Phony Etiquette - Looking for an opponent's ball

[TheGreenBlazer]

There you are again...Grinding it out in your state match play tournament. It's the par 5 sixteenth hole, and the match is all square. Your annoyingly spirited opponent snap hooks one into the burn. Etiquette forces you to help him look for it. As you stomp around in the elephant grass, you realize you don't really want to find the ball. If you see it, you might not even tell him. Yet, you continue to spuriously look in an effort to uphold the all important code. As you sift through the knee-high grass, you think to yourself, “Look at this idiot; scurrying around looking for his ball like a skippy pro caddy. I’m gonna give him about thirty more seconds, then I’m calling time on his a**.”

 

You are exercising an idea The Green Blazer refers to as, phony etiquette.

[AcesAZ]

I'd rather beat my opponent fair and square!!! I'll do my best to find his ball and if I do find his ball I'll tell him. Golf is a gentleman's game!

[chop180]

I'd rather beat my opponent fair and square!!! I'll do my best to find his ball and if I do find his ball I'll tell him. Golf is a gentleman's game!

 

I second that! What goes around, comes around.

[ApexGrind]

Nothing like what you're talking about, but I'll help look as long as it doesn't effect *my* play. I'm old and fat and if it's something like climbing down a gorge and back up when I'm tired or in 100* heat, or walking into mud or those stickers that get into your socks then I don't. Otherwise I'm going to help. I might be hoping not to find it or for a bad lie but that's not going to effect my honestly trying to find it.

 

I'd consider looking (or pretending to), finding it, and then not telling him to more or less be cheating. Certainly not in the spirit of the game. You know he's probably not going to spend time looking exactly where you've already looked. It's fine if you don't want to help. Just don't.

[Ducky]

I would think less of a person if they did that to me, regardless if it is a match play scenario. I am the opposite, I am probably too nice in match play. I give away too much information most of the time. A lot of people believe the golf course reveals someone's real character, and I tend to agree.

[Maharishi]

I'd rather beat my opponent fair and square!!! I'll do my best to find his ball and if I do find his ball I'll tell him. Golf is a gentleman's game!

 

I second that! What goes around, comes around.

 

Indeed, what goes around comes around.

[dcmidnight]

I will always help - after I set myself for my next shot. I'll get my yardage, look at the shot, decide what I want to do, then I'll pull my club and rest it against my bag while going to help my opponent look.

 

However the caveat to this rule is if I have lost a ball earlier in the match and he didn't help me look - then have fun looking by yourself.

[packerfan1]

I'll help a guy look for his ball anytime...competitive or relaxed round of golf. It is the right thing to do, I would expect the same consideration if the roles were reversed.

 

I think that golf has become 'too competitive' in some ways; the sport is sometimes becoming a win at all costs sport like football or the other sports now days. I love football, don't get me wrong (see my screen name), but part of the beauty of the sport of golf is that spirit and tradition of sportsmanship and comraderie, even with your opponent.

 

If we lose the sportsmanship and spirit of the rules of golf, the sport itself will be lost, it will become just another activity to occupy our time, nothing special.

[mjc694]

I can honestly say that I would never pretend to look for a ball. If an opponent knocks his ball into the woods, and my ball is easily findable in the fairway....you can find me right up in those woods doing what I can to ensure a fair match. I would rather lose after finding his ball, than win after not looking.

 

If my ball is in a sticky place....you can also bet I will look for mine FIRST!!

[Dizz]

Anyone can get on a golf forum and say that golf is a gentlemans game or they would do everything they could to find their opponents ball. Probably the same people who do the exact opposite in the heat of competition. I've played a lot of big time junior and amateur golf and I've seen it all. In this situation, I'm definitely gonna walk around and help the guy look for his ball, because if not they could easily drop a ball. But I'm not gonna bust my a** to find it, I'll definitely look for it as I would look for mine but in most of those situations if your looking for longer than a minute or two then you're not gonna find it. I know its happened to me and happened to someone I'm playing, and I'd never expect someone to look for my ball longer than 5 minutes...after that play your provisional or head back to the tee. I absolutely cant stand when people push 5 minutes into 6, 7, 10 minutes has gone by and they refuse to stop looking...you shouldn't have hit it over there in the first place...take your penalty. Bottom line, help them look and if you find it then you tell the person but in tall brush type grass I'm not gonna dive in face first and dig through all of it.

[dcmidnight]

Anyone can get on a golf forum and say that golf is a gentlemans game or they would do everything they could to find their opponents ball. Probably the same people who do the exact opposite in the heat of competition. I've played a lot of big time junior and amateur golf and I've seen it all. In this situation, I'm definitely gonna walk around and help the guy look for his ball, because if not they could easily drop a ball. But I'm not gonna bust my a** to find it, I'll definitely look for it as I would look for mine but in most of those situations if your looking for longer than a minute or two then you're not gonna find it. I know its happened to me and happened to someone I'm playing, and I'd never expect someone to look for my ball longer than 5 minutes...after that play your provisional or head back to the tee. I absolutely cant stand when people push 5 minutes into 6, 7, 10 minutes has gone by and they refuse to stop looking...you shouldn't have hit it over there in the first place...take your penalty. Bottom line, help them look and if you find it then you tell the person but in tall brush type grass I'm not gonna dive in face first and dig through all of it.

Exactly. Its very easy to say you will always help. But when you are one up in a match, and on 17 you hit one in the woods and there's your opponent standing with his hands on his hips over his bag in the fairway not helping you look for your ball and looking impatient - how will you react? Would you help him look for his ball if he lost one on 18?

[againstthegrain]

It always throws me off my game looking for balls whether it's a casual round or one of the mickey mouse club events I play.

 

My feelings are somewhere in the area of ApexGrind and mjc although in casual rounds I don't stop looking unless we're holding up play and then I'll go hit my shot.

[pbaldy]

A lot of people believe the golf course reveals someone's real character, and I tend to agree.

 

I heard that a while back, and agree 100%. In fact I wrote a little thing and keep it in my bag of tees and such so I see it every time I play:

 

Golf does not build character, it reveals it. What do you want revealed about your character today?

 

More on topic, I always help my opponent look for balls, and have at times found theirs for them, even in match play. It isn't worth winning otherwise.

[larrybud]

If I found it, I would certainly tell my opponent. Pretty crappy if you don't. However, if I'm walking, and I'm on the other side of the fairway, I'm finding mine first.

 

It also depends on the context of the match. Is it just casual play, higher end am tournament, league? I have a guy in my golf league that obviously does not care to find his ball, because he NEVER watches it land. The first couple of times I really didn't notice he was doing this, because *I* was watching his ball better than him.

 

So after I realized how poorly he watched it, I *TOLD* him to watch his ball until it stops rolling. He didn't get the "hint", so now I figure, screw it, I'm not worried about it.