My biggest pet peeve...

[hawaiiandude]

I just had to vent as it happened to me again....

 

I hit my drive just off the fairway to the right rough over a hill.

 

As I get over the hill, I notice a couple of guys get in in their cart and start driving away from the location my ball should be.

They are playing the next hole adjacent to the one I am playing but in the opposite direction.

 

I'm sure you know what I am getting at.

They hit my ball!

 

I mark my ball with four green dots and a stem so it looks like a four leaf clover as well as with an alignment line.

Surely it cannot be confused with anybody elses ball mark right?

So why the hell do people continue to hit other people's balls?

 

What...you look around and don't see anybody and say to yourself, "Geez - I'll just play this one"?

 

I was so certain he hit my ball that I followed him down his fairway until I got to his green and asked him to see his ball.

Sure enough it was mine!

The guy says, "Oops, I thought it was mine."

 

I follow up yelling with, "what are you blind? you can't see these four green dots you retard?

I had it with these people!

[Guia]

I agree that is frustraiting. I even had a guy hit my ball when I was telling him it wasn't his.

However, I just retrieve my ball and inform the player to be more careful. No reason to have a fit and ruin my game and theirs.

[w104jmn]

Instead of yelling, you could kindly inform him that he hit your ball and should incur a two stroke penalty for playing the wrong ball. Have a great day and a hell-of-a-hole there buddy. Some people just don't care and hit whatever they find.

[Sawgrass]

[quote name='w104jmn' date='01 June 2010 - 08:30 AM' timestamp='1275395428' post='2479636']
Instead of yelling, you could kindly inform him that he hit your ball and should incur a two stroke penalty for playing the wrong ball. . . [/quote]

Perfect!

[scotchblade]

[quote name='hawaiiandude' date='31 May 2010 - 04:41 PM' timestamp='1275338464' post='2478369']
The guy says, "Oops, I thought it was mine."

I follow up yelling with, "what are you blind? you can't see these four green dots you retard?
[/quote]
I understand your frustration, but if you really did speak to this person in this way, I find that far more disturbing than someone playing the wrong ball.

[highergr0und]

Man, I hit someone's ball on accident a few rounds ago. They were in my group too.... felt like a total idiot.

Basically, they had proceeded up the fairway to the other guy's ball on the left side and another ball was just to the right of that. It's a blind tee shot over a hill and I just walked up to "my" ball and hit. Then as I started to walk forward I saw the cart coming back towards me. Crap. We were both playing TM balls and I got lazy and didn't look for the mark since I assumed the only reason they would be up was that the ball wasn't either of theirs. Well that assuming definitely made an a$# out of me. I apologized a few times, but he laughed it off and made a joke about playing my shot since it was on the green. This was the first time meeting and playing with this guy, but he was cool and I'm sure we'll play again sometime and he'll make fun of me. Such is life.

It should be a pet peeve of everyone, but if the guy did it on accident, it's not the end of the world. I wouldn't of degraded him, but my first instinct is to make a situation more funny than serious.

[Dizz]

I have a good one, playing the 5th hole at a local course...dogleg left par 5. I usually try to turn driver around the corner but if I bail out and hit it straight through the dogleg it ends up by hole 1's green. One day I hit it through the dogleg and I'm looking for my ball when I see a couple of guys, one hit a chip back toward 1's green. He looked at me and said "You playing a Callaway 3?" I said, yes I am...he looked back and said "well that wasn't it." I wasn't even mad at that point...still laugh about it to this day.

[Mike_C]

That is why I mark my Bridgestone B330s (not the most popular) with a big, dark red line for putting, a red circle around the number on each side, and a drawing of a red chile pepper on the opposite side of the putting line.

Pretty much from any angle you look at my ball, you can see a red marking. If some idiot hits my ball, they must really be blind.......

[tfro]

[quote name='Mike_C' date='01 June 2010 - 10:36 AM' timestamp='1275406605' post='2479941']
That is why I mark my Bridgestone B330s (not the most popular) with a big, dark red line for putting, a red circle around the number on each side, and a drawing of a red chile pepper on the opposite side of the putting line.

Pretty much from any angle you look at my ball, you can see a red marking. If some idiot hits my ball, they must really be blind.......
[/quote]


Here's the thing, the guys who are hitting other peoples balls aren't guys who buy new balls and place their marks on them. They are playing random balls they found or used balls, and odds are they don't keep a ball long enough to really remember the markings on the ball they are playing.

Blind, no. Clueless, yes.

[Mike_C]

[quote name='tfro' date='01 June 2010 - 11:10 AM' timestamp='1275408644' post='2480027']
[quote name='Mike_C' date='01 June 2010 - 10:36 AM' timestamp='1275406605' post='2479941']
That is why I mark my Bridgestone B330s (not the most popular) with a big, dark red line for putting, a red circle around the number on each side, and a drawing of a red chile pepper on the opposite side of the putting line.

Pretty much from any angle you look at my ball, you can see a red marking. If some idiot hits my ball, they must really be blind.......
[/quote]


Here's the thing, the guys who are hitting other peoples balls aren't guys who buy new balls and place their marks on them. They are playing random balls they found or used balls, and odds are they don't keep a ball long enough to really remember the markings on the ball they are playing.

Blind, no. Clueless, yes.
[/quote]

Probably true. The other possibility is that he thinks that what ever ball he comes across is better than the $8.99/dozen balls he bought at Wal-Mart and teed-off with, so he will play a different one when he gets a chance, because anyway, isn't it finders keepers on who ever gets to a ball first, right?

[mshills]

First off, I had something similar happen to me this past weekend. Drivable par 4, with the next tee box right behind the green, with a couple of mounds in between the green and that next tee box. I go for the green (260 carry over water) and my drive does not turn over and draw. Slight block just right of the green. Hits the path and I have to assume that it bounced onto the next tee. There was a single playing in front of me and when I got up there, my ball was no where to be found. I don't know what happened to it, but I have to assume that the fool playing in front of me figured it was fair game to pick it up and make off with it.

Did that irritate me? Sure it does. Did I hope that he jacked my brand new Pro V1 into the woods on #18 tee? You bet.

Did I chase him down and bow up on him on account of a $4 golf ball? Not a chance!

I have too much to lose - business, financial, family...

The list goes on and on. It's not worth it on account of what? A golf ball, and my score on a drivable par 4 when I'm playing by myself with no money on the line? Please!

You'll realize two things as you age and (hopefully) mature that will take you a long way in life:
[list=1][*]Pointless confrontations are just that - pointless[*]There is always - and I mean [u][b]always[/b][/u] - someone tougher than you[/list]

[Pepperturbo]

Yep, I couldn't agree more with the Op's sentiments. I had it happen to me as well. To make it worse, someone in my foursome played my ball, and when asked if he saw my ball, he says no. Two holes pass we're on the green getting ready to putt. I happen to notice the ball he was aligning to putt had my markings on it. I said that's my ball... he looked over with a "stupid" look and handed me the ball without a word, then walked to his cart.

 

I get people make mistakes, and no one is perfect; but geez. He was asked, and all it would have taken was a look. If only each person would mark their ball, and pay attention to the marking before hitting. I wonder if that has anything to do with their game, or lack there of...

[Sawgrass]

 

I get people make mistakes, and no one is perfect; but geez. He was asked, and all it would have taken was a look. If only each person would mark their ball, and pay attention to the marking before hitting. I wonder if that has anything to do with their game, or lack there of...

 

 

I think you're right that it has something to do with "their game". I don't believe it's typically common thievery that motivates these people, I think it's more commonly a refusal to accept the frustration that golf gives us. "If I don't check, I can assume or talk myself into the fantasy that this is my ball, and I can go happily on with my game."

 

The fact that this behavior often costs your fellow man a stroke and distance penalty is of no concern to them when confronted with their own ego issues.

 

(On the other hand it could simply be an honest mistake. I've hit a wrong ball (my opponent's) by accident/silly assumption. And it cost me the hole. Not so much fun.)

[r9dhicks]

HAHA, mrhills... BEST POST OF THE TOPIC

[Pepperturbo]

Saw.. your assessment it spot on... they are oblivious, spotted with hope while a few make honest mistakes.

I hit the wrong ball once long time back when I first took up the game. I was very disappointed with myself. I not only affected my game, I affect someone else; that's wrong. Add, I hate repeating mistakes as it shows I didn't learn the first time. I haven't' done it since. I always check the ball for my markings before I conclude it's mine.

[oldpalchamp]

A few years ago, the season after I left my private club, I was playing the local muni. I purshed my tee shot on the 7th hole into the right rough that separated the sixth and seventh fairways. When I got to where I thought my ball ended up, I couldn't find it. Later in the round, walking up the 14th fairway, I see a ball in the middle and a guy walking towards it from the adjacent 13th fairway. Looked down, and lo and behold, it's my Pro V1 with my markings. This guy had hit it on the front 9.

I was really upset and said something to him, and he said, "dude, it's only a golf ball." I told him that was not the point and that I had to go back and retee on #7 because I had a "lost ball." He just didn't get it!

[Pepperturbo]

Any they wonder why we call them cheaters...

[golferboytexas]

lol.

[stage1350]

Write the names of porn stars on your balls. Nobody will pick up a ball with "Mandingo" written in big, black sharpie.

Works well in scrambles.

[Pepperturbo]

I don't know any porn star names... now, there's a subject for a different thread.

[varno]

I have a good one, playing the 5th hole at a local course...dogleg left par 5. I usually try to turn driver around the corner but if I bail out and hit it straight through the dogleg it ends up by hole 1's green. One day I hit it through the dogleg and I'm looking for my ball when I see a couple of guys, one hit a chip back toward 1's green. He looked at me and said "You playing a Callaway 3?" I said, yes I am...he looked back and said "well that wasn't it." I wasn't even mad at that point...still laugh about it to this day.

 

That is awesome!

 

Too funny.

[w104jmn]

Let me know where you start that thread lol.

[seanhoff]

I never understood why people just grab random balls. Especially when two holes are adjacent to each other you'd think people could deduce that if it's no their ball it probably belongs to someone else.

That being said, one of my buddies has some no name hot pink balls he gets off some website by the dozen. Last time one of those went missing we caught up with a group of 4 middle aged men that had started a few holes ahead of us and saw one of them teeing up with the ball. We didn't say anything, but we took a couple pictures of Mr. TaylorMade with his matching outfit knocking a sliced 150 yard drive with his brand new R9:yahoo:

[Brutus3]

Do what I did, start playing the Srixon Tour Yellow balls...problem solved. I love using those and especially when someone gives me the "he must be a newbie" look.

[mills225]

I can understand everyones frustration. Although I have never knowingly seen someone pick up my ball.... I have had my suspicions of people doing so.

My biggest pet peeve is when you get hit into and no one says a word. Probably like many of you I have been hit into many times and I have on occasion his hit a ball and hit into a group with a loud FORE!! But one round at a local muni someone in my group was drilled square in the back with a ball from someone on the same hole. I calmly asked if my friend was ok, teed the ball back up and fired it into the woods...... Is that considered a lost ball??

[sigmapete1]

[quote name='Brutus3' date='02 June 2010 - 10:51 PM' timestamp='1275533505' post='2483524']
Do what I did, start playing the Srixon Tour Yellow balls...problem solved. I love using those and especially when someone gives me the "he must be a newbie" look.
[/quote]

+1 on that!

I've seen guys pick up my ball, realize it's yellow (not sure how they couldn't tell from the ground) make a disgusted face and throw it back down. I just laugh. Less people that you would think realize its a premium ball. Hell, most weekend hacks never heard of Srixon balls! I am hoping they stay popular enough to keep making them but not get so popular that everyone starts using them. Not to mention they perform great!

[bhamgolfer]

This is just a classic problem for the mis-informed playing golf. If you are playing in a legit tournament this isn't a problem but for the weekend warriors out there they just don't know better....or don't even care. It's kind of sad.

[indianshaft]

Anyone ever have another group playing their shot on your hole or for whatever reason siting on it. Then as you hit a shot over their heads into the rough have them drive towards you say hi and then not find your ball?

[bigred90gt]

Ive never hit a shot over someone's head while they were sitting on my hole. Even though, being on the hole I am playing I have the right of way, I will wait for them to clear out so as not to risk killing them.

[larrybud]

[quote name='Dizz' date='01 June 2010 - 10:57 AM' timestamp='1275404265' post='2479868']
I have a good one, playing the 5th hole at a local course...dogleg left par 5. I usually try to turn driver around the corner but if I bail out and hit it straight through the dogleg it ends up by hole 1's green. One day I hit it through the dogleg and I'm looking for my ball when I see a couple of guys, one hit a chip back toward 1's green. He looked at me and said "You playing a Callaway 3?" I said, yes I am...he looked back and said "well that wasn't it." I wasn't even mad at that point...still laugh about it to this day.
[/quote]
lol. Just a lucky guess on his part, eh!?!