and peeled off a couple of holes later.

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played as a single and at the tee box the starter advised I will play with a 4 some, all good. BUT, a member of the 4 was arguing with the starter about me joining for 10 mins. Forced to play together, the guy arguing with the starter walks up to me and said "its nothing against you buddy"... Voice in my mind- “ you already hurt my feelings, saying sorry doesn't heal me"..

 

turns out these dudes are in a league. At every tee box all 4 are “bombing it” 100- 190 yards with the driver. you can see the ball land really clearly like a approach shot, but this guy walks out every time in front of the person driving and does a “full body airport flagging the pilot signal” and screams "LEFT FAIRWWAY" "RIGHT FAIRWAY" etc. Here’s the kicker, when I drive he replies with "sorry dude, I have bad eyes" LOL.

 

these guys grow on you. Bunch of old dudes having a good time saying inappropriate jokes about each other.

 

they were playing a weird game and every single shot anyone swung, the same airport guy says something weird like "Tallahassee" “Montezumas revenge” " inverted flop dance" "BEEP BOP BEEP POOP".. I was like “wtfreak is going on bro”.....

 

end of the round they asked "hey, do you wanna join our club? its only $99 a year plus we have dinners, here’s our website”.

 

never saw them again.

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About a decade ago on a February trip to Myrtle Beach 3 of us got paired up with an older guy named Ed Kyle at either Founders Club or Heritage. He said he was a retired greeting card salesman from Philadelphia. He talked and acted like Tony Soprano. He was a hoot to play with, smoked about 3ft of cigar in a round golf and had lots of fun observations of the area. He was amazed at playing with 3 guys from northeastern Canada. We enjoyed it so much he joined us again a couple of days later. To this day we tell people we were convince he was a mob hit man in retirement or witness protection.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Played with two HS buddies and a gentleman joins us. Ernie ( something), 20 yrs older than us, a dead ringer for Danny Devito . Fun guy, funny stories, playing lights out with George Washington era clubs. Tells us he's a baseball scout with the Yanks previously the Mets but reveals very generic stories you could read in the paper as a fan and we starting thinking shenanigans on Ernie. Then he asks us what HS we were from. He knew every single ball player in our school and the county like his own kids. We were 40 at the time and he was bringing up players and games we remembered fro from the mid 80s. Including a buddy he drafted to the Mets in 87. Delightful round

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Most of the characters I knew were on the course I grew up playing. It was like Bushwood in terms of the characters. We had an Al Czervik type who was hilarious (except he was actually a good golfer that hit the ball a mile and never used a tee with his driver). We had a Denunzio type that worked as a cook. We had a Spackler type who was another cook (ended up being convicted of murdering his girlfriend years later). We had a Judge Smails type who was actually a Doctor who was completely out of touch with the rest of the membership and he was on the board which consisted of him and 2 other people who let him do whatever he wanted. We had a Spaulding type.

 

That's probably why I love the movie so much...it's strangely relatable.

 

As a junior golfer I didn't meet many characters except for my friend DJ (no, not that DJ) who was just full of constant mischief wherever he went. It was fun, but got real taxing after a while. We had another friend of mine (much older than i) who would do just about anything when he got drunk, including playing the final hole in a scramble buck naked and walking into the bar and taking a seat and continuing to drink, buck naked (you can't get away with stuff like that these days). Or my friend Eric who was a severe gambling addict and would try to place bets with people on things like what bird would leave the tree branch, first.

 

 

 

 

RH

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I didn't get to play with him, but I met John Derr. John worked as a print reporter at the second Masters, and for the next 60-some worked the tournament, among other duties. Radio, TV for CBS. Good friend oh Hogan and Snead. Met Ghandi working for the Stars and Stripes in WW II. We met him at the dedication of his library at the Mid South Club in Southern Pines. When my wife and I were introduced to him, he turned to my wife and started by saying "You remind me of the first time I met Grace Kelly....." Golf Journalist John Derr Was a Master Storyteller John Derr, "Golf's Voltaire" | LINKS Magazine

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Playing in a 3 day tourney last year. Last day was a modified alternate shot at Buffalo Ridge in Branson, MO. We get to the course, warm up and get ready, they call everyone to their carts. We go get in our cart while the rules guy is explaining the day, and we realize the cart behind us is empty (our playing partners). So we talk to the guy running the tourney and he said if they don't show up just join the group in front of us and play a 6, just keep up as much as possible.

We go to the hole and are waiting, the group in front of us tees off and the guys still aren't there, so we are getting ready to hit, and we see a cart crest the hill behind the hole, turns out its our playing partners. So they get to the tee, one guy is seriously getting dressed in the golf cart, buttoning up his shirt, tucking it in, putting on sock and golf shoes. Turns out, this guy got so blasted drunk the night before, he fell asleep in his car with the engine running and door open and his partner couldn't find him. Needless to say, this guys partner was furious at him, but the drunk guy was hilarious, and was a stick too. He kept trying to get his partner to hug him and kept making fun of his partner. First hole was a par 3 and they both topped it into the hazard right in front of the tee and it was just meltdown mode for the sober partner.

The drunk guy actually got better as soon as he got into his cooler and started slamming mini Tito's. He did silly crap all day, kept just dropping his club on the tee boxes, he was smoking cigs and would constantly lose them and put them behind his ear when they were still lit. By the last hole we were all joking around (except his partner) and I asked what he thought of his M5 with a IZ in it and he just said "oh its a driver, you want it?". And the guy literally tries to give me like a $800 driver! I tried to buy it from him on the spot but he refused and just stuck it in my bag after we hit our tee balls. I gave it back to him and just said thanks and that this would be a day I'll never forget.

 

Same tourney a few years earlier, we got paired with a doctor and his partner was the West Point football coach (or QB coach or something). The doctor was buying us beers all day and just laughing and having a good time. Our 2nd to last hole I just hit a laser beam on this par 3 that ended up like 6" from the cup and I said "boy I'm almost happy that didn't go in, i couldn't afford to buy beers for everyone here (its a massive tourney with probably 200 teams and everything there was expensive) and he said "if that had gone in I'd buy every beer they have in this place!". It's such a fun tourney, meet lots of cool/interesting people.

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One of the more colorful guys I came across was hitting balls to the 9th fairway off of the cement deck by the pro shop at Mesquite CC in Palm Springs. He had several people standing around him and it was like he was holding court or something. Being nosey I walked over so I could see the show and see that it was Mac O'Grady. He'd hit an iron and go on to explain what was happening, why the ball did what it did etc. I listened for a while but honestly didn't understand what he was talking about. I didn't know much about him at the time other than he was a former touring pro, and I thought he was a bit quirky. Turns out he was real quirky. He did have a sweet swing though and I'm not sure the iron ever hit the cement.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Moe Norman for me as well, 3 times, not a round with him but range time

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Many years ago around 1998-99 I was on vacation in Las Vegas and I was paired up with a husband and wife, and an older gentleman that were all together. Turns out the older gentleman was once a dancer and later a choreographer for Fred Astaire. Interesting fellow that wore many hats in his life. Now the married couple were a real piece of work. The husband was Roy Horn's doctor and after talking with this guy for two minutes you could tell he would write a script for anything if the check was fat. Total Dr. Feelgood if there ever was one. I wouldn't trust this guy to check me for the common cold. The wife was so out there and high as a kite she obviously must have had a key to the drug cabinet in the office.

Nothing particularly interesting happened during the round, it was just really entertaining in a wtf sort of way. I have played a lot of golf in Vegas and that was the most "Vegas baby" round of golf I ever had.

 

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Tiny old man I played with years ago. Probably 5'6, 140 lbs and maybe 70 years old. His swing was all turn - and extremely flat. Very unconventional looking. And he basically made fun of everyone the entire day - which was the best part.

He could flat out play. I remember his son saying he could still "shoot his age" but I don't remember exactly how old he was. He hit a low little draw all day and he got every ounce out of his swing. Tee to green he was unremarkable but consistent. But around the green he was really impressive. Again zero hands or wrist hinge - he was masterful at running the ball to the hole. Usually with a mid iron. And he could putt too. Probably shot one or two over that day and he beat his son who was outdriving him by 70 yards.

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  • 5 months later...

Kingsmill CC, VA

 

paired up with a local long time member who was blind! I’ll never forget how he went about his business with light heartedness, enjoyment, and seemingly really enjoyed asking us “where did it end up” after each shot.

 

”middle of the fairway” we’d repeatedly reply! 
 

golf is awesome 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hall of fame hockey player Brian Propp.  Spent the day playing with him and mostly talking hunting and fishing in between shots.

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