hows this for golf etiquette

hi all

i was recently playing a 2 ball round of golf on a municiple course ( heaton park )in front was a 4 ball . after a few holes i thought that they was playing quite slow.but left it at that. then after 8 holes  they all hit there drives then started looking for there balls it was at that point they finely waved us through  so we both hit our drives not that well. as we rushed a little bit (well thats my excuse anyway ) then they continued to carry on playing before we played our next shots. on the next tee one of them said we was going to let you play through but thought we was to slow. to witch i replied theres no one in front of you yet there are to sets of players waiting behind us. to that he just mumbled something under his breath . then reached into his bag brought out a can of lager then just carried on as if nothing had happened.

Sorry to have to say it, but this is the new breed of golf player, noconcern or respect for anyone else on the course.

These gripes that I seem to be hearing all the time, never used to occur in my days as a member at a private club.

That struck a little bit of an Uncle Albert there John.  "During the war...."

It also puts me off my game if I feel I am holding a faster group up. I tend to let them through as quick as I can.

Anybody found drinking alcohol on the course should be banned.....

There is a place for the devils brew and the course is not it......

How do they dispose of the can....a swift under arm into the bushes no doubt....

And this would be after flicking the fag end to the floor whilst stood at the tee......

Thankfully, my club have a more diciplined membership and although the tab throwers walk our fairways the larger louts don't....

When I played the PGA at the Belfry, we waved a group through, and got told of for it by the course marshal. People have to keep to their tee slot, all the way round. If you're playing too slow, the marshal will be there to speed you up.

Thats a great idea Danny - it would avoid confrontation between groups and everyone would know the score...

The probable reason this is done at the Belfry is because they fill their tee times with fourballs and one fourball going through another fourfball backs up the whole course.

The problems usually only arise whe  you have mixed 2balls and 3/4 balls intermixed with each other. Just does not work and never has.

We waved a 3 ball through John. I wouldn't wave a fourball through. Unless it was, Tiger woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Benn Hogan.

That fourball would never catch you up in the first place Danny. Pros cannot play fast.

I thought you were gonna say, because one of them is dead.

Kevin, to answer your question above, once you have waved a group through then you should not play another shot until the group is out of reach in front of you.  I have been in the situation though having been waved through that I hit such a wayward drive that I had to wave the group in front on as I realised I would be taking a fair amount of time to find my ball. 

I'd also like to say having taken part in this thread and the other currently running on ettiquette that I would estimate that 99% of golfers I encounter on the course do abide by course ettiquette and are considerate.

How is it unfair, Steven. After all how would you know how the game was played in the old day before these 850 new courses were built and a new type of golfer took up the game.

You are new to the game and I commend you for abiding by the etiquette, but you are an exception as I can only compare with what I see now as opposed to what I used to experience earlier on in my golfing career.

These silly old buggars you are referring to are probably new players as well. I doubt very much any old fart with a history in the game behaves in such a manner.

We can only comment about the era we are born into, everything else is conjecture.

"Any old fart" John.....

As I have turned 50 now can I be an old fart with good etiquette please...

Or is the age limit still OOB for me....

I think you are classed as a Senior now, Robbie, old farts are restricted to people like me who just love to whinge about the so called progress of this game of ours.

Ok John, senior it is.....

 Ya old fart............

I can't believe anyone can say that the badly behaved golfers are the majority, thats clearly not the case as I am on the golf course every weekend and rarely see anything I would call bad behaviour, I think it's a very very small minority, I sometimes see empty bottles or rubbish on the course but I have never been out with anyone who has dropped anything.  

I agree. They are not the majority but when you are stuck behind someone with bad etiquette it is really frustrating!

Nothing will stop it without marshalls on the course....

Dennis, I could not agree more.

Course marshalls are the answer.

It only takes one guy in a buggy to ride around the course looking for the slow groups.  Once he's found the bottle neck he should either.....

1) Tell the offending group to speed up (this is done if the group are still in contact with the group in front of them)

or

2) Tell the offending group that they must let the group behind play through (this is done when this group are a hole behind the group in front of them)

The marshall shall of course hang around to make sure that the group speeds up or allows the group behind to play through.

On my course there are a few places where a course marshall could sit and watch three or four holes without moving.

The course marshall could also keep is eyes open regarding replacing divots and repairing pitch marks.

The problem here is cost!  The golf club would have to pay for someone to do this job and at the moment the main theme is cost cutting!

Russ

I agree Russ, apart from the cost part.

It would not take a huge wage bill to pay someone to do this. Even if it is only for a couple of hours a day (Peak times).

I dont know about elsewhere but at Sherfield there is usually two / three staff in the Pro shop with the same amount of golfers on the course!

Gosh I wish this weather would improve - i need to play!

Dennis, we do have a Marshall buggy at Sherfield but of course the ground conditions are not ideal for this at the moment.

I know they do use it in the Summer at weekends, but not having ever played at the weekend I cannot be sure.

I don't think anyone actually said "the majority of golfers"?????

You just did......check out your last 4 words above.........

I completely disagree, Pat, sorry, but all the time I was a member at Clevedon Golf Club, Somerset and that was 16 years, I never encountered anything at all like we see today on the golf course.

I know you do not like it one little bit, but unfortunately that is the way the game has changed., and because you were never involved in the game when things were as they should be, you just do not understand where I am coming from.

Different times, different people and completely different attitudes. You think your's is right and I think mine is right.

As an example, it used to snow every year when I was a young man yet we still managed to get to school. Grit was not needed we were born with it.

That was horse and cart though Wayne.

Thanks, Danny.

I never said they were,Pat, but times are most certainly different now to those good old days.

You know when you could leave your front door open, you must remember that.

When all children walked to school, yes even the infants from 5 years old.

When one could play ball games in the road.

MP's were all monied people doing the job as a vocation for a nominal wage, now of course it is considered a gravy train for people who could not possibly hold down a proper job.

If there were any ignorant people around in those days, Pat I must have been very fortunate to have avoided them all as I found that wherever I played golf I never witnessed bad behaviour that I seem to encounter in this day and age.

If there had been forums around in those days then you would not see the kind of threads that we are discussing today. Golf was a gentlemans game then, played by gentlemen.