Whats your worst experience on the course.

[ndlutz]

I was playing in a charity scramble at the local public course that hosts most of these in my town because my law firm sponsored the tournament. We do this a couple times a year and usually get the deal where we get some preferred "advertising" and also get a team in the tournament.

 

We got to a point where we had to hit some sort of pitch or chip shot and I took a couple clubs with me, including my putter. Someone in our group chipped in or chipped so close that we just went up and knocked it in. Needless to say, I left my putter lying on the ground and forgot about it. When I realized that I didn't have it, we went and talked to the group behind us who said they hadn't seen it, and the group behind them who hadn't seen it either. Nobody turned it in at the end of the tournament and I stopped in two times afterwards and nobody turned it in. I never got it back. 

 

I was really upset because it was a 20 year old Scotty Cameron Pro Platinum putter that I had used the first and only time I broke 80 at my home course. Even if I would have replaced it in the future I would have kept it because it was special to me. I know that I should have taken better care of it but it was still probably my most upsetting day on the golf course. I guess I've been lucky - I haven't seen anyone seriously injured or been hit by a ball yet. 

[llewol007]

Funny story walking off the golf course the other day. I noticed a squirrel laying on the ground just relaxing, about 3 feet off the path. Did not move a single flinch as I walked by with my push cart. I was commenting to my bro in law as he followed behind me about that darn squirrel saying boy he is not scared of any human, he is gonna be picked off by one of the hawks that fly over real soon. Sure enough my Bro in law not paying attention walk directly over the squirrel and proceeds to roll over him with his push cart wheel. The squirrel jumped up and my bro in law screamed as he pushed his cart away. Funniest thing Ive seen for a while. He didnt think anything of it and though I was talking about the family of deer that was watching us putt on the 18th hole.

[GolfTurkey]

Two worst experiences for me. The boring one was when I tore my rotator cuff teeing off on a par 5. The other one...

 

I was playing the 13th at my old course which is an elevated par 5 where the narrow fairway snaked through the native jungle - an impressive view. I hit my tee shot well but with too much draw and the wind was from the right. Due to the elevation it took forever to come down and it landed in the bush. I had a good round going so I decided to look for my ball in case I could somehow punch it back out to the fairway.

 

I had walked about 10 steps in when my foot went "squelch" and I was almost instantly struck with a horrendously sickening smell. I looked down and saw the offending "puddle" with a "muddy" sock next to it and realised what I had stood in. I would have happily burned my shoe on the spot but I cleaned it as best I could without touching it and finished the round.

 

Later that evening I went to the in-laws for dinner. My father in law, who had teed off earlier than me that day, proceeded to tell the story about how he gobbled a dodgy pie at the turn and how he had to sprint into the bush left of the 13th fairway and finished the round with one sock...🤢🤮🤮🤮

[driveandputtmachine]

Playing in a 1 day member guest tournament (where I was the guest) I happened to see a guy on the range that brought his whole PxG bag down to the range, wearing all TM clothes, and with the largest gaudiest rolex I have ever seen.   He had a horrible swing and was hitting the ball everywhere.

 

Then on the putting green, he brought his bag up there and proceeded to brag about his 300+ wedges and I watched him skull numerous balls.   I saw my playing partner and told him, the world would be a great place if we got to play him.

 

So we head out to the second hole where we are teeing off in the shotgun start.  We pulled all the wat to the right side next to some ground cover on a hill.  Are playing partners pull up and are blocking the cart path on the other side.  The member comes down to talk to me at the back of our cart.  The guest (Rolex guy) goes back to move their cart behind ours, I turn around in time to see the cart barrelling at me and I yell at him to stop and I put my hands on the front bar up to the roof and am pushed back up onto the hill.  The member is run over by the golf cart by the Rolex guy, my partner and I get the cart lifted up and pushed off of the member.  He is in agony.  Ambulance is called, and so once that is all sorted out, we call the pro shop as we have no one to play with.  They tell us to play on our own.  We both play horrible.  I hear at the turn from the beverage lady that the member had a hip contusion, broken collar bone and broken ankle.  I proceed to play about the same over the rest of the holes.

 

I found out later (my buddy had just joined this club) that the member was in the group that my buddy joined.  The member was out of golf for 10 months.  The guest has not been invited back as of about 6 months ago.  This took place back in 2017( I believe).  The member getting run over was the talk of the club for quite some time.  When my buddy had his house warming party a year latera few guys from his group were there and they asked about the incident, my buddy was peeing off to the side when it happened, so they wanted the step by step from me about it.  

[phizzy30]

I've had my golf ball stolen on numerous occasions when I've played on my home course from errant drives to ones that were in the middle of the fairway.  Sad part is that these golfers totally deny it.  One time I almost got into it with one of the morons who was being very aggressive towards me even after politely asking him if he had mistakenly taken/hit my ball.  It wasn't worth me being arrested for assaulting another golfer over a ball so I was the bigger person and simply drove away.    

Edited October 14, 2020 by phizzy30

[Dr. Block]

I was once a witness to a stumble-drunk-foursome's hour and a half 4 hole progress at a public track nearby to me. Yes, that's right, it took them an hour and a half to play 4 holes!

 

It was summertime and the sun was beginning to set on a weekday afternoon. Normally a great time to walk a brisk round. The course was mostly empty, so we were a little confused as to why we saw a handful of groups driving back to the pro-shop as our round progressed.  We soon found out why. 

 

We caught up to them shortly after the turn and then bore witness to the spectacle. Over the course of that time I saw something like 15 mulligans, at least as many lost balls, and two very aggressive conversations with the marshal and pro-shop manager that involved the invitation to fistfight. After the first verbal browbeating, the poor Marshal drove up to us, apologized for the situation, then exclaimed, "sorry guys, but I don't get paid enough to deal with these guys".  I would have to think the pro shop manager (who arrived about 20 minutes later) must have called the police after receiving the same treatment. 

 

My group was a two-ball with a good buddy of mine. He's the mild mannered sort and not much for confrontation, but I was younger then, and I had no issue with it. I definitely wanted to have a word about the level of nonsense on display, but we watched and heard the confrontation with the marshal within a few minutes of catching the group and I realized if I chose business with these guys, I would have all I wanted to deal with. Or as the famous comedian Ron White once said, "I didn't know how many of them it would have taken to whoop my a$s, but I knew how many they were gonna use" lol.   

 

We were a captive audience for that period of the round as we were walking on a part of the course not laid out to skip to different holes, but once we had the chance, we headed over to the 18th hole to escape the clown show.  I can definitely say that was my worst experience on a golf course.  It was also a sad display for humanity in general.  Sometimes I wonder if those guys didn't pull off the 18th green to a waiting police officer.  

Edited October 17, 2020 by Dr. Block

[shoot4par]

Getting hit in the head with a golf ball....  absolutely terrible experience. 

[Krooks Boepka]

These are all some crazy stories, makes the golf course seem like a dramatic battleground but I must say that I've heard versions of all your stories at least once or twice.

 

My own version of what happened to me in Slovakia and Austria. When I was in eastern Europe I got the chance to play some of the best courses in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. These courses are typically well-wooded and almost feel at times like you're playing through some tropical forests. On both occasions of when this happened, the temperature was exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (over 90°F) and the humidity was insane/almost unbearable. On one of these occasions we walked and the other we carted but both produced the same result...

 

Once getting to about 3-4 holes deep and a decent ways away from civilization and the club house, the course takes on it's full natural shape. The problem with this was what nature had in store for us. Europe has had a huge problem with an influx of Asian Giant Hornet wasps in recent years and these courses were legitimate breeding grounds for them. (Looks like Europe is turning into Malaysia or something with all these bugs coming in!)  

 

We were chased for holes, which turned into hours. It seemed as though when one would get tired, another would follow suit. We managed to get out of there with only a few stings and the people in the club house told us after 9 that we should take a break and wait till it gets a bit cooler. There advice helped us but those damn bugs came after us again around sun down and chased us for the last couple of holes. I cannot tell you how terrifying their low rumbling buzz is. They love to hide in old wooden hollow which is where my partners ball ended up every now and then but they also love slow moving water and bunkers! Needless to say I will be taking bug spray next time I'm out there but the courses were stunning and well worth the chase! 

 

 

[Dr. Block]

3 hours ago, Krooks Boepka said:

These are all some crazy stories, makes the golf course seem like a dramatic battleground but I must say that I've heard versions of all your stories at least once or twice.

 

My own version of what happened to me in Slovakia and Austria. When I was in eastern Europe I got the chance to play some of the best courses in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. These courses are typically well-wooded and almost feel at times like you're playing through some tropical forests. On both occasions of when this happened, the temperature was exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (over 90°F) and the humidity was insane/almost unbearable. On one of these occasions we walked and the other we carted but both produced the same result...

 

Once getting to about 3-4 holes deep and a decent ways away from civilization and the club house, the course takes on it's full natural shape. The problem with this was what nature had in store for us. Europe has had a huge problem with an influx of Asian Giant Hornet wasps in recent years and these courses were legitimate breeding grounds for them. (Looks like Europe is turning into Malaysia or something with all these bugs coming in!)  

 

We were chased for holes, which turned into hours. It seemed as though when one would get tired, another would follow suit. We managed to get out of there with only a few stings and the people in the club house told us after 9 that we should take a break and wait till it gets a bit cooler. There advice helped us but those damn bugs came after us again around sun down and chased us for the last couple of holes. I cannot tell you how terrifying their low rumbling buzz is. They love to hide in old wooden hollow which is where my partners ball ended up every now and then but they also love slow moving water and bunkers! Needless to say I will be taking bug spray next time I'm out there but the courses were stunning and well worth the chase! 

 

 

Good god man! Those things look straight out of “Jumanji”. I would have gone back to the clubhouse to drink Singapore Slings the first time one of those made a run at me. 

[Greenie]

I've had quite a few bad experiences being paired up in my younger days.

 

One time the course paired up a single with my threesome. The guy said he had a major back problem and he was popping percocets and chugging beers. He rode with me and I made sure I drove the cart. We were on hole 16 and I had got out of the cart, had my club in hand and was ready to hit my ball. Next thing I know this guy takes off in the cart. He rides over towards the cart path and hits a big railroad tie ripping off one of the wheels and part of the undercarrige. There was a maintenance guy there and he saw the whole thing. He gave us his cart and said he would take care of the cart. On the last hole this guy says oh I'm gonna be late, takes his bag off the cart, and disappears in the woods by the road. When I get to the club house the manager was waiting and said I would have to pay for the damages to the cart and he wanted some identification. I told him it was the guy he paired with us and no way was I going to pay for the damages. After a long argument I ended being banned from the course for life.

 

The following week my friend and I got paired up with twosome. The were ok but were heavily drinking by the back nine . Hole 15 and 16 run parallel to each other and there is one tree between the fairways. I tell my buddy in the fairway on 16 it's time to leave them. Well here they come flying down 16 and they hit the only tree head on. I mean clubs are flying through the air. The one guy is laying over the folded down windshield, the other is on the ground. The cart is V shaped now in the front end. We run over to see if they are ok and they are. They tell us to go ahead while they find all their clubs. I tell my buddy "Not this again" We finished up and told the guy in the club house what happened and got out of there. 

Edited October 18, 2020 by Greenie

[MikeW2]

24 minutes ago, Extra Stiff said:

One story that still spooks me to this day occurred during a practice round before the CIF golf tournament when I was in high school. On the second hole my teammate found himself in the greenside trap and was getting ready to hit his third. It was a moist afternoon and the conditions were solid for putting up a low round given the soft grass and windless environment. We were playing aggressive to try and get ready for the tourney. My friend was almost all TM gear at the time and pulled his 60 degree ATV wedge as the club of choice from the bunker. As he made his transition for his bunker strike his shaft snapped, but you wouldn't believe where. It shaft right in the center of the handle! Right in the middle of the grip!!! The poor kid had his hand sliced straight through about an inch deep and was bleeding profusely in the bunker. Shaft material was all over the place. None of us could believe it.

 

Kid was a warrior and had the shop get him some first aid and ended up finishing the practice round in great agony. The only time I've ever heard or seen this happening was:

https://golf.com/news/watch-pros-shaft-snaps-at-handle-mid-swing-and-the-shot-counts/

 

Would love to hear if any of you have experienced anything similar.

I had an 8 iron snap right between my hands on the grip mid swing but it didn’t break through the grip. That sounds awful!

[2bGood]

Buddy and I are in another City and go golfing and a random single joins us. Guy was a real jerk and drinking allot during the round. On the 16th green he grabs his chest and hits the ground. He is still responsive so I did not need to do CPR or anything, but I am watching him closely as my buddy calls 911 and the Pro-shop. Backup comes pretty fast from the pro shop and they assist as they have AED if it is needed. Ambulance gets there right after and the guy is actually looking worse now but still responsive. Ambulance speeds off and it felt like 1 minute had passed since we were putting, truth was it was about 20minutes. The pro shop asked if we are okay and we say yes, so they go back to try to track down his wife or whatever. 

 

We are both pretty pumped up, but we look and our balls haven't moved on the green. I would love to say we putted out, but we both gave each other the putts and decided to play the last two holes. It felt weird, but what else were we going to do?

 

Pro shop gave us some free passes so we played the next day and found out the guy did have a big jammer but was doing okay in hospital. 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by 2bGood

[Warrior42111]

12 hours ago, Extra Stiff said:

One story that still spooks me to this day occurred during a practice round before the CIF golf tournament when I was in high school. On the second hole my teammate found himself in the greenside trap and was getting ready to hit his third. It was a moist afternoon and the conditions were solid for putting up a low round given the soft grass and windless environment. We were playing aggressive to try and get ready for the tourney. My friend was almost all TM gear at the time and pulled his 60 degree ATV wedge as the club of choice from the bunker. As he made his transition for his bunker strike his shaft snapped, but you wouldn't believe where. It shaft right in the center of the handle! Right in the middle of the grip!!! The poor kid had his hand sliced straight through about an inch deep and was bleeding profusely in the bunker. Shaft material was all over the place. None of us could believe it.

 

Kid was a warrior and had the shop get him some first aid and ended up finishing the practice round in great agony. The only time I've ever heard or seen this happening was:

https://golf.com/news/watch-pros-shaft-snaps-at-handle-mid-swing-and-the-shot-counts/

 

Would love to hear if any of you have experienced anything similar.

 Did it with a sand wedge a couple years back, from the FW or rough started my transition and just felt a weird weight shift on the club. Looked down and I now had two pieces of the club and shaft one in each hand, pretty clean break thankfully. 

[xkilgorextroutx]

12 hours ago, Extra Stiff said:

One story that still spooks me to this day occurred during a practice round before the CIF golf tournament when I was in high school. On the second hole my teammate found himself in the greenside trap and was getting ready to hit his third. It was a moist afternoon and the conditions were solid for putting up a low round given the soft grass and windless environment. We were playing aggressive to try and get ready for the tourney. My friend was almost all TM gear at the time and pulled his 60 degree ATV wedge as the club of choice from the bunker. As he made his transition for his bunker strike his shaft snapped, but you wouldn't believe where. It shaft right in the center of the handle! Right in the middle of the grip!!! The poor kid had his hand sliced straight through about an inch deep and was bleeding profusely in the bunker. Shaft material was all over the place. None of us could believe it.

 

Kid was a warrior and had the shop get him some first aid and ended up finishing the practice round in great agony. The only time I've ever heard or seen this happening was:

https://golf.com/news/watch-pros-shaft-snaps-at-handle-mid-swing-and-the-shot-counts/

 

Would love to hear if any of you have experienced anything similar.

 

I personally have not experienced this but I do know of someone that got his hand sliced as well when a shaft broke. He was golfing with my wife's cousin on a course that only has a few carts, nearly everyone walks. Of course they were nearly at the furthest point away from the clubhouse and all the carts were elsewhere so they weren't able to head out to pick him up right away. He needed to get stitched up and was in a wrist brace for over a month.

[hybrid25]

😀I was vacationing in Phoenix and decided to splurge on a round of golf. Troon North was my choice, a very upscale course in the Scottsdale area. I didn't have my clubs with me so I had to rent a set at the course, which were a quality set of Callaways. I got paired up with three other singles and off we went. Beautiful course with spectacular views, and it was just pristine. When you play in Arizona there are a lot of desert and on the 6th hole I hit into the desert area. Not very familiar with my rental clubs or the bag the clubs were in, I selected a 4-iron to punch out of the desert, but accidentally took my playing partners 4 iron out of his bag. He had a brand new set of Titleist irons, can't imagine what he paid for him but I'm sure it was a lot. Well I punched out and as you can imagine it's scuffed-up the sole of his brand new iron. I put the club back in my rental bag by accident and proceeded on until he realized his 4-iron was missing. It's amazing how quickly thoughts go through your mind when you're in a panic, but I admitted what I accidentally did. He didn't talk to me for the rest of the round and I offered to buy him a new 4-iron but he refused, almost out of spite. He was sort of a DH, so after the fact it was a bit satisfying in a way. You try to act the part at an upscale course but things when sour after I scuffed up his brand new Titleist 4-iron.  Oh well, probably better that I stick with course on my own level. 

Edited October 22, 2020 by hybrid25

[SterlingArcher]

Absolute worst one; when I was a kid my brother caught a ball in the head after someone his a ricochet off a tree.  That was rough but he was OK after a few hours of pretty bad pain.

 

More recent one was this summer.  One of our summer matchplay tournaments had the flights (1-6) rotated through no two 5's or 6's were going out back to back etc in theory to keep pace of play reasonable.  Our group was behind a 6th division flight.  We were only the 5th group out for the day with plenty to go.  Knowing a few of those members can be slow but we hit the jackpot with the 4 slowest people at the club all paired together.  By the 6th hole they were already 2 full holes behind and we turned an hour and 20 minutes behind pace after two of them lost their balls and had to re-tee on 9.  

 

Our club generally does a great job enforcing a strict 4 hour pace of play so the backup behind us was legendary.  One of the guys can barely walk so he would drive his cart as close to his ball as possible and got it stuck in a wetlands.  They were all older so my group had to walk up and help lift it out.  Somehow the match went all 18 of course and by the time we finished it was well over 6 hours.  I thought there was going to be a riot in the parking lot, the after tournament members had to have all their tee times cancelled it took so long for the rest of the field to finish.

 

It was an interesting exercise in patience though, one of our opponents who generally plays around +1.5 had a 84.  He was livid.  

[PedronNiall]

On 10/18/2020 at 7:38 PM, Greenie said:

I've had quite a few bad experiences being paired up in my younger days.

 

One time the course paired up a single with my threesome. The guy said he had a major back problem and he was popping percocets and chugging beers. He rode with me and I made sure I drove the cart. We were on hole 16 and I had got out of the cart, had my club in hand and was ready to hit my ball. Next thing I know this guy takes off in the cart. He rides over towards the cart path and hits a big railroad tie ripping off one of the wheels and part of the undercarrige. There was a maintenance guy there and he saw the whole thing. He gave us his cart and said he would take care of the cart. On the last hole this guy says oh I'm gonna be late, takes his bag off the cart, and disappears in the woods by the road. When I get to the club house the manager was waiting and said I would have to pay for the damages to the cart and he wanted some identification. I told him it was the guy he paired with us and no way was I going to pay for the damages. After a long argument I ended being banned from the course for life.

 

The following week my friend and I got paired up with twosome. The were ok but were heavily drinking by the back nine . Hole 15 and 16 run parallel to each other and there is one tree between the fairways. I tell my buddy in the fairway on 16 it's time to leave them. Well here they come flying down 16 and they hit the only tree head on. I mean clubs are flying through the air. The one guy is laying over the folded down windshield, the other is on the ground. The cart is V shaped now in the front end. We run over to see if they are ok and they are. They tell us to go ahead while they find all their clubs. I tell my buddy "Not this again" We finished up and told the guy in the club house what happened and got out of there. 

Don't know if I would have let that first one lie. For the course to try and put it on you then ban you for not paying is ridiculous. Guess in the end it wouldn't be worth the hassle, but I'd not be very pleased having them come at me that way after a situation they put in play so to speak and that was witnessed as not being your fault by their own staff.

[xkilgorextroutx]

14 hours ago, Extra Stiff said:

Jeeeez, I wonder how much blood he lost. Any idea how the snap happened?

 

Apparently a lot of swing lube and an incredibly fat driver swing that hit the turf steeply half a foot behind the ball were involved, from what I remember.

[Greenie]

8 hours ago, PedronNiall said:

Don't know if I would have let that first one lie. For the course to try and put it on you then ban you for not paying is ridiculous. Guess in the end it wouldn't be worth the hassle, but I'd not be very pleased having them come at me that way after a situation they put in play so to speak and that was witnessed as not being your fault by their own staff.

I play all over within an hrs drive from my house. This course was an hr. away and in the direction I usually didn't like to travel so no great loss for me being banned.  This course had you sign a cart form for responsibilty of the cart. We were a threesome and I had signed the form for the cart I had. Before we had teed off on one the course had this guy pair up with me to make a foursome.

 

The manager kept saying my name was on the form for responsibility so that held me liable. I told him but you put this guy in the cart with me so I felt I was liable for my actions but not for a total strangers. All the manager had was a name on the cart form. He followed me out to the parking lot to get my tag number but since I rode with my other two friends he still only had a name on a form. 

 

I remember another bad experience having a single paired with my friend and I. This guy was ok until we got on the back nine. He started playing like crap and he missed a few easy putts during his frustration. He started complaining about the greens so he started scuffing the greens with his spikes. I told him I didn't appreciate that he was doing that.

 

We would have ditched him after the first time he did it but there was no where to go on the course. On the last hole he picked up the flag stick and threw it like a spear. It stuck in the green. 

 

While we were at the truck the ranger comes over and tells us that we were not allowed back at the course. I immediately said lets go into the clubhouse and talk to the manager. My first comment to the mananger was you do realize that the person doing this was the one you paired us up with and not us. In this case the manager apologized for putting us in that situation and gave us some free plays to use later.

 

With the cart incident I was shocked to be treated that way. An apology for pairing us with a jerk would have been more appropriate. I guess since the guy snuck off the course the manager had to justify someone paying for the damages.

[BNGL]

Hunter O’Mahony. By far the worst experience of my life, it was an event at Lake Jovita? Don’t remember what it was in particular probs west Florida maybe Florida elite. But what a total dbag, berated the officials, volunteers, wouldn’t shake hands after the round (pre Covid), throwing clubs excessively, loudly and profusely swearing. Just genuinely awful person to play 18 holes of competition with. There’s guys that are intense and you just kinda let them do their own thing with him it’s impossible because it’s just every hole darn near. 

[Dr.Frankenputz]

Nothing too terrible compared to some of these others but here’s a few:

1. Very hungover round at TPC Scottsdale ~2006 & had to take take a dump in a port-o-potty at the turn.  Was 100+ degrees & not especially pleasant spending time in there baking   in the sun. 
2. 6+ hour round in the rain at a “semi-private” behind a 6-some of walking member ladies the course wouldn’t break up & they refused to let us play through. They finally quit after 17/didn’t play the 18th hole 🤷‍♂️  
That course is 15 minutes from home & I haven’t been back in 10 years. 
3. Playing near Nashville on a trip with a few buddies. No alcohol involved. Buddy driving on a paved, flat cart path with me riding shotgun. He wasn’t paying attention to where a raised curb started up ahead. He hit the curb at full speed & rolled the cart on to my side. Miraculously we weren’t seriously hurt. I was bruised on my right leg, knee, hip, back, shoulder for a few weeks & tore a small hole in my pants. Was pretty shaken up for a few hours & played terrible the rest of the round. Definitely could have been much worse.