ANNOYING (and not) GOLFER HABITS/THINGS/ETIQUETTE

[SPY ZINGER]

Does anyone here even like to golf? Or does everyone just buy equipment to stare at it?

If you live in the North, its all we can do November through March. :beee: :black eye:

[jb93]

I did not see anyone mention this...so, I will say it is really annoying to watch average players (10-20+ hcap) head to the back set of tees and struggle all day long because they don't hit the ball far enough/solid enough to handle 7000+ yards. I know my limits and they are about 6700 yards.

 

I don't mind frustration, but I cannot stand it when people are dropping F-bombs and GD every time they mis-hit a shot/putt. It is so classless and disrespectful to those around you and to the God that made you. I do my best to chastise myself by name...I remember hearing Jack Nicklaus do this as a kid on tv....he would say "Oh Jack" with a tone that let you know he was frustrated. I wish Tiger would try that instead of F-ing this and GD that. He seems to be a classy player in every way but this. Too bad.

[wholeinwon]

From the other side:

 

People who come into the shop and check in 5 mins before their tee time, then run the whole course behind because they take another 15 to get out there because the insist on talking on their cell phone or going to the bar, but heaven forbid if you put someone infront of them.

 

People who call the golf course on a Saturday morning between 9am-12pm and ask if they can "Just come out anytime and walk on"

 

People who complain about pace of play after they have been told the pace is slow, or their tee time is delayed...these are usually the same people who also complain when a marshall asks them to pick up the pace or skip a hole.

 

People who call the proshop to complain about pace of play, you then have to go out there to check why they called, and you see the group infront of them a hole ahead and the guys that called waving you over, lining up putts, checking yardage, etc. etc.

 

People who look for balls in lakes, environmental areas, or in forrests...or whenever a ball retriever is in someones bag, i cringe

 

People who ask to demo clubs and say to their buddies "ya, i hit this about 325 when I tried it at the golf shop" and they proceed to go to the range to warm up and can barely hit the ball

 

People who go to the range with a driver, and only a driver before a round

 

Also for the record...Marshall and the Pro Shop are usually on slow groups by hole 2 or 3...and they both usually are aware of them. There is not much you can do because: 1. Marshall are usually either voltunteers who are working for free golf and retired, or retired and getting paid very little basically wanting free golf, so they don't really want to get yelled at by people on hole #2 and ruin their day so you kinda just try to deal with it the best you can.

 

It's a lose lose situation for proshop staff and marshall's...if you move a group they are pissed at you, if you don't the group behind is pissed, either way someone is pissed off and for the most part people are usually in both situations at one point or another.

 

Things I can't stand while playing:

 

When people complain about a conversation, a noise, another group talking, etc. Ok really? Who do you think you are, if you can't handle noise please leave

 

People who pace off every approach shots yardage. Really? I'm a + handicap and I don't know exactly how far each iron shot goes because I'm not that consistent, so do you really think because your 144 instead of 150 it's making a huge difference? Just hit it NEAR the green it will probably work out much better and is GREAT for pace of play.

 

People who wait on Par 4's or 5's...especially Par 5's when it's a 500 yard hole and they hit their driver 200 yards...oh really? is your magic wood coming out of the bag that goes an extra 100 yards? hit your layup and go wait there so the group behind you can tee off.

 

People who "Reverse Sandbag" There is NOTHING worse then playing with someone who is "about a 2" handicap and they start off double, triple, double, bogey and say "oh must be a bad day"...really?...a bad day? maybe a bad adding job on the score, you last 74 was probably more like 84, get a real handicap and stop acting like a PGA Tour player.

 

People who change clubs 100 times because "the wind is up" or "oh wrong yardage"....really?...really? your yardage was off by 15 yards so you have to run across the fairway to your cart, run back, take one swing and then top the ball...good, good thing you changed clubs your top might of only gone 30 yards instead of 35.

 

 

 

Sigh...that was good to get off my chest...

[hogans71]

Cell Phone users, Unless your an on-call doctor.. turn it too silent, and toss it in the bag until your in your car heading home.

 

 

My phone is set "on" but I have bird ring tones - about 7 of them I use depending on what state I'm playing in. Black Capped Chickadee, KillDeer, Robin, Red Shoulder Hawk, etc...

 

To this day nobody has detected my phone is ringing. I've had it go off in people tee shots and they never know. I don't take calls on the course but I leave my phone in my bag sometimes and I won't hear vibrate. If I am "on-call" I need to have a phone around.

 

Since I hear it all the time I know it's my phone. Hilarious when it goes off indoors in the pro-shop. Guys look around for the bird :)

 

You can get some of them at the free sound project, but I got mine at the national geographic website. Convert them to whatever your phone uses and upload them onto your phone. I use an iphone so mine are already iphone-ready.

 

Message me if you have an iPhone and I will email them to you. They're tiny.

 

That is pretty funny- I gotta check that out for no other reason than to have those ringers on inside my house!!

[BankerGolfer]

People who NEVER put the flagstick back in the hole. You know the types. After holing out, they walk to their bag and let others do the work.

[acantrell]

2. Golfers who smoke that drop ash on the greens leaving burn marks.....

 

Same here. My usual playing partner and I play at the same muni every Monday, and he's a smoker and does exactly this. Also, there's times when he throws the cigarette down before he hits his shot (mostly on the tee box). I've warned him that one day I'm gonna come to the course the night before and pour circles of gasoline around the teeing areas so that when he throws his cigarette down he's instantly surrounded by a wall of fire. He laughs, but he'll learn his lesson someday...

[johnburkejr]

alot of those i don't see too much but one i do see all the time is people not marking their balls.

 

it's lame and bugs the crap out of me.

[Carl Spackler2]

People that stand right behind the hole when your putting. Hey man I know you want the line but I dont want to see you scratch yourself while im reading my putt haha.

 

Oh and the sunflower seeds spit on the green: gross, disrepectful to everyone else, and kinda rednecky.

[skinny99]

From the other side

 

People who call the golf course on a Saturday morning between 9am-12pm and ask if they can "Just come out anytime and walk on"

 

I am curious about this one! I have found myself in this situation a couple times,not planning on playing so I don't find people to play with, then the option of playing comes up! What should I do just show up? I think calling is the only thing that makes sense,if they have no openings they can tell you! Enlighten me please. Thanks Todd

[Dizz]

From the other side

 

People who call the golf course on a Saturday morning between 9am-12pm and ask if they can "Just come out anytime and walk on"

 

I am curious about this one! I have found myself in this situation a couple times,not planning on playing so I don't find people to play with, then the option of playing comes up! What should I do just show up? I think calling is the only thing that makes sense,if they have no openings they can tell you! Enlighten me please. Thanks Todd

 

I think calling and asking for a tee time would obviously make the most sense. Obviously if you are a single you can ask to be paired with another group.

[grlichti]

I hate it when a golfer in my group stands behind or in front of my line of putt to get a read on his ball. I'm in a Friday golf league and I can't believe the number of golfers thatt do this.

 

I always politely aske them to move off the line, and the begrugingly move. Somtimes they only move an inch or two and I have to aske them to move a little more.

 

Is there a golf rule against standing on a competitor's line of putt?

 

Yes, there is a rule against standing on the line (or an extension thereof) of a player's putt. That is why you always see the pros (and me! ha ha) stand off to the side and then take a couple steps over as the ball rolls so as to see the break.

 

Pet Peeves?

 

No classers who NEVER sand/replace a divot, fix a ball marker or rake a bunker.

 

Loud mouths who are swearing, exclaiming, or otherwise have loud diarrhea of the mouth during play. Especially when you are in middle of backswing on adjacent tee!

 

Any nasty a** cranky miserable SOB who manages to find a way to gripe and complain and otherwise act like an uncouth jerk continually (often because they are not scoring like Tiger despite having a swing that looks like a backhoe falling down a hill! :rolleyes: ) when having the great fortune to play this beautiful game on almost any day. Amazing to me how many just plain miserable people there are on the golf course sometimes!

[Zlim]

If you don't have time to play, DON'T PLAY. I agree that a round should NOT take 4 hrs and 45 minutes, but a comfortable pace of play does not equate to trying to set a land speed record either.

 

to add to not having the time to play...DON'T BE LATE TO YOUR TEE TIME!!! I like to get the feel of the putting green before teeing off so I'm always on time but I know some people who are fun to play golf with but hate to wait for.

 

 

You know what's also annoying? Guys who type more than 1 paragraph or listed more than 2 or 3 bad things in this posting.

 

HEY! they can't help it! that's how bad their experiences are with some golfer's. Don't blame them, blame the cause.

 

There are so MANY things that can bother you when playing golf. There's an even longer list of things you OUGHT to pay attention to when you play golf.

 

This is why I'm so floored every time I see these "I can't believe this guy was off 15 and had $4K of equipment in his bag."

 

W H O C A R E S????

 

Once again: one thing that a man should never do is tell another man how to spend his own money. Never.

 

I don't really care much about other people's bags and I agree about not telling another man how to spend his money....but it's a different story when the other man is telling me how HE spent is money...and how much it was.

 

When someone refers to a Lob wedge as a "Loft wedge"

:cheesy: Like MasterCard.

 

thought that exact same thing when I read it...lol

 

Does anyone here even like to golf? Or does everyone just buy equipment to stare at it?

 

Love golf, love the asthetics and history behind it....see it more of a gentleman's game than a players.....but not gonna lie, I'm guilty of starring. :)

[jshiver15]

I discovered something that I really cannot stand yesterday . . . metal cups.

 

I HATE the sound of a ball falling into a metal cup. I almost didn't want to make my putts because of it.

[bigred90gt]

-The golf store that says they have the "Best Club Maker" in the area but after he puts in your expensive shaft, you find scratch marks all over the shaft and on the top of your club head. You also hear loose poxy in the club head and notice the grip isn't even on correctly because you can still see the tape......GG GOLF ETC IN CLEAR LAKE HOUSTON, TX! Best club maker........what kinda club you making?

 

If you are in the Houston area, I would suggest going to Swede Golf in Deer Park. You would be better off buying equipment and parts elsewhere, and taking it to them, but they do good work for fairly inexpensive. They are on San Augustine, about 500 feet west of Center street.

[SV Golfer]

2. Golfers who smoke that drop ash on the greens leaving burn marks.....

 

Same here. My usual playing partner and I play at the same muni every Monday, and he's a smoker and does exactly this. Also, there's times when he throws the cigarette down before he hits his shot (mostly on the tee box). I've warned him that one day I'm gonna come to the course the night before and pour circles of gasoline around the teeing areas so that when he throws his cigarette down he's instantly surrounded by a wall of fire. He laughs, but he'll learn his lesson someday...

 

Hate to be a complete d***, but they actually proved on Mythbusters that a cigarette butt can't ignite gasoline.

 

Still though, that would be pretty hilarious to see.

[Double True]

-Courses that try and squeeze groups out in 5 minute time slots instead of closer to 10.

-Marshalls that don't marshall but instead drive around and look for lost golf balls.

-Chops that scream and curse when they miss their 10 footer for double bogey.

-D*cks that play your ball without taking 5 seconds to look at it.

-People that have no sense to look around the green at where the other marks are at and proceed to walk on your line.

-First one in gets the pin right? Not for those great people that putt out first and walk off....

-People that don't fix divots or rake bunkers.

-Flags in utterly recockulous pin positions like on a side slope of a two tiered green where there is water on that side.

-Pretty much every thing else that all of you mentioned before me.

[Marrrk]

of all things, nothing bothers me more than people who TAKE FOREVER at the turn. my dad goes into semi-retirement after the 9th hole. he disappears into the clubhouse and i don't see him again for 20 minutes. come on, pops! get the hell back on the course already!

[Marrrk]

oh yeah, and people who live directly on golf courses and act shocked, SHOCKED! that your ball hit their house. it's one thing to come out and check for damage, but it's another thing to act like the possibility of this obscene monstrosity never crossed your mind.

[theshow]

Got to be honest here, don't play golf w/your girlfriend, and don't play golf w/girlfriend and family! It's going to be a miserable day. I know your trying to be a good guy, but it will be a long day!

 

I hate that people do a crappy job raking the bunkers! I hit in them, and when I do, I'm in a Sasquatch foot print.

 

Rake the bunkers!

[Zlim]

Got to be honest here, don't play golf w/your girlfriend, and don't play golf w/girlfriend and family! It's going to be a miserable day. I know your trying to be a good guy, but it will be a long day!

 

I hate that people do a crappy job raking the bunkers! I hit in them, and when I do, I'm in a Sasquatch foot print.

 

Rake the bunkers!

 

Yeah true, but her some of her family that usually goes are bad @ss at golf. one is a low single, one shoots low 80's and another shoots mid 80's but occasionally breaks 70. a couple of them were the main reasons why I started...I just had to beat her dad at golf HAHA! and my gf plays well too she is better than average for women golfers.

 

at the beginning of it all I was the one who was making it a long day ;) got better since then, but anyways I can see how it could be miserable. but once a year they all go and it's nice.

[mission_scratch]

Oh, one more thing I have to add.

 

I am 40, but I LOVE playing with old guys that are 70+ years old and have been playing a long time. They all treat golf like a gentleman's sport - they have all the etiquette and habit's "built-in" from years of play...and they love telling you stories about when they "watched Hogan on the range" or "back in the day.."

 

Love that....I'd rather play with an old guy than a young +handicapper any day. You can almost feel their wisdom when you stand near them.

 

 

 

Same here.. I am 27, so alot of the times, I am grouped up with older guys... I have had some of the funnest/best rounds, with older guys out there.... I love sitting in the cart and hearing the stories they have... I was unfortunate to not have a grandfather growing up, and when I get out there with older guys, I soak it up as much as possible...

[finalist]

smokers who throw their butts on the ground.. especially out of car windows and near the fringe on a green. It's still trash.

[golfortennis]

Bad stuff -

1. Slow play, unless the entire course is backed up, then I can sorta understand.

2. Golfers who smoke that drop ash on the greens leaving burn marks.....

3. People that cast a shadow over my line when I putt.

4. Bad golfers who have all the latest gear, give you advice on how to play your home course and critique every shot you make.

5. Golfers who pull out their rangefinder and shoot the flag.......thats still 280 away.

6. People that use carts and race up to my tee box and sit there while I'm in the middle of teeing off.

7. Sunflower seed chewers who spit shells anywhere near the green or tee box.

 

Good stuff-

1. The guy that bought me and my friend lunch and drinks for signing his scorecard after witnessing him ace a par 3.

2. Enjoying a round with a senior player that still can shoot low.

3. The smell of fresh cut greens and fairways on a summer morning.

4. Being invited into the 19th hole for a pint after a round by someone who was a complete stranger 4 1/2 hours earlier...and enjoying it.

5. People that take off their hats and shake your hand after putting out on 18.

6. Golfers that are excited that you just shot your lowest score or had a great day.

 

I would agree with most of your post except that one. I'm not hitting the ball 280, but I'm pulling out the rangefinder to get the distance to the hole, so I know what I want to layup to, and if I actually can(hazards etc.). The rangefinder coming out is not vanity.

[avrag]

I almost feel like "Old man yells at cloud" (out of a Simpson's cartoon), when I post in these threads, but it has a therapeutic effect, I suppose :D .

 

Bad:

1) Club competition. The person I have to keep score for hits the ball in the direction of a water hazard, where it disappears from sight in midst of the bushes and reeds that surround the water hazard. Person says "I'll just play a provisional."

2) Slow play that is caused by stupidtiy. I do not mind beginners, old ladies or little kids taking 5 shots to get onto the green, as long as they move. What I am talking about is people who leave their bags front right of the green, when the route to the next tee is from the back left of the green. Then they putt out, walk to the front of the green again, get their stuff and walk all around for the third time to get on their way to the next tee box. Sheer stupidity.

Good:

People who do not curse after bad shots, but say something like "I'm such a fool" and smile. Believe it or not, most of those are not fakes, but the people I enjoy playing with most. Also, I have to second the posts about taking off your hat when shaking hands. And your Oakley's, too, please.

[Zlim]

I almost feel like "Old man yells at cloud" (out of a Simpson's cartoon), when I post in these threads, but it has a therapeutic effect, I suppose :D .

 

Bad:

1) Club competition. The person I have to keep score for hits the ball in the direction of a water hazard, where it disappears from sight in midst of the bushes and reeds that surround the water hazard. Person says "I'll just play a provisional."

2) Slow play that is caused by stupidtiy. I do not mind beginners, old ladies or little kids taking 5 shots to get onto the green, as long as they move. What I am talking about is people who leave their bags front right of the green, when the route to the next tee is from the back left of the green. Then they putt out, walk to the front of the green again, get their stuff and walk all around for the third time to get on their way to the next tee box. Sheer stupidity.

Good:

People who do not curse after bad shots, but say something like "I'm such a fool" and smile. Believe it or not, most of those are not fakes, but the people I enjoy playing with most. Also, I have to second the posts about taking off your hat when shaking hands. And your Oakley's, too, please.

 

Man who tells at cloud gets the same outcome as man who talks to airborne golfball.

 

I never curse at a shot or yell at it...I I just say things under my breath and it's either: Go, bite, Oh-no, Bingo, or the usual...."hmmm"

 

I always put my bag to the back of the green because of two reasons..I'm kinda lazy and I never want to be short so I always aim a tad further.

 

OH another good thing:

 

high five/fist pound/"high-grip" (hit club grips like light sabers) after a bad @ss approach shot is always nice and boost confidence as well

[raytracer]

People who mark their ball on the green by placing their mark between the ball and the hole - then replacing the ball between the mark and the hole when it's their turn to putt.

[Trock]

+1 ray

 

BAD:

If you're going to dip and chew tobacco while playing DON'T spit on the green or tee box and when you're done throw it in the trash or in the woods not in the middle of the fairway or the fringe of the green!!!

 

Edit: referencing slow play when the hole in front is open and the next group is waiting. I agree Zlim with your post below.

 

Golfers that take all day to putt. This isn't the pga tour so no need to circle your line, plumb bob it and then squat behind it still unsure. If its a tournament or you've got a lot of dough on the line, ok, but not for a round with your buddies!!

 

GOOD:

 

Any golfer that has a good attitude and is respectful to his playing partners!!

[Zlim]

+1 ray

 

BAD:

If you're going to dip and chew tobacco while playing DON'T spit on the green or tee box and when you're done throw it in the trash or in the woods not in the middle of the fairway or the fringe of the green!!!

 

Golfers that take all day to putt. This isn't the pga tour so no need to circle your line, plumb bob it and then squat behind it still unsure. If its a tournament or you've got a lot of dough on the line, ok, but not for a round with your buddies!!

 

GOOD:

 

Any golfer that has a good attitude and is respectful to his playing partners!!

 

I hate when I get paried up with people (i don't know) who tell me to hurry my putting up but they take more putts to put it in. I think I'm right at average maybe a tad over. I sit behind my ball stand and set up...then putt....20 seconds max. And I don't two putt when I take my time like this.

 

I don't mind faster play but don't tell me to hurry up when you putt goes 7 feet past the hole and 4 feet past on the way back. and then you finally take your time making an easy 3 over

[One_Putt_Blunder]

Forgot to add one more good thing. Playing with fellow golfwrxers when they come to town and having a great time swapping stories and jokes.

[I A N]

annoying: people ask you to use your clubs (when you dont know them)