Identify the Damned Golf Ball

[DaveLeeNC]

Here is one for the stupid bucket. 

 

I hit a good drive on 14 as did one of my playing partners. We expected to see our balls near each other but only saw one. George went over to that ball and said 'Dave, this is your ball'. It was maybe a bit shorter than I expected but no more than 10-15 yards so I played it and hit a great 8i to 6' (even I can par a hole from there). Easily the best shot of the day.

 

George found 'his ball' about 15 yards ahead kind of hidden in a sprinkler head. Then he realized it was my ball. We both play Chromesoft balls with red markings and I just did not look closely at the ball before hitting it. I guess that George didn't either. 

 

One thing in my defense is that I wear single vision glasses on the course and really cannot see close up very well (take them off or look under them for scorecard stuff). Maybe I need to change that. Stupid me, anyway. 

 

dave

[MtlJeff]

were you in a match or is this a situation where some casual cheating makes sense?

[nitram]

Hell Dave, it happens. Good thing is it probably won't happen to you again, for a while anyway. Take the 2 strokes and carry on.

[DaveLeeNC]

@MtlJeff - this was a four person team format (2 best handicap adjusted scores count). I did not get a stroke on that hole so just picked up at that point (we were a slowish group with players on the tee behind us). 

 

@nitram - actually this has happened before. I started marking my ball with red years ago because a (now deceased) playing partner marked his in blue (as I was doing) with a mark similar to mine. I am considering some kind of mark that I can see regardless of the orientation of the ball. 

 

dave

Edited November 21, 2020 by DaveLeeNC

[sui generis]

1 hour ago, DaveLeeNC said:

Here is one for the stupid bucket. 

 

I hit a good drive on 14 as did one of my playing partners. We expected to see our balls near each other but only saw one. George went over to that ball and said 'Dave, this is your ball'. It was maybe a bit shorter than I expected but no more than 10-15 yards so I played it and hit a great 8i to 6' (even I can par a hole from there). Easily the best shot of the day.

 

George found 'his ball' about 15 yards ahead kind of hidden in a sprinkler head. Then he realized it was my ball. We both play Chromesoft balls with red markings and I just did not look closely at the ball before hitting it. I guess that George didn't either. 

 

One thing in my defense is that I wear single vision glasses on the course and really cannot see close up very well (take them off or look under them for scorecard stuff). Maybe I need to change that. Stupid me, anyway. 

 

dave

 

Our learned friend rogolf opines that you're now immune from playing a wrong ball for the next seven years. (I've still got another six years of immunity remaining.) 🙄

[jvincent]

I'm probably going to curse myself, but as far as I can remember I have never played the wrong ball. How hard is it to look at your ball closely before you hit it?

 

We have some pretty competitive guys at our club and every year there's always somebody who plays the wrong ball. Sometimes because they haven't marked their balls!

 

Come on guys. Spend the $2 on a Sharpie and mark your damn ball. It's not rocket science.

[Sawgrass]

1 minute ago, jvincent said:

I'm probably going to curse myself, but as far as I can remember I have never played the wrong ball. How hard is it to look at your ball closely before you hit it?

 

We have some pretty competitive guys at our club and every year there's always somebody who plays the wrong ball. Sometimes because they haven't marked their balls!

 

Come on guys. Spend the $2 on a Sharpie and mark your damn ball. It's not rocket science.

Oh boy, now you've really done it . . .

[Mr. Bean]

Dave, here's a hint for you: whenever playing seriously use a yellow ball. No more wrong ball penalties for you.

[Mr. Bean]

48 minutes ago, jvincent said:

I'm probably going to curse myself, but as far as I can remember I have never played the wrong ball. How hard is it to look at your ball closely before you hit it?

 

 

Vincent, I will tell you a story.

 

In a competition a player found her ball in the woods and tried to chip it out onto the fairway. The chip was not successful as the ball just jumped up half a meter and landed back close to where it lie. The player chipped it again and this time onto the fairway. When the player arrived to her ball she realized it was not her ball despite the fact that she had positively identified that ball as hers before her first chip. BUT, and here comes the moral of the story.... she had hit her ball into the ground and caused a stray ball lying under ground emerge and bounce upwards. Later she said there was no way she could have believed that the balls had exchanged.

 

Vincent, I do believe you would have fallen into the same pit as she did...

[DaveLeeNC]

17 minutes ago, Mr. Bean said:

Dave, here's a hint for you: whenever playing seriously use a yellow ball. No more wrong ball penalties for you.

 

Sorry - just can't do that. I use orange tees and the two colors would clash and be most distasteful 🙂

 

dave

[Mr. Bean]

4 minutes ago, DaveLeeNC said:

 

Sorry - just can't do that. I use orange tees and the two colors would clash and be most distasteful 🙂

 

dave

 

I understand. I have exactly the same problem with my red skirt and green shoes. Just cannot bear to look myself in the mirror!

[jvincent]

3 hours ago, Sawgrass said:

Oh boy, now you've really done it . . .

 

By acknowledging the curse, I will avoid it. If there was a witch doctor emoji, I'd put it here.

[Shilgy]

2 hours ago, Mr. Bean said:

 

I understand. I have exactly the same problem with my red skirt and green shoes. Just cannot bear to look myself in the mirror!

We can’t stand to look at that either.....and imagination is always worse that reality. 
 

 

Though...on second thought the reality is probably quite disturbing as well.

 

 Sounds like the start of a good joke......

A Finnish man walks into the pub wearing his Saturday night best red skirt and green heels. .......

[Socrates]

I've got a whole bunch of dots on my golf balls much like a TruVis.  I use all sorts of colors.  Hard to confuse my ball with others.  It's now weird to look at a plain ball with no marks on it or just one.

[jomatty]

It sounds silly but this is the reason I really like the pink truvis chrome soft...

[Mr. Bean]

1 hour ago, Shilgy said:

We can’t stand to look at that either.....and imagination is always worse that reality. 
 

 

Though...on second thought the reality is probably quite disturbing as well.

 

 Sounds like the start of a good joke......

A Finnish man walks into the pub wearing his Saturday night best red skirt and green heels. .......

 

You have the freedom of speech, we have the freedom of dressing up.

[Shilgy]

54 minutes ago, Mr. Bean said:

 

You have the freedom of speech, we have the freedom of dressing up.

A new wrx avatar for you....you’re welcome!

 

 

 

[cardoustie]

I play custom number balls and funky sharpie colours ... and still screwed up earlier this year 

[Sean2]

10 hours ago, DaveLeeNC said:

Here is one for the stupid bucket. 

 

I hit a good drive on 14 as did one of my playing partners. We expected to see our balls near each other but only saw one. George went over to that ball and said 'Dave, this is your ball'. It was maybe a bit shorter than I expected but no more than 10-15 yards so I played it and hit a great 8i to 6' (even I can par a hole from there). Easily the best shot of the day.

 

George found 'his ball' about 15 yards ahead kind of hidden in a sprinkler head. Then he realized it was my ball. We both play Chromesoft balls with red markings and I just did not look closely at the ball before hitting it. I guess that George didn't either. 

 

One thing in my defense is that I wear single vision glasses on the course and really cannot see close up very well (take them off or look under them for scorecard stuff). Maybe I need to change that. Stupid me, anyway. 

 

dave

I had that happen to me a couple of times. Now I mark my ball with a pink line through the name of the golf ball. No one marks their golf balls with pink, lol. 

[rogolf]

Roughrider dots for me - green and white!

[ThinkingPlus]

2 hours ago, Sean2 said:

I had that happen to me a couple of times. Now I mark my ball with a pink line through the name of the golf ball. No one marks their golf balls with pink, lol. 

Actually, I do.  Yellow ProV1x with a hot pink line all the way around.  Easy to identify and no men would touch it and very few women play ProVs.  Of course now if someone picks up my ball, I'll know who it was.

[ArtMBgolf]

Use more than 1 dot.  Many use 1 dot.  
 
Some write big initials on their ball, but then it looks ugly. 

[Jackal66]

I always put a large 'J' on my ball, in 2 spots opposite of each other. This is a 3\4" tall bold letter. Usually you can tell it's mine from 25 feet away.

I know it glaring, and gaudy, but I've had people argue over a small dot or mark.

 No doubt over this. I tell them that jumbo J, is my initial.

Edited November 22, 2020 by Jackal66

[Augster]

I almost always play a white ball. Very well marked with my logo. Today I played a yellow ball. First hole I drive it right. I find a ball right where I saw my ball land, covered in mud. It’s white. I play my second shot. When I get to the ball, and I see it’s white, I then remembered I was playing a yellow ball. Loss of hole. 
 

Great start. 

[Sawgrass]

To be clear, you were entitled to clean the mud on what you thought was your ball to the extent necessary to identify it.  Don't quite understand why you didn't avail yourself of that, and in so doing perhaps recognized that it was a stray.

[gwt]

A few years ago I returned to Australia for my yearly stay (family connections)  I signed up for the causal Wed comp and struck a reasonable drive to a mogully fairway.  Found my Wilson FG Tour with my mark (nobody plays Wilsons in the area--not for sale.  Played my shot and then heard, "hey mate, I think that was my ball."  Wilson?  Yes, found it in the bush last week

 

Found another FG beyond the next mogul.  Sure enough when we finally compared (based on model difference) he was correct,.  He was playing a ball I had lost the previous year!

[Mr. Bean]

3 hours ago, gwt said:

A few years ago I returned to Australia for my yearly stay (family connections)  I signed up for the causal Wed comp and struck a reasonable drive to a mogully fairway.  Found my Wilson FG Tour with my mark (nobody plays Wilsons in the area--not for sale.  Played my shot and then heard, "hey mate, I think that was my ball."  Wilson?  Yes, found it in the bush last week

 

Found another FG beyond the next mogul.  Sure enough when we finally compared (based on model difference) he was correct,.  He was playing a ball I had lost the previous year!

 

Now what are the odds for that !!

[Halebopp]

16 hours ago, ThinkingPlus said:

Actually, I do.  Yellow ProV1x with a hot pink line all the way around.  Easy to identify and no men would touch it and very few women play ProVs.  Of course now if someone picks up my ball, I'll know who it was.

 

That's the reason I use pink e6s, Supersofts etc as my practice balls. It's pretty rare to come across women practicing chipping and pitching to begin with, never mind those not using range balls, and a fair share of men are simply too afraid to even touch them so they're safe on the practice greens. 🙂

 

As for wrong balls, like gwt, I've also managed to play a wrong ball that had at some point belonged to me but wasn't the ball I played off the tee. It was under a shrub right where I hit my tee shot and all I could see of it were my markings on it. It was at my home club so the chances for it happening were nowhere near as rare as for gwt.

[ThinkingPlus]

10 minutes ago, Halebopp said:

 

That's the reason I use pink e6s, Supersofts etc as my practice balls. It's pretty rare to come across women practicing chipping and pitching to begin with, never mind those not using range balls, and a fair share of men are simply too afraid to even touch them so they're safe on the practice greens. 🙂

 

As for wrong balls, like gwt, I've also managed to play a wrong ball that had at some point belonged to me but wasn't the ball I played off the tee. It was under a shrub right where I hit my tee shot and all I could see of it were my markings on it. It was at my home club so the chances for it happening were nowhere near as rare as for gwt.

That's partially why I started a Tuesday morning women's practice session at my club.  Gives all of us the opportunity to work on our games including lots of chipping and putting.  I help everyone out with tips on how I do it.  We have a good time or did before things got difficult this spring.

[Mr. Bean]

48 minutes ago, ThinkingPlus said:

That's partially why I started a Tuesday morning women's practice session at my club.  Gives all of us the opportunity to work on our games including lots of chipping and putting.  I help everyone out with tips on how I do it.  We have a good time or did before things got difficult this spring.

 

So you started that practice session to allow yourself to use pink balls..? Bold! 🤣