Whats your worst experience on the course.

[LeoLeo99]

That's a sad story. I was playing a charity for a firehouse scramble with a friend and two strangers. We stopped in for food and drinks at the turn and when we went back to the 10th tee one of the other guys were we playing with wasn't there. Was told he suffered a heart attack while playing with us and was headed to the hospital.

Other than the fight I almost got into, never had a bad experience on the golf course.

[BraxtonFullerton]

Crappy 9 hole course that my dad liked playing b/c of how cheap it was... just rained the night before. Sand trap may as well have been concrete; snapped my club right in half.

[Z1ggy16]

Guy in my group (aged mid 30s maybe?) tried to fight the ranger (aged, ...60, if not 70) at the turn. Have never seen anybody get so worked up over the smallest thing before in my life.

[LeftDaddy]

I’ve had a few. Most involve me playing really poorly. I played with a buddy I hadn’t seen in years at Kiawah Ocean Course once. Wind was howling and I was about a 25 handicap at the time. Shot 70-60: 130. Needless to say that wasn’t much fun, except it was nice catching up with an old friend.

Had a heart attack happen on the tee box in front of me once. I was on #2 green. Ambulance comes racing up the cart path and stops at #3 tee. They cart a guy off and I later found out he passed away. Terrible situation and shook me up the rest of that day.

Played at a resort course near Myrtle Beach once. Tee sheet was packed and starter sent me and partner off on #10. It was fine for a few holes as there was hardly anyone in front of us. But we got to #1 and waited an interminable amount of time. It got so bad that the guy I was playing with picked up his ball and stuff on #12 and quit and went back and asked the course for a 9-hole rate. I suffered through a few more holes and by #16 I just quit as well. I think we did the first 9 in a little over 1.5 hours. 6 holes on the back took 3 hours.

Finally, I play this nice little course at the beach in North Carolina a few times a year. I most often get paired up with vacationers, but sometimes locals. 9 of 10 people that I get paired up with are great. But once I got paired up with two younger dudes who were good guys, and this older gentleman who was not. He was miserable the whole time, trashing the course, talking about how he shot 75 earlier that week at a better course (this guy couldn’t break 90 on his best day), blamed every poor shot on the course or something else, yelled literally at the top of his lungs after every bad shot. It was rough. So the two young guys and I mostly snickered through it, with a few eye rolls here and there. I felt like we handled it quite well. It was worse on me because I was in his cart, and they even empathized at one point. We get to the turn and had a bit of a wait on 10 tee so we all start talking, and the old guy was complaining about something again. So I made a bit of a funny remark...nothing bad, but something like “Oh, so it’s the course that has you playing like this, huh?” He proceeds to say “Yes, and frankly my playing partners. Let’s face it, you guys aren’t much fun to be around you know”. The young dudes and I all looked at each other and laughed our heads off. I said “OK, got it. So between the course and your playing partners it is just tough to have a good day out here?” He said “Yes, in fact, I’m going in to complain to the pro shop when we are done”. What an arse-hat!

[MtlJeff]

I havent had many bad ones, i haven't been in any fights personally though have seen some near-fights. I have also seen some crazy stuff like a guy steal a ball of mine and throw it in a lake because he thought i hit into him (his entire foursome was in the woods and we thought they were gone, it was an accident). But that was more comical than bad

Honestly the worst for me was probably when i got sick and had to throw up in one of those outhouse type things on a hot day. That sucked and smelled terrible, and i already wasnt feeling well

[kgk]

My second visit to Sweetens Cove, their portapotty shitter was full & hadn't been emptied in a long time. It was hot, and the stuff had been stewing... I opened the door and immediately puked in my mouth. It was the most disgusting and awful experience of my life.

That shitter is in the Golf Club version of the course, too, oddly enough. Friends still make fun of me about it. God that was terrible.

[Carl Spackler3]

Any bad day of golf I've ever had started and ended with the DB Brother in Law. The classic would be meeting in Myrtle. I'd offer to go golfing with him so wife and her sister could enjoy their time. He shows up at the course with not so much as a single in his pocket. Just the credit card for the greens fee. To think nothing of the guy helping us unload, cart guy, starter, beverage cart, clean up guy. None of which require more than $1 a piece or even a dollar here and there if they pool tips. I always thought cheap was the worst thing. If i played with a cheap friend Id just make up for ( having been reliant on tips at different stages in life). He wasn't cheap he just didn't give a #$%! about these people who were there to make the day more fun.

[Nels55]

One day that stands out was an HP tournament back in the 70s that I played with my dad. It was raining and cart path only with an extremely wet course. We were paired with two ladies who could not hit the ball more then 30 yards in the muck. We ended up driving their cart for them quite often trying to keep moving, it was a long day.

[Hawkeye77]

I'm having trouble with this - some rounds aren't as much fun as others for whatever reasons but I can't really think of a "worst" like some of the examples I'm glad I didn't experience, lol.

For conditions and being miserable, in 9th grade in spring of 1974 I got to play in my only JV meet that spring - 9 holes at our country club (and it only had 9 and was a few miles out of town and literally in the country). Jeans, short sleeved penguin shirt, non-waterproof jacket and sneakers - and it poured down rain most of the round and wasn't cancelled. It was really cold, I was soaked after one hole, even hit my ball out of a very shallow creek (stay tuned, it was pivotal) instead of taking a drop because I was already soaked and my friend and I agreed I should try it, lol, and of course I'd seen something about how to play it in Golf Digest.

There was no point in time I really wanted to be out there, nor did anyone else in our group, but we made the best of it, and after a few holes you just kind of accepted it and trudged on.

HOWEVER, the miracle of the shot out of the water actually saved me a stroke and I shot 49 and in normal conditions was lucky to be around 50 at that time and breaking 50 was a big deal to me, so of course when my dad picked me up after he got to listen to my recap, hole by hole, of my "great round" all the way back into town and rain pretty much all forgotten, lol. What a game.

 

[nutmegchoi]

River Vale Country Club in New Jersey.

Our threesome got stuck behind horrible foursome.

We had to watch them teeing off multiple shots and wait on every shut after.

By 17th, we were already close to 6 hour round and sun was going down and they were just approaching the 17th green.

Decided to skip them to 18th tee but as we passed, they screamed, yelled and chased after us.

Tried to make sense with them but just gave up and just left.

I will never go back to that place.

[sticksgolf]

On 4/1/2020 at 1:24 PM, Ghostwedge said:

I got nailed by the same drunk college kid in the upper thigh twice in one rd.

Both times on blind tee shots wildly sliced into our fairway as i was setting up to my approach shots. Haven’t been back to that goat track since. Bit to close to the twins for my comfort.

 

You were danged unlucky. Your twins on the other hand...

[mark174ace]

Many years ago back in the late 90's I was playing golf at Candia Woods in Candia, NH. It was by no means a great or even pretty good golf course and I rarely played there, but wanted to play somewhere a little different for a change. I had a tee time Sunday morning as a single and was paired up with a three some.

 

When I go into the pro shop to check in it turns out the threesome was behind me in line and they showed up with an extra guy . The course was pretty full up so this was not something that could be resolved in a way that would benefit everyone.

 

After being questioned by the manager one of these dudes claimed they called the day before and changed from 3 to 4 people, but everyone in the pro shop knew he was lying. The manager asked him when he called and he didn't know when he called. The manager asked him whether he spoke to a man or woman and he didn't know that either and the manager called him out on his BS.

 

Now I had never really liked the manager back from his days of running another course I played quite frequently, but I was impressed that he called them out on their BS, so I had a big smile on my face knowing that they were busted and that I was going to win this battle which seemingly never ends well for the single. Well the a****** manager let the four of them play anyways, but told them to never pull a stunt like that again (empty threat from the jackass manager).

 

So the kid behind the register who took my payment informs that there is not another opening for 90 minutes and that I would have to wait. I told him that I would do no such thing as I had done nothing wrong, these guys are clearly lying, and I wanted a refund and was never coming back. This dumb kid informs me that they do not give refunds only rain checks and I started seeing red.

 

I am not going to say what i threatened to do, but I got my refund quickly. I also told my Dad and all of his friends about what happened and although they rarely ever played there they never went back again.

 

Just goes to show you the single ALWAYS get screwed.

 

[Ferguson]

Guy struck by lightning 4 holes over from me.   

[HappyGilmoresBoots]

This one still stings:  The summer between 8th and 9th grade, I led a team to "first runner up" aka 3rd Place in a golf league.  I was thinkin' I was hot s***, so I went to try out for the JV golf team.  The general rule was that, if you could break 50 on 9 holes, you were basically a shoe-in for the JV team.  I went out the day before tryouts with my dad and a few of the neighborhood guys just to get a little practice in, and I shot something like a 48 or 49.  I don't remember that specific number, as it's not important, but it would've allowed me to walk onto the JV team.

Next day, same course for tryouts...I'm just hacking and slicing everything everywhere.  I did not break 50 that day.  I did not break 60 that day.  I shot a 72 on the first day of tryouts for JV golf.  72 on 9 holes.  I still have a memory burn of this gorgeous, long par 4 that was an uphill dogleg right (they've reconfigured the course since 2002, so it's not the exact same layout anymore, but it's still a tough hole), where my playing partner hit a beautiful drive that came to a graceful stop at the very top of the hill.  I topped one so it went straight.  Straight into the side of the hill.  Took a swing with an iron, topped it again, and duffed it about 20 yards.  Took a swing with a different iron, topped it again, and duffed it another 20 yards.  By the time I'd caught up to my partner's position, I was already 4 strokes down and he was at 1...and that was pretty indicative of the entire round.

I still cringe when thinking about that round.

[miamistomp]

 I was probably nine or ten  at the time and went sledding with my cousin  on Kissena golf course in Flushing

   Another kid came zooming down the hill on  a trash can lid and went right under the cyclone fence and tore himself up pretty good

     Cops came and chased us all away-ruined a good day of sledding

   

[jholz]

One time when I was 8 or 9, my father threatened to make me go back to the car because I was complaining about something. That wasn't any fun. 

[elwhippy]

2010 Course at Celtic Manor. Long, boring, wet, cold, hangover from hell. Immaculate course but oh so boring. 

[EDT501]

Long ago I was playing a winter tournament run by one of the national junior organizations and my playing partner shot 131. Our round took about 6 hours between all of his poor shots and insisting on taking 10 practice swings before every shot trying to find something. It was 40, raining, and windy, and we had multiple groups stacked up behind us. It was a unique mix of miserable and embarrassed. To top it off he hit my mom with his approach as she was watching us come up 18 from 25 yards behind the green.

[fawley]

On 4/14/2020 at 12:58 PM, dg18 said:

Fist fight in the final match of the club championship.Started on the green and tumbled into the sand trap.Pretty crazy

 

The price is wrong, b!tch!

[fawley]

.

Edited September 21, 2020 by fawley

[Par6Golf]

6 hours ago, HappyGilmoresBoots said:

This one still stings:  The summer between 8th and 9th grade, I led a team to "first runner up" aka 3rd Place in a golf league.  I was thinkin' I was hot s***, so I went to try out for the JV golf team.  The general rule was that, if you could break 50 on 9 holes, you were basically a shoe-in for the JV team.  I went out the day before tryouts with my dad and a few of the neighborhood guys just to get a little practice in, and I shot something like a 48 or 49.  I don't remember that specific number, as it's not important, but it would've allowed me to walk onto the JV team.

Next day, same course for tryouts...I'm just hacking and slicing everything everywhere.  I did not break 50 that day.  I did not break 60 that day.  I shot a 72 on the first day of tryouts for JV golf.  72 on 9 holes.  I still have a memory burn of this gorgeous, long par 4 that was an uphill dogleg right (they've reconfigured the course since 2002, so it's not the exact same layout anymore, but it's still a tough hole), where my playing partner hit a beautiful drive that came to a graceful stop at the very top of the hill.  I topped one so it went straight.  Straight into the side of the hill.  Took a swing with an iron, topped it again, and duffed it about 20 yards.  Took a swing with a different iron, topped it again, and duffed it another 20 yards.  By the time I'd caught up to my partner's position, I was already 4 strokes down and he was at 1...and that was pretty indicative of the entire round.

I still cringe when thinking about that round.

 

Reminds me of my high school days. Appreciate you making that cringe a little bit more bearable. 

[Long_Left]

I play frequently as a single or with a buddy as a twosome, so pretty much every round I get to meet a few new people. 99.9% of the time it wraps up with "Enjoyed it, nice playing with you." or something similar. The other .01% happened my first round this year following lockdown, courses here opened up May 1st and my first opportunity to get out was on the 9th, playing with my boss who is a friend of 20+ years. We were paired with another twosome, 10-15 years older than us, amicable enough on the introductions. Standing on the first tee, waiting for the group ahead to clear the older of the two starts bashing the Governor of our state... I turn to him and say "With all due respect sir, I'd prefer to play a round today without talking COVID and politics, there is enough of that when I'm not on the course." To which he replies "I can talk about whatever the *** I care to talk about." "Fair enough." is my reply...

 

State rules prohibit touching the flagstick here (pool noodles in the cups)... first green "I'm pulling pins today, I'm done with the idiot governor." and gives the two of us a stare. And I tell him "Just don't expect me to pull it or replace it and you be you." He and the guy he's with play this way for 5 holes until we get to the 15th green (started on 10), he walks up and pulls the pin and a kid, looks 19 or 20, all of 150 pounds soaking wet comes charging over from the adjacent tee box. "Sir you are not allowed to touch the flagstick." He comes back with something close to "Do something about it." And the kid responds with "My name is John Doe, assistant professional here at <golf course>." And the grumpy old bastxxx replies "Yes sir."

 

I'm literally laughing while this is happening, watching him wither. We play on and the politics gets turned up to 11, he's speaking at me loudly enough to hear from other fairways and I'm not saying a word or even acknowledging he's speaking. Turns out he couldn't hit a pool noodle with a golf ball from 5 feet if you hit it for him and his anger is boiling over by the turn. He grumbles and yells on every green, furious that our Governor has ruined his putting stroke.

 

I blow my tee shot left on the 4th hole and the asst pro kid is coming off a green about 40 yards away, he pulls up and starts to apologize to me for the encounter so I stop him and tell him he got it right, don't sweat it. Next tee box the guy says "You have a meeting with your girlfriend back there?" And I was closer to throwing a punch than I have been in 30 years but kept my composure, I replied "Just setting up to talk to the Director of golf after the round, nothing to concern yourself over."

 

He went quiet for the next few holes, and on the 8th tee we had a 2 or 3 minute wait. He apologizes to me and my boss, "I'm really stressed out over the virus..."

 

My boss, who hasn't said 5 words to them the entire round... "**** you."

 

The entire day was awkward, uncomfortable, agressive, and generally crap but my quiet boss capped it off. There were no pleasantries exchanged on the 18th green.

Edited October 11, 2020 by 1t2golf

[Roody]

I definitely have a couple stories of people hitting into us, and it resulting in some unkind words said, but I'll focus on a different kind of bad day. 

It was in 2012 I think. I was a member at a semi-private, and we had a member/member tournament. We got paired against a team that had a guy who was known for being a loudmouth jerk. Things were going ok, until we got a few holes into the round. I sliced my drive over into the rough on the right. The course had gotten a lot of rain recently, so I found my ball plugged in some mud. 

 

I mark it, pull it out, and clean it. I thought that since I was standing over mud that I would place the ball on the ground instead of doing a drop, as I feared that by dropping from shoulder height that I'd just plug the ball again. Loudmouth is standing about 75 yards away from me, and sees me placing the ball. He starts screaming "YOU CAN'T DO THAT! YOU HAVE TO DROP!!". My partner tries to calm him down and explain that I only did it that way because I was trying not to plug it again. Regardless, I decided best not to take a chance that I am breaking the rules, so I dropped. Sure enough it plugged a little. but I just played it. Whatever. 

The very next hole, my partner pulls his shot into the trees on the left. I hit mine fine, but shorter than him. So I hit my second, and walk my push cart over to stand behind him to help assess his situation. He decides to try and punch it through the opening. Unfortunately, he hits the tree dead-center, and the ball ricochets back, hits my push cart, and lands in the netting area where you can store items. At first I laugh because "what the are the chances?" but my partner gets very irritated and says "we just lost the hole because that's a violation and it's match play. He was already worked up from the previous hole encounter, so this just added to his irritation level. And now I feel like crap because I cost us a hole.

To add more insult to injury, two holes later we're on the green. I was still pretty new to match play events, and apparently didn't have a great grasp on some of the rules. My partner is lining up a putt to try and win the hole for us and says "hey, come give me a read on this". I take a look, and I walk up towards the hole and say "I think you wanna hit it here", as I touch my putter to the green to show him where to aim. 

Loudmouth starts yelling again "you can't do that! You can't touch the green with your putter because you're testing the surface! That's a penalty!". I had no idea. I don't even know how I was gleaning any useful information from doing that first of all, and secondly I'm not the one hitting the putt. But apparently it's the rule, and we lost another hole. 

I felt awful, and it was entirely my fault for not knowing the rules. As GI Joe would say "knowing is half the battle". Hard lesson learned. 

[HappyGilmoresBoots]

16 hours ago, Par6Golf said:

 

Reminds me of my high school days. Appreciate you making that cringe a little bit more bearable. 

Well...let's hear one of your stories!

[llewol007]

Not the worst but one of my memorable ones. Playing as a twosome and a random single pops into the picture on the 4th hole. Helping him find his ball as he pulled it left into the rough of an adjacent fairway. I walk back to my ball about 10 yards up and almost perpendicular to his shot. Stared at him as he is setting up to hit his ball. I go ahead and look at the green to watch his for his ball and quickly hear a FORE!!!!!!! I glanced over in his direction only to see his ball coming right at me. Gave me just enough time to turn away and Wack!!! Hits me right above my ARSE almost at my spine. Luckily the good Lord blessed me with more meat down there so really felt more like being shot with a paintball gun. Might of been just the adrenaline talking. The guy felt so bad he said he was done for today. I told him it was fine and that a beer at the turn will be sufficient. Guy felt really down on himself and said he hasnt been hitting the ball well so he just walks off into the sunset. I felt bad but hey. We finished the round in under 4 hours. Goes to show, you gotta take the punches sometimes specially when it means you will be golfing in under 4 hours.

[xkilgorextroutx]

My buddy and I are on the first tee at a new course to us when an older gentleman comes screaming up to us in his cart and asks if he can join since he's there as a single. We said sure, introduced ourselves, and teed off. He let us know he was a "former member" and was happy to give us advice on where to aim and where to avoid. OK, cool.

 

By hole 3 he was throwing clubs, screaming at the guys in front of us for playing too slow, asking them if they were betting on who gets to sleep with the other's wife, etc. We got a lot of nasty looks and at one point one of the guys started walking over before his buddy grabbed him. I just did the fast "no" headshake while pointing at our new friend, giving what I hoped was a "he's nuts and not with us" look to them.

 

Sometime around hole 8 or 9 he ignored a sign about slowing down due to a sharp curve on the cart path (you'd think a "former member" would remember this tight turn), and he slammed his cart into the railroad ties that were lining the path, caving in the front passenger tire. He limped off in the cart, swearing his head off about the s----y carts, and my buddy and I hoped we were done with him. Nope. He came back with a new cart, laughing about how he blamed the broken cart on the course's crappy management and maintenance, and kept up his yelling at the group in front of us. At one point he, unknowingly to me, went to my bag without asking and pulled out my driver so he could "try it out". I didn't notice until he was lining up his shot. Who even does that????

 

Final straw was around hole 14 when he flubbed a chip and started just absolutely slamming his wedge into the green, taking giant chunks of sod out of it. At that point we were pretty darn sure why he was a "former" member. I loudly exclaimed "oh no my wife's car is broken down, I need to go" and my buddy said "he's my ride, sorry!" and we both drove off and reported this idiot at the clubhouse.

[Par6Golf]

3 hours ago, HappyGilmoresBoots said:

Well...let's hear one of your stories!

Let’s see, I’ll throw two out there. 
 

First would be more recent out on a municipal course. Dry conditions and about 300 out from the green. Group in front of us was incredibly slow and I figured it was a little out of my range so I would just hit up. Pull my 3 wood out and rip a low stinger (inadvertently) with a ton of spin. Hits a hill right in front and takes the perfect bounce, (you know, if the green was empty). I started sweating the moment I saw it keep rolling as these people were on their 4th putt. Let out a short sigh, scream fore, and it rolls all the way over the green - they turn to just stare. I drive up to the green, somewhat elated yet regretful and begin to apologize. Then comes the language barrier so I’m trying to give universal hand signals, but they’re not having it. Screamed at in what I can only imagine are pretty insensitive remarks so I felt horrible. Won’t lie though my confidence was through the roof the rest of the round and I proudly proclaimed I’d be waiting before I hit any more approach shots. 
 

Second was from high school playing a short Par 3. Bladed an approach wedge off the mat that was a heat seeking missile towards the next group. Didn’t think it would get to them but yelled out fore, they didn’t hear. Pretty sure I caught one in the leg. I walked up and they were furious about it but since I was so young they let it go. Even the group behind me was upset for whatever reason so it was tough to hear it from both ends. Thought about carrying an air horn with me on the next few rounds but instead hit the range to try and sort it out. That round was...rough. 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Par6Golf

[blitzgolf]

Getting hit by a ball is never fun have had it 2X. 

Id definitely think when my back goes out and sidelines me from the round / playing. 

[Ironman_32]

On 4/1/2020 at 11:15 PM, MikeW2 said:

One buddy of mine and I used to like to play money matches against each other. Never an issue as we were both about 8’s at this time and honest. He asked if if I could find someone to partner with because his boss was always asking him to play and we could just make it a foursome. No problem until we start to play. Front 9 there were a few questionable things, 50 yards right off the tee but somehow ball in first cut, no no I definitely made 5, that type of stuff. Asked my buddy if this guy was being an Word not allowed or just dumb/oblivious. He’d never played with him before but was kinda put in an awkward position because it was his boss. My partner caught the guy playing hockey with his ball when he thought no one was looking on the 15th hole which led to an unpleasant conversation but my buddy just conceded the hole and apologized privately before next tee. Then on 18 which was worth $200 guy tees off hits it left into waist high grass. “I’m all set!” Beautiful shot to the green, in in two putts for a net birdie and a win. Except he teed off with a white ball and it was a yellow ball that was on the green. I’m not paying you! Take care buddy hopefully I don’t ever see you again. It was really uncomfortable and my partner and I sat at a different table in clubhouse after where this guy got loud and accusatory toward me, really bad mouthing me. My friend stood up and went out to his bag and came back in with a camcorder. We didn’t notice him tape the guys tee shot. The old kind where it had the fold out side screen. It showed he teed off white and we all knew he putted out yellow. Guy didn’t say a word just stood up and walked out. My buddy apologized profusely and actually quit that job the next day. Very unpleasant round, very uncomfortable situation after it, I know it was even worse for my buddy. I’m actually glad that I just ignored him in the clubhouse because in the end, for me, it turned out fine. And in almost 30 years of playing that was the only bad experience I’ve had.

"I definitely made 5", always a ballsy statement, esp with money on the line

[FlyingLaw1]

In a high school match... hole is a short-ish Par 5. I’m standing in the front of the green with my back to the fairway when I suddenly have this excruciating pain in my back. One of the idiots had hit his approach shot with us still on the green. A hole or so later my coach-who was also an old school football coach-Came up to our group and asked how we were doing. I’m in obvious pain so he asks what’s up. I tell him. He immediately floored his cart and took off after the group that had hit me. I’ve never heard a man yell louder in my life. 
 

The bruise lasted weeks....