Played my 1st pro-am, and got big leagued by a nobody!

[deadsolid...shank]

Personally, I don’t think the expected behavior should change based because of who paid.

However, if the spot was gifted then maybe it seems a little classless to complain to a sponsor, or contact the tour with a bad report. I’d probably instead go to a place where I can visit with likeminded enthusiasts and do my venting there!?

I might come back and participate a little more too.

[deadsolid...shank]

That’s funny!?

[lowheel]

there shouldnt be expectations regardless of money. youre simply paying to be in the presence of a pro and playing a tour venue. All is subject to the person youre paired with. some guys are talkers some are not. you can learn a ton by simply beingquiet and watching a pros approach to his craft. Ive been there, may mini tours did and still do them.it puts some money in your pocket to cover expenses and is normally a casual practice round. Some guys are there for fun and some come with 100 questions ready to grill you. The OP sounds pretty entitled in my view and never stops to question how maybe his own personality might have turned that guy off. Theyre not trained monkeys that dance at your command and for your amusement. Some people have the gift of gab and some dont. I compare this to golf instruction. Some instructors love hearing their voices and using alot 5$ words to sell you those 6-10 lesson plans and some say less or very little at all focusing more on drills. Society today dictates how people respond in those situations. Some people are "building brands" so they take selfies with everybody post religiously on social media etc... then theres guys who are just trying to make a living and dont have an appetite for that. At my course almost half the young people are always filming themselves trying trick shots or course vlogging. the other half are just playing. Pga pros are not that different, they have set groups of buddies they play practice rounds with where they can be themselves and not worry about who says what. If youre lucky enough to play in a pro am just have fun and enjoy being inside the ropes with a golfer that has mastered the game to a degree you cannot even fathom. Learn what you can and see if it can help your weekend game somewhat.

[Steele47]

"Home Alone' being mentioned makes me wonder if Godwin's Law may have competition on the horizon.

[bladehunter]

Right. But that puts you at agreeing with me that griping isn’t really cool unless you had skin in the game to begin with. And sure. You can come here and air the gripe. But .....?.

I think all we disagree on is the initial expectation. I think the expectation would be a natural round. Period. If conversation happens cool. If not. Cool. I have many rounds of both myself. Some people are easy to talk to and some are very hard to want to.

[BlackDiamondPar5]

A guy that doesn't talk to anyone, nor offer a single "nice shot" might be a jerk. A guy that practices putting leaving his group waiting on him at the next tee box might be a jerk. A guy that does both is clearly a jerk.

[lowheel]

it will never happen. every tour stop has a waiting list for these things and they have a hard time finding enough players to do them. they had to pass all kinds of rules to force players to commit to a said amount of them per season.

The farmers next week for example is one of the busier ones. its more relaxed on the euro tour and the cost is less as its more sponsor related and golf isnt as popular. Ive worked at several LPGA events and the pro ams there were even worse as there were so many issues with the language barrier that most of the asian girls had their translators with them to make any communication possible. It doesnt grow the game its simply a meet and greet for wealthy people or people with sponsor/corporate connections. Helps the players more with some extra $ in their pocket for the weekly expenses

[lowheel]

Meh, if you believe 100% of what the OP is saying maybe but even then...Ive played with juniors who sound less petulant than the OP. Some people dont mix like oil and water. Im fairly certain everything this guy is stating is very exaggerated for effect. Pro ams take an eternity to play i doubt he was holding anyone up.

[deadsolid...shank]

Lowheel, I almost always am on the same page as you. Here though I have to disagree. As an amateur, I am always going into something like this with high expectations. Maybe I’ll be disappointed, that’s a distinct possibility. Buts it’s certainly not unrealistic expectations to have the guy (or gal) at least have some basic interaction. It takes literally no effort to say “nice shot”, or even at least walk in some sort of proximity to the group. Even if you’re not actively engaging them.

Now, I fully admit, like Blade said, that we may not be getting the entire story. And maybe the OP is one of those annoying types you referenced. But, if he is telling it how it really happened, then I’d refer to Black Diamond’s post as a pretty darn good summary.

[bladehunter]

Lol. Does seem a logical next step. Soooo many situations to draw inference from.

[capking]

There seems to be some unwarranted animosity regarding the OP, none of you know him and are making some big assumptions about him. Perhaps he’s telling the truth as it seems extremely bizarre to make this up about this tour player.

Its okay if some people can either be given or afford to buy the opportunity to okay in a pro am while others don’t. That doesn’t give you the right to assume the OP is entitled or rude as he’s more than likely just giving his actual account of what happened.

-rant over

[lowheel]

I understand what youre saying so no worries. Ive done pro ams on lower tours and i simply dont believe the OP.He sounds like a disgruntled teenager. In pro ams guys are hitting it all over the place and various distances. The pro cant be everywhere and talk to everybody for an equal time. Im a glass half empty guy so when things go great or bad im not overly excited wither way. Best laid plans and what not... youre not renting the guy for yourself. Maybe he got on better with the others in the group and this guy felt left out. you watch enough guys make 7-8s on consecutive holes its a blur. I just dont believe the guy.

[CasualLie]

Paying $5k+ for the “opportunity” to play fake golf for 6 hours? F that. OP is full of it. Possibly their front 9 was with Mr. Wonderful and by contrast the back 9 was with a pro a lot less talkative and maybe rolled a few extra putts...so what. Here’s an idea, if you love golf so much, skip the pro-am and spend big $ on the clubs you always wanted. And if you already have a bag full of PXGs, well then, no empathy, get over it.

[Hawkeye77]

Edit - OP has graciously shared the rest of the experience.

[Golfjack]

Why is playing in a pro am fake golf? I'd be pretty excited to play with a PGA pro, or Euro Tour pro. The pro doesn't have to talk to anybody, but holding up the group is wrong. I would have politely asked him to stop doing that though. Just like I would if it was a normal round and there was a slower player being slow for no reason. I guess he didn't have time earlier in the week to study the course and/or just wanted to save some time and get acquainted with it during the pointless (to him) pro/am round.

[bladehunter]

I’m not assuming anything. I’m going purely off what he typed.

[deadsolid...shank]

And that could very well be true. Especially since he’s never come back.

My old home course annually hosted a low level pro am. Dakota Tour kids were about the upper level who played (although one of our past winners won on the big tour last year, and a have had a couple have success on the 2nd level ((can’t remember what the Korn Ferry used to be called)). We experienced all kinds, although most of the kids were pretty good, they knew where their “bread was buttered” as members would often put them up in their homes, feed them, and let them use vehicles (I realize for the big tour guys this isn’t a concern) so it behooved them to be more engaging. Many of them come back year after year and stay and play with the same people (again, a far cry from the big guys, they wouldn’t want to be coming back to a low level tournament).

But two years ago we actually did have a guy just like the one he OP described. We played three days with him and were lucky if he said three words. Really disappointing. Our group were all guys in our mid 50’s, none being excessive talkers. We tried the first day to engage him a bit, he wasn’t interested so we basically did our own thing the last two. As a personal aside, I shot my career best tournament round with seven birdies. Not a single “good shot” or anything. I watched him one hole while one of our guys was putting, he was off the green with his back turned to us. We placed fairly high without much help from him (a shot or two maybe) and made him some decent money in that part of the tournament (pros get a share of the team winnings), and not a word from him.

I know it’s a far cry from apples to apples, and not even remotely relevant to this thread, but this thread got me thinking about him, and how our past pros have interacted with us in prior years.

[CasualLie]

Where to start? It’s a scramble or a shamble format. Players are “advised” par is your partner to try to keep it moving along but you are generally going to wait at every tee box. It’s not golf, it’s a schmooze fest. I can see where maybe the OP is ticked becaue he didn’t get the schmooze part of the deal, but that’s the way it goes. Not everyone is going to get paired with a multi tour winner who is quite comfortable with the chill out day.

Ironically, the tour started the 9 and 9 format for many of the pro-ams as a way to push the pro to get to know the hackers faster. The theory being when it was the 5 1/2 hour round with the same player, there was no real incentive for the pro to get to the know the hackers so many of them sort of took their time. Guess it didn’t work for the OP.

Maybe the OP is a 2 handicap and had dreams of showing up, making a few birdies, putting on his own show, then wiped a few OB, blamed the slow play, and just generally grumpy.

[Terry Gold]

"I doubt very seriously if the story is accurate."

That's you.

 

[Golfjack]

What I mean is that while it's nowhere close to a real scoring round, the experience of playing with a pro would be very real for me. Actually, with the way some of you are describing it, maybe it's from (bad) experience so I should be aware. I guess I'll just stick to watching youtube videos of some pro's playing with youtube am's/pros. At least it's free and they put their best foot forward in front of cameras.

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

To be fair, OP's not really helping us get to know him (her? Who knows?). One post and then he cuts and runs.

I'm taking everything OP said with a huge pillar of salt.

[capking]

Ya it’s almost like they started an account and immediately got attacked for posting...

[bladehunter]

Right. Taking what was said , it’s hard to believe that it is. A speechless pro for 9 holes ? He waited 8 minutes behind on each green. In a pro am ? THose things are wall to wall , you don’t have 8 minute windows between groups. None of it adds up.

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

That's a possibility. Though the first handful of posts were generally sympathising with OP, and there was a little bit of light ribbing.

[Edward_Majorwin]

Great thread here fellas.

@ deadsolid...shank : bcsinstnct dropped a Matt Foley reference so I'll not only play with him, I'll even pay for his rental clubs if he happens to forget his sticks at home in the van.

It's never going to happen but I think my only goal/desire in participating in a Pro Am would be to take in every movement of the pros and hope to sponge up anything that can help me improve. I would love to be watching 15 feet behind a pro as he rips a 230 yd 5-iron from the middle of a par-5 fairway with a smooth, balanced swing. To be able to track the ball flight with my own eyes would be pretty special. Give me a few of those and all the other interactions would just be icing on an already tasty cake.

This is why I'm kinda curious as to the OPs first nine holes...hopefully he reads through this thread, sees the error in his ways and gives us some deets on the 1st Pro being an exemplary fellow

[straightshot7]

I'm not sure if he realized that his post would immediately become the subject of a grand jury trial.

He will have to reply soon, after he's hit with a subpoena.

[milesgiles]

If anyone had said that to Matt (or the pro in the op) I’d have called them a jerk as well

[Londoner]

It's no different to any other game of golf.

I've played matches against guys and we've chatted and laughed all the way round. I've also played guys who state on the first tee "I won't be talking,, I'm here to play golf not chat."

I've been lucky to play a few lower tour pro ams and had various levels of chat/banter.

[cardia10]

The best part is that many times, the pro's AM partners are parts of sponsor organizations that could very well be player's sponsors. If I were a young guy, you think it would benefit me to entertain my potential sponsors as once you get that reputation, I would imagine word spreads among corporations. Can't blame him for being focused, but you are a lower level pro. Missed the cut by 9, finished near DFL and you made some potential sponsors have a bad opinion of your personality. Sounds like the kind of guy we love to root against.

[TNGolfer8]

I Totally agree with everything you said. And, if it were you or some of the other poster s that I've seen post over a longer period of time, I'd totally believe it. Not saying this didn't happen, but coming from someone making his first post about this does seem a little suspect.