Someone played my ball! Options

[Shanks For The M...]

I just can't get over how funny this is. I'm at the first hole of this course, and I generally prefer to play slow, so I let a guy play through. I had hit my first drive already, and it went a ways, landed in the left rough, not a great drive.

So, the guy who is playing through, he pulls this awful worm burner, and it bounces and rolls about 100 yards, and slams into a house, then comes to rest in some St. Augustine grass.

So, I think, "oh no, this will take forever." He drives up, and then he pulls off the best shot yet, he GOES TO MY BALL! He had even marked his, and yet he chooses my ball, which is in bounds, and a lot farther ahead. So, he just non-chalantly walks up, gets out a club, and proceeds to skull it into a bunker 30 feet in front of him. Another "oh damn" goes through my head.

So, he hits it, into ANOTHER bunker. Then he skulls it out, pitches it, and takes a few putts. All of this, and he's playing from the back tees. So, that's about a 10 on a par 4 WITH my better lie.

I get up to his ball, and of course, it's a cheaper ball, he took my Calloway and left a Tommy Armour. Fortunately, the golf gods were smiling, I hit my second shot (I dropped where my ball had been), and lost my next Calloway in the rough, so I took a lost ball. But as I looked for it, I found a Pro V1x.

So, I get double bogey, yuck. Next hole, par, then bogey, then quadruple bogey! So, as I go to get out a new ball, I grab the Pro V1x, and put it into play. I end up driving the next two holes pin high. I ended up with a 44, which is not bad with a quad and a double on the card!

Anyway, the Pro V1x lasted me till the last hole, where I lost sight of it (I hate playing alone AND trying to not look up!), so I just rehit. Bottom line, a decent enough score, but what a crazy thing that guy did!

Anyone ever have anyone else do something weird like that?

[Bones01gt]

Absolutely stoopid!!!! If it ain't yer friggin' ball, don't touch it!!!!

I know there are exceptions...if you're in the woods and find a pill that obviously is no longer in play, etc.....

But if the darn thing is in play or there is a possibility it could be in play, leave the darn thing alone, it ain't yours!!!

I guess some people pay no attention to detail. I ALWAYS know what kind of ball I have in play, what number is on it and what kind of mark I put on it to identify it in the case that I need to do so.

I feel your pain. But you handled it well.

[dutz]

sometimes i play a muni course in my town and its almost suicide to play a good ball, if i hit a drive and miss by 10 yards my pro v1x is for sure getting picked up by someone. The people act like they have never seen a decent Titleist in their life and pick it up right away. Most annoying thing ever

[kobe24]

How bout this one, I hit my tee shot in the left rough underneath some trees, go to to see where it was, try to find it and then an older asian dude comes up to me in his cart nonetheless and said, "U playing a TM?" I said uhhh yeah, he proceeds to take it out of his pocket, then go to where he "thought" it landed and dropped it for me. What a guy.

[Awsi Dooger]

Happens to me all the time. In fact, I've won plenty of side bets with friends and my dad. I'll hit a shot into the rough between parallel holes and notice a group coming up the other hole, near the area of my ball. It's surreal how often they'll either play my ball, or pocket it with complete disregard it could have come from the nearby tee box. This occurs primarily when I'm playing in Miami, not so bad in the Las Vegas area or upstate New York, where I typically play during late summer.

I've got to give one guy credit about a month ago. He was a single and passed our group, blasting a drive that went on the same line as my already played shot but about 15 yards beyond. Then I watched him drive smack to my ball and whack it toward the green. He drove back to our group several minutes later in full apology mode, once he realized what he had done, and handed me the ball.

My dad is a tunnel vision type who never has any idea shots can stray from other holes. He'll see an apparently abandoned ball and want to grab it, even with the owner's cart steaming toward it no more than 50 yards away. About 5 years ago dad unknowingly swiped O.J. Simpson's golf ball at Calusa in Miami. O.J. used to play that course regularly before a tornado during Katrina destroyed the clubhouse. Anyway, my dad saw a ball left of the par 3 #3 and drove away with it, wonderfully oblivious that O.J. had hit the shot into the left rough of adjoining par 5 #6. My mom pointed out the tell tale markings on the ball, and O.J. fruitlessly searching in the area a few minutes later.

This post has been edited by Awsi Dooger: Jun 26 2009, 12:57 AM

[wolfpackblack]

Happens to me all the time. In fact, I've won plenty of side bets with friends and my dad. I'll hit a shot into the rough between parallel holes and notice a group coming up the other hole, near the area of my ball. It's surreal how often they'll either play my ball, or pocket it with complete disregard it could have come from the nearby tee box. This occurs primarily when I'm playing in Miami, not so bad in the Las Vegas area or upstate New York, where I typically play during late summer.

I've got to give one guy credit about a month ago. He was a single and passed our group, blasting a drive that went on the same line as my already played shot but about 15 yards beyond. Then I watched him drive smack to my ball and whack it toward the green. He drove back to our group several minutes later in full apology mode, once he realized what he had done, and handed me the ball.

My dad is a tunnel vision type who never has any idea shots can stray from other holes. He'll see an apparently abandoned ball and want to grab it, even with the owner's cart steaming toward it no more than 50 yards away. About 5 years ago dad unknowingly swiped O.J. Simpson's golf ball at Calusa in Miami. O.J. used to play that course regularly before a tornado during Katrina destroyed the clubhouse. Anyway, my dad saw a ball left of the par 3 #3 and drove away with it, wonderfully oblivious that O.J. had hit the shot into the left rough of adjoining par 5 #6. My mom pointed out the tell tale markings on the ball, and O.J. fruitlessly searching in the area a few minutes later.

He's lucky the big man himself didn't come into your house later with guns demanding his ball back I hear hes prone to doing that these days.

[Shanks For The M...]

Happens to me all the time. In fact, I've won plenty of side bets with friends and my dad. I'll hit a shot into the rough between parallel holes and notice a group coming up the other hole, near the area of my ball. It's surreal how often they'll either play my ball, or pocket it with complete disregard it could have come from the nearby tee box. This occurs primarily when I'm playing in Miami, not so bad in the Las Vegas area or upstate New York, where I typically play during late summer.

I've got to give one guy credit about a month ago. He was a single and passed our group, blasting a drive that went on the same line as my already played shot but about 15 yards beyond. Then I watched him drive smack to my ball and whack it toward the green. He drove back to our group several minutes later in full apology mode, once he realized what he had done, and handed me the ball.

My dad is a tunnel vision type who never has any idea shots can stray from other holes. He'll see an apparently abandoned ball and want to grab it, even with the owner's cart steaming toward it no more than 50 yards away. About 5 years ago dad unknowingly swiped O.J. Simpson's golf ball at Calusa in Miami. O.J. used to play that course regularly before a tornado during Katrina destroyed the clubhouse. Anyway, my dad saw a ball left of the par 3 #3 and drove away with it, wonderfully oblivious that O.J. had hit the shot into the left rough of adjoining par 5 #6. My mom pointed out the tell tale markings on the ball, and O.J. fruitlessly searching in the area a few minutes later.

He's lucky the big man himself didn't come into your house later with guns demanding his ball back I hear hes prone to doing that these days.

 Rim_Shot_Johnny_Utah.jpg ( 26.6K ) Number of downloads: 6

[kitsoasis]

You play CallOways?

[Shanks For The M...]

You play CallOways?

Er... Callaways. Spelling Nazi.

[Mongo26]

i got you beat. We were playing a high school match when i blocked my drive into the trees on the right which split the two fairways that run parallel with each other. A foursome all walk over to the spot where my ball was and they just picked it up and left. My entire group was mad and screaming at them but they did not speak a word of english. Anyways after the two stroke penalty i end up making double bogey on the hole and finishing the 9 holes at -1. Worst part about the entire deal is that we lost the match by two strokes

[housey63]

Playing the 11th, par 4. If you go right you can hit in from the 18th faiway. I hit it right and the ball is sitting in the middle of the 18th. We are in the Saturday comp there are palyers all over the course. A group is walking down 18, one of the group comes to my ball, a new pro v 1x with a Red dot over the number, he bends down picks it up and just puts it in his pocket. I call him on it and he gives me a stoopid look. I assertively tell him to put my ball back where he got ot from. Eventually he tries to throw it to me, no way, I make him walk back and put it where he picked it up from. Unbelievable!!!!!

[peteman29]

I once saw a kid pick up my tee shot and when I got down there and told him to give me my ball back he acted all dumb.
I told him either he gives me my ball or I take it out of his bag myself.
Needless to say he gave me it back.
I left him with the following statement.
"If I ever see you do anything like that again I'll rip your head off"


LOL, I'm not a violent person at all but I can sure talk a good fight

[ebader]

Happens to me all the time. In fact, I've won plenty of side bets with friends and my dad. I'll hit a shot into the rough between parallel holes and notice a group coming up the other hole, near the area of my ball. It's surreal how often they'll either play my ball, or pocket it with complete disregard it could have come from the nearby tee box. This occurs primarily when I'm playing in Miami, not so bad in the Las Vegas area or upstate New York, where I typically play during late summer.

I've got to give one guy credit about a month ago. He was a single and passed our group, blasting a drive that went on the same line as my already played shot but about 15 yards beyond. Then I watched him drive smack to my ball and whack it toward the green. He drove back to our group several minutes later in full apology mode, once he realized what he had done, and handed me the ball.

My dad is a tunnel vision type who never has any idea shots can stray from other holes. He'll see an apparently abandoned ball and want to grab it, even with the owner's cart steaming toward it no more than 50 yards away. About 5 years ago dad unknowingly swiped O.J. Simpson's golf ball at Calusa in Miami. O.J. used to play that course regularly before a tornado during Katrina destroyed the clubhouse. Anyway, my dad saw a ball left of the par 3 #3 and drove away with it, wonderfully oblivious that O.J. had hit the shot into the left rough of adjoining par 5 #6. My mom pointed out the tell tale markings on the ball, and O.J. fruitlessly searching in the area a few minutes later.

He's lucky the big man himself didn't come into your house later with guns demanding his ball back I hear hes prone to doing that these days.

You owe me a new keyboard!

[PittShark]

I just had one of these things happen this past Sunday. I was on number 4, a par 5, and it was just me and my dad. We were following a group of 3 who started out moving real fast but especially starting with this hole, they began taking forever. I hit a good drive down the right side, and I knew trying to get home in two would be tough and not worth the risk. I waited till their group made it to the green and I proceeded to hit a nice 4 hybrid to the right edge of the fairway about 40 or 50 yards short of the green, but at the time I hit the shot I couldn't actually see it come to a stop because of a little mound. My dad laid up a little further back than me, and as we're driving up to his ball, I see one of the guys from the group ahead driving back from the green toward the ball (which I was pretty sure was mine) in the fairway. He stops, looks at the ball and quickly pitches it on the green. I wasn't too far away from him, so I ask, 'hey, did you make sure that was your ball before you hit it?' He says, 'yeah, that was my Bridgestone.' I had just started playing the TM TP red, so I'm thinking ok...guess that wasn't mine. So we wait for them to finish up, my dad hits on, and then we roll up and I see another ball ahead of where the previous one was by about 10 yards, but in the rough. I get out and look and what do you think I see? Not my TM but instead a Bridgestone B330RX. I was amazed...as mentioned, he definitely looked at the ball first but played it anyway, and lied right to me about playing his B'stone. Well, in the end I debated driving up to their group and requesting my TM back, but then I figured....what the hell, I kinda wanted try out the RX anyway, haha.

[Shanks For The M...]

i got you beat. We were playing a high school match when i blocked my drive into the trees on the right which split the two fairways that run parallel with each other. A foursome all walk over to the spot where my ball was and they just picked it up and left. My entire group was mad and screaming at them but they did not speak a word of english. Anyways after the two stroke penalty i end up making double bogey on the hole and finishing the 9 holes at -1. Worst part about the entire deal is that we lost the match by two strokes

There is no penalty for someone else picking up your ball, whoever told you you had to take a two stroke penalty is crazy. See rule 18-1.

18-1. By Outside Agency
If a ball at rest is moved by an outside agency, there is no penalty and the ball must be replaced.

Add: Rule 18-4 is more specific.

18-4. By Fellow-Competitor, Caddie or Equipment in Stroke Play

If a fellow-competitor, his caddie or his equipment moves the player's ball, touches it or causes it to move, there is no penalty. If the ball is moved, it must be replaced.

This post has been edited by Shanks For The Memories: Jun 26 2009, 06:07 PM

[luxman]

Here's one.

I'm playing with a friend of mine and we get paired up with a twosome. These two guys are absolutely horrible and have no clue of where their balls are going. Worst part is that they can't even follow their own balls so to keep play moving we have to watch every one of their painful shots. Anyway we get to the 11th hole and by now I'm getting pretty fed up with the round and I hit one OB. I hit a provisional, but didn't mark it (in the end, my bad) and hit a brand new TP Black into the fairway. The other guys are playing the front tees and on this particular hole it gives them 50 yards and one guy hits it within 10 yards of where my provisional ended up. I go over to get the ball that I hit OB and then arrive in the vicinity of "my" ball as the other guy proceeds to shank one into the hazard. I then walk up to "my" ball which magically transformed into a beat up Molitor! I look back at the guy and asked what kind of ball he was hitting and he said that he had no idea. I said I assure you it wasn't a brand new TP Black and he looks puzzled, but in no way offered an apology. So I replace that Molitor with the ball I hit OB and begin my pre-shot routine. As I'm walking up to the ball, I see in the corner of my eye a ball rolling towards my feet. It turns out it's a brand new low end Callaway ball that is "giving me" in exchange for the one he shanked into the hazard. I said thank you, but that's not the ball I play and returned it to him. Needless to say the rest of the round did not go very well.

[Hawaiianhacker]

i got you beat. We were playing a high school match when i blocked my drive into the trees on the right which split the two fairways that run parallel with each other. A foursome all walk over to the spot where my ball was and they just picked it up and left. My entire group was mad and screaming at them but they did not speak a word of english. Anyways after the two stroke penalty i end up making double bogey on the hole and finishing the 9 holes at -1. Worst part about the entire deal is that we lost the match by two strokes

ha! i think i got you both beat...i was playing a muni in detroit back in the late 90's with my good friend and a single. on the back nine, the single hit my ball, not once, but TWICE (on consecutive holes, nevertheless!) both times my ball was in the fairway and i had all sorts of writings/marks on my ball and he was playing a CLEAN ball. WTF?!? in fact, on one of the holes, he was on the opposite side of the fairway, yet still chose to hit my ball.

of course, i should have known he clueless when he walked back to his cart WITH THE FLAG from one of the holes on the front nine...

[Shanks For The M...]

i got you beat. We were playing a high school match when i blocked my drive into the trees on the right which split the two fairways that run parallel with each other. A foursome all walk over to the spot where my ball was and they just picked it up and left. My entire group was mad and screaming at them but they did not speak a word of english. Anyways after the two stroke penalty i end up making double bogey on the hole and finishing the 9 holes at -1. Worst part about the entire deal is that we lost the match by two strokes

ha! i think i got you both beat...i was playing a muni in detroit back in the late 90's with my good friend and a single. on the back nine, the single hit my ball, not once, but TWICE (on consecutive holes, nevertheless!) both times my ball was in the fairway and i had all sorts of writings/marks on my ball and he was playing a CLEAN ball. WTF?!? in fact, on one of the holes, he was on the opposite side of the fairway, yet still chose to hit my ball.

of course, i should have known he clueless when he walked back to his cart WITH THE FLAG from one of the holes on the front nine...

Oh lawdy.

This is why I never play good balls unless I'm with a good group that knows what their doing. Otherwise, break out the $0.14 balls, I'm not going to risk it.

Yes, I really do buy balls here for 14 cents a peice, 3 dozen in a bag for $5, and at least 5 or 6 of the 3 dozen you buy are really nice balls too, Pro V1s, Pro 100s, Tour Prestige, HX Tour, B-330, TP Black, etc. Florida is the best place on earth to play golf, you just let the hackers hit their brand new Pro V1s into the water, then the course staff shags them, and they resell them, or we shag them from the OB areas, and I have buckets of great balls I've found like this.

[sigmapete1]

Not totally the same as taking a ball, but yesterday I am playing and hit my approach to the right of the green which is adjacent to another green coming the other way (my fault for missing the green I suppose, right?). There is a cart path from the other hole right around where my ball landed, such that the cart path is between my ball and the hole I am shooting at. One of the guys drives up, leans over from his cart, picks up my new Srixon Z-starX, looks to see if I am looking at him, whcih I am, then quickly drops it and gets out of his cart and quickly scurries up to his green, leaving his cart 2 feet from my ball, CLEARLY between my ball and the hole.

Are people really this dumb? Maybe I'm being elitist, but how about a simple etiquette test to obtain a "golf license" before you can play a regulation course? Make it totally free or whatever, but there's gotta be some way to teach people this stuff. Of course 5 minutes on the road driving will tell you that a licensing process still lets a LOT of morons slip through the cracks.

First 2 questions (based on what I read most on this forum):

When you approach a ball that is clearly not yours, you should...
(A) Play it since you can't find yours
(B) Pick it up for practice later
© Only pick it up if its a ProV1
(D) Only pick it up if no one is looking
(E) Leave it the f**k ALONE!

When the group ahead is playing slow, you should...
(A) Kindly inform them that a gap has developed between them and the group ahead and you may notify the ranger
(B) Get very frustrated, let your game go to hell, angrily post a scathing topic on GolfWRX so that everyone who knows proper etiquette can agree on how outrageous it is that people play slow
© Approach the group at the next tee waving a lob wedge with reckless abandon informing them where it will end up if they don't speed up
(D) Fire a few "warning shots." Playing slow is legal justification for assault with a deadly weapon and no court will convict you.

[MGajda254]

First 2 questions (based on what I read most on this forum):

When you approach a ball that is clearly not yours, you should...
(A) Play it since you can't find yours
(B) Pick it up for practice later
© Only pick it up if its a ProV1
(D) Only pick it up if no one is looking
(E) Leave it the f**k ALONE!

When the group ahead is playing slow, you should...
(A) Kindly inform them that a gap has developed between them and the group ahead and you may notify the ranger
(B) Get very frustrated, let your game go to hell, angrily post a scathing topic on GolfWRX so that everyone who knows proper etiquette can agree on how outrageous it is that people play slow
© Approach the group at the next tee waving a lob wedge with reckless abandon informing them where it will end up if they don't speed up
(D) Fire a few "warning shots." Playing slow is legal justification for assault with a deadly weapon and no court will convict you.

Uhhhh, Yes