So me and the wife are playing 18 the other day. We are coming up #9, which #1 runs down (Fairways next to each other, going opposite directions) I am on the green, my wife is 30 yards short. She hits her shot and we proceed to the green. As we get to the front of the green, a guy walks off one, over to within say 10 yards of us and says "Did you pick up a ball!". I say no, but there is one in our fair way about 70 yards back, he says something gruff and huffs off.

Do some just think it's an Easter Egg Hunt, with any ball being a prize for the lucky party? I wanted to say, "sure, I picked up your Pinnacle Gold, because my Tour I's just aren't getting the job done. I must have heard this question 50 times over my golfing career, and never have I picked up a ball that was not my own. Are golfers really that suspicious of others? I have never thought anyone would just pick my ball up. I have seen others looking for a ball drive up to mine, identify it, then continue looking for their own........

This guy in particular just really irked me. It was like he was sure I ganked his POS, when I didn't even drive within 20 yards of the damn thing......

Seems you could use a break from the game....

Why do I need a break? I enjoy the game, and have fun playing. Why do some, this guy in particular "accuse" me of picking up his ball.........If he would have asked "did I see one", that is a whole different story. This guy was sure I took it.......

on a side note, did you even read my post, because your reply seems pointless.........?

I have had a pro v1 picked up several times by someone else. Most of the time it will be people like this guy that dont know much about the game but know that the Pinnacle they are playing cost 12. 99 for 15 balls and your pro v 1s are 45 a dozen. People are not dumb and not every person playing golf is honest. So I hate to sound like I am judging but sometimes you can tell from the look of the group or the person whether or not you should worry about your ball being picked up.

Yeah, I read it- it was kinda dumb...which is why I recommended a break from the game.

Oh, I get it, your the guy who thinks everyone wants to gank his equipment, my mistake. My entire point is why did this guy feel the need to be RUDE about it. Anyhow, it's over.........back to your Pinnacle Golds..............

HOW DARE YOU! "Pinnacle Gold"

Maxfli Ice is my ball!

happened to me tonight...
playing the club pro in matchplay
wack my ball right and this guy picks my ball up eyes it up asif to say

''brand new one plat nice!''
walk over to find mine find a titleist nxt refurbished ask him if its his..
oh yeh i hit 2 balls...
yeh you have my nike one plat
no i dont im hitting three now

I just walked off before i used my 9 iron on this guys shinbone.

Unfortunately ******** play golf too.

I have actually watched people pick my ball up before,,,, back in the high school days when I walked all the time. Physically see them pick my ball up,,,, then ask them about it. And for some reason they dont remember picking it up,,,,,, the classic response if they say they did and it was an accident,,,,, "oh im sorry,,,,, I am playing a Titleist 2 also but mine is a DT" lol

Something like this happened to my brother and me a couple of years ago. We were walking from the green to our cart after putting out, and this guy drives up from the next hole and asks us, "Did you guys pick up a putter?" We said no, and he follows up with a glare and, "Are you SURE?" We said no again, and he then looked in our bags for a couple of seconds, and then stormed off. We were pretty annoyed.

ive had this problem alot. i play high number pro vx's and people seem to thing it is a prize to pick up a pro v1x 8 with intials on it. also with the comments about people wanting to steal others equipment it happens alot more often then you think. ive had 2 putters stole from my bag one a scotty cameron and the other was a white hot. it doesnt matter what you are doing there is always someone looking to get something for free so dont be so shock when someday you hit your callaway ix and someone takes off with it cuz they want a free demo of that ball they see in all the commercials.

I never pick up balls that aren't mine. But on the 4th of July I'm in a foursome of good, play by the rules golfers all with nice equipment and brand new sleves of balls in our bags... We pick up an older Pro-V on the right rough of the 3rd hole (did I mention we had the first tee time 6 AM?) there was a small tourney off the back and this hole runs parallel to the 11th, but this ball was over 100 yds from the 11th fairway. The group on 11 was on the green and no one was on the tee box or in the fairway, when we reached the 3rd green one of the guys on 11 came over and asked us if we found a ball on back there. It was one of the funniest things I've ever expereinced on the course, he'd completed the hole and saw us back on our hole, came back to ask if we found it. That either takes a big sack or no brians. If I hit my tee shot on a 3 wood hole 100+ yards offline I would re-tee and forget about it. It was hilarious.

I don't get it, the guy thought you might have picked up your ball. You didn't. So he went off to look for it. How was this different to any of the dozen times I've been asked that question or that handful of times I've asked someone the question myself?

Or by "something gruff" do you mean he called you a liar or gave you the finger or something?

Always makes me think of the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" in the old children's story...

That is a huge reason why I want to get back to a private club. When I joined my first one, I found I did not need to haul a$$ to a ball that wasn't in the middle of the fairway like I did on public courses, because guys left the ball alone. Now that I am back on public courses, I find myself constantly watching for people going anywhere near my ball. Really nerve racking I must say.

I have had many instances over the years where another golfer has picked my ball up, so I am sure that other golfers have had that happen to them and are naturally suspicious. I wouldn't take it personally, the guy couldn't find his ball and jumped to a conclusion, simple as that.

I think that in your original posting the line, "I wanted to say, "sure, I picked up your Pinnacle Gold, because my Tour I's just aren't getting the job done."" probably put a few people off and came off the wrong way to readers. Obviously the guy who asked you if you picked his ball up doesn't know what ball you are playing. Maybe you are playing Pinnacle Gold XXXOuts for all he knows, which I guess would be an 'inferior' ball to his (if they even make those!).

I try to help others find their balls if possible, and usually I try not to take offense on the course, mostly golfers are so absorbed with their games (self included) that they say or do things that they often wouldn't do in public elsewhere.

I had someone pick up my ball a couple weeks ago. I miss hit my drive and was on their fairway. Their lay ups to the par 5 were near my ball. I watched as the guy looked at the ball, identified it as not being his, then looked around. He then put it into his pocket right about the time I was approaching them. I questioned him and he immediately dropped it and appologized for picking it up. Since I was on the wrong fairway, I felt like I was in the wrong and didn't say anything.

"Did you guys see a (insert brand name of ball here) over here?" would have been the proper way to broach the subject. This guy didn't ask if they saw a ball, he accused them of picking up a ball.

I don't ever touch a ball that's not mine when there is a soul within 500 yards of the ball, but the difference between those two questions is the difference between me saying "yeah, about 3 yards into the rough near the maple tree", and "Nope, didn't see a thing", even if I did. He can do his own ball search if he's going to accuse me of picking it up.

Actually, if your story is accurate, he didn't accuse you of anything. He asked if you picked up his ball, and you said "no."

Seems a-okay to me. You sound like you're looking for a problem where there isn't one.

I have had this happen many times over the last 30 years of so of playing golf. Where I worked for Lowe's as a manager in a southern town, then I would write "F- - - You on the ball. Most people would leave it alone.
On another occasion I was working for Lowe's in Kentucky near a large lake. People from Ohio would come frequently to this lake for boating. A group of the "Ohio Navy" as the local people called them, were playing in front of us. One of the guys lost a 7 iron. He came back and said we picked it up. We had not seen it, and he tried to look in our bags. He was actually pulling head covers off a friends clubs. He used them on his irons. He then started for my cart. I basically stood there and did the belly bump with him and dared him to touch my clubs. The guy gets in his cart and drives all over the place. About two holes later he comes by and shouts as we are putting that he found it.
Sometimes you are just stuck with a situation like this. If this golf course had not been 9 minutes from my store, then I would not have played there. The game of golf has many many newcomers, unfortunately the old timers, myself included have no patience for these people. There is no one to teach proper course etiquette.
Maybe the Golf Channel should have a show on proper etiquette. And show it as many times as they do the Hammer informercial. Should we have a poll and send the results to the Golf Channel.

I have 3 things to say

1) only nubs babble about the type of ball they play. after a few years, this just gets tedious and repetitive, and nobody cares.

2) I've written "f*** U" on my ball just for fun, then a few rounds later i pulled that ball out and accidentaly hit into this guy. I dont think he saw it, though

3) if anything, there should be more Hammer commercials. All i need is Hammer irons to complete my set

Had that recently where a guy left a wedge and they came back when we were putting. We pointed it ouyt and he was grateful. Also picked up a club and had it in the cart and they came up and we returned it to them. I had no interest in keeping it. In the future I will just leave it there.

The ball thing the first poster mentioned was less annoying than your story. He was wrong to take it out on you for being dumb enough to forget his club. It happens, some of us may have done it but it is his mistake. It is not your job to be his caddy and keep track of his clubs. Some people.

If I am playing and I see someone in the next fairway look for a ball and I see it I will point it out. People can lose a ball pretty easy in the rough.

A little different, but the other day me and a buddy were out early for a 6:08 tee time...we were joined up with another couple for the 6:08 slot and the first slot is 6:00, these three a$$holes come up (I saw them put their shoes on and walk right from their car to the tee box without paying (public course)) and say they have the 6:04 tee time...I didn't think about the fact that they don't book tee times 4 mins apart, but there was all of the sudden a big clusterf#@k at the tee, so I went and asked the pro shop if me and my buddy could walk on to the back nine. The pro shop guys asked why and I told him there was a line-up at the tee and he figured it out pretty quick and drove over there and told the guys they would have to pay (they should've been kicked off the premises immediately IMO) but as they're leaving they're threatening to key our cars because they thought I ran over to report them. I like that, the guys are being blatant jerks, they get busted, and they get pissed off about it.

Oh, I can't even tell you how many times someone has picked up my ball... And it doesn't matter where I hit it...they find it and ...like James Woods on the Family Guy "ooh, piece of candy...oooh, piece of candy."

I mean, WTF, why do people pick up balls that aren't theirs. Granted, if there is no one around any other hole near you, then maybe it's just a lost ball from some earlier group. I was playing a hole at a course where the green was doglegged left... The guys that were in front, were done with their approach shots and were all on the green. So I striped a ball down the middle of the fairway...but a little too manly as it went past the cart path and into the rough...mind you, this is still pin high, the hole is just designed weird. So everyone else hits in my group and then I see a guy walk from the green down to where my ball is and he looks like he picked something up... I get over there...my ball is no where to be found.

A few weeks ago, I hit a ball that didn't draw enough like I wanted and ended up right about 20 yards in front of the hole behind me's tee box. I'm walking to my ball and I see the guy from the tee and his kid (I guess) and he hits a ball from the location I'm 95% sure where my ball is to his green (or short of it actually). I ask them, wasn't that a Nike Platinum...he said no. I ask the kid (young, not really a kid) if he saw my ball hit and he said no. I'm damn sure that was my ball. He probably hit into the water as that's the most common result from that tee box location if you hit short where my ball was supposed to be.

Trust me, I have see more balls picked up then I can shake a stick at. I wish I could do like banks and put a expoding gel packet inside the balls!!!!

Twist

I may have taken the wrong thing from your comment as well... I took "does this happen" more than "is this guy rule or what?"

With that being said, yeah, he was probably pretty rude. I actually had a lady ask me where i got my putter cover for my odyssey sabertooth... I'm like "It came with the club!" Just like the other one I have at home (odyssey White Hot). It just rubbed me the wrong way.

So I get your point, the guy could have been a little more tackful.

Twist

That's when you say "I'll key your face"

What the hell is wrong with this world! I mean, here are some guys trying to get one over, and instead of just letting these guys go first they jump ahead and then get caught and want to be all tough. They must have looked at you and your group like you would be easy to pull this on.

This actually happened to me too, but the guys that asked us were nice about it and were in carts, so I assumed they paid. We were there early, so I didn't really mind. But after they left, I said to my buddy... "did you tell them our time, or ask them their time?" He said, "I told them our time" ...I then called him a dumbass. hehe

Solution to problem: buy cheaper balls. Unless you are under about an 8 Handicap, you shouldn't be playing ProV1's anyway.

Who the **** are you to tell people what they should and shouldn't play?

I once had a guy come up to me and ask me if I knew what time it was. What a ridiculous jerk!!!!

angry responses in 3-2-1..................................

+1............this is getting ridiculous. And what's the deal w/ that pointless story about a woman asking you about your putter cover "TWIST"? That is just retarded.

I'm guessing stuff like this happens pretty often to all of us, but I'm wondering - if I want to post a score, how am I supposed to proceed if I hit a shot and someone picks it up/hits it? I remember in a high school tournament one of the maintenance guys moved my ball once, and I got a free drop in the approximate vicinity of where he said it had been; is this the correct play (assuming I could confirm where the ball ended up)?

Or, what if I had hit, say, a blind tee shot that should be in a certain area (since I know the line it was on and how far it should have gone), but isn't anywhere to be found, presumably because someone in the group ahead picked it up/hit it? Would that be a lost ball scenario?

Oh my, I've had my own ball not only picked up, but hit out of my own fairway by a guy while I was walking up to it, about 120 yards short of the ball, not to mention a number of balls picked up elsewhere. I don't see how asking you if you picked up a ball is ACCUSING you of picking up the ball. I play with some players on my league which if I told them (more like suggested firmly) NOT to pick up a ball they found because it may belong to someone, they would have.

I've even asked players before if they picked up my ball and "caught" them 2 or 3 times. You get the dumb "oh, uh, yeah, sorry" look. Then I ask where the ball originally was located, and they generally just throw it down a spot which just happens to be 5 yards from where they're standing and say "oh, right there".

In the wrong? If hitting the ball offline is "in the wrong", I should be in jail!

My league course you can easily (alright, maybe not easily, but often) hit it 2 fairways over. It's golf, for crying out loud. Why people pick up balls when there's 20 yards separating fairways is beyond me.

To get a free drop you would have to witness your ball being moved by an outside agency. Just presuming that someone might have taken your ball because you can't find it is not enough evidence.

I've had a ball stolen out of my fairway by a couple of kids that came out of the woods at a pretty upscale course in my area! I saw them take the ball (when I first saw them, I thought they were part of a maintenance crew). But then one ran out, grabbed the ball and disappeared back into the woods. Free drop at the location closest to where you thought the ball sat.

Hey Guys!!

I know I'll get slammed for this, but.......

I have seen far more rudeness in this thread than any of you have described on the course!

What do you mean by "Witness"... I mean, if I hit a ball in an area and there virtually no reason for someone to go into that area and then my ball is no where to be found...is that enough evidence? I mean, how do you witness something 270 yards away? I sure as heck can't see someone pick up a inch and half ball!

Awesome!!!

After playing golf this morning, these guys took off their hats and wanted to shake my hand, the hell was that all about???

Larrybud,
Do you happen to play at Royal Colwood, I was right behind a group who drove their balls in the fairway only to have kids running out of the bushes and grab them.

People steal golf balls all the time! (at least mine)

The last 3 or 4 times it has happened to me it has been scenario 1 but 2 really pissed me off.

1) They pick up my ball and when asked say I was hitting a Titleist 2 as if that makes a DT Roll the same as a ProV1. Not being snobby but Check the type of ball, not the number, they didn't stop using that number when you brought your ball.

2)I draw one into the rough and a guy comes over from the hole next to ours and hits from that area as we approach, he says "You hit a nike" I reply "Yeah" he goes "It right there" pointing about 25 yrds up the fairway, which is further than I though I hit it but could of taken a hard bounce. I say "Thanks" and drive to my ball as he drives toward his green. When I arrive at my ball and address it, I notice it looks funny. This loser was obviously playing a BEAT-UP NIKE range ball. But he drives 25yrd farther up to hit my NOP, and the killer directs me to his range ball as if he couldn't tell the two apart.

I pick the ball up and storm towards the cart at about this time my uncle realized what happened from the look on my face and stopped me from driving back and confronting the guy.

Situation 1 doesn't really bother me because its an somewhat honest mistake but Situation 2 is just disrespect and stealing and a quick way to start a war with me.

Just thinking about that makes me angry all over again.

Actually, I was responding to the guy who said the OP was being ridiculous. I just stated that the manner in which I am approached will go a long way towards the response I give. I don't pick up other people's golf balls unless I'm first out and know there's no way anyone is playing another hole currently.

Why would a person ask if I "picked up" a ball if they didn't think I did? If someone wants to frame so that i need to say I didn't pick it up, that's an accusation. "Did you see one" is a much better way to approach it.

Agreed - That is all this board is becoming. Somone starts a thread that some don't agree with and the rude posts start..... It is sad really. When I disagree with something I politly let it be known and move on.

Playing as a single last week. Hooked up a 3-some. One guy hits it long but still on the back side of the green. While another guys ball is in the air, someone runs onto the green and picks up the first's ball throws it on the fringe and hits it. I couldn't believe it. I yelled at the guy. The other people were confused about me yelling because they were all following the ball in the air. Once I explained it to them they were yelling at the guy too. Idiot.

That was pretty much a totally useless comment and thank you very much I play to about a 5. And handicap has nothing to do with the performance of a golf ball. A guy could be a 12 but only due to a great short game, so the ball spinning makes a big differnence. Try to make your comments mean something,,,, at least my first post was to the original topic of the thread.

Some guy once tried to pick up my wife on the golf course. My wife ended up beating the crud out of me but I was busy trying to find my ball I hit in the rough. I think someone else took the ball; ended up making double.

Sorry guys, just trying to cut the tension in here.

If I was having this kind of problem I would start playing a different ball....

My 3 year old son came home the other day with a sleeve of yellow
Sponge Bob Square Pants balls. I looked them over and they are made
by Wilson. I bet they are the 50/50 balls! I'd play them just for kicks,
or get some pink ladies balls!

Witness as in "witness". Just because you can't find your ball doesn't mean someone picked it up.

Hey I found a ball in the bushes once while looking for mine. I was having a rough day. The ball said "eat me". I laughed, popped in back in the bushes for the next guy and moved on. Now when I loose a ball or some one hawks it, I don't get pissed I just think "eat me".

Too hip for the room, B&G.

It happens all the time and I admit, it's kind of irritating, but I just let it go and focus back on my game. Usually what happens is the person is having a rough day on the course, hits one on your hole, looks for like 30 seconds, then assumes someone else picked it up. They're usually embarrassed that they shanked on that bad in the first place. The other day me and my playing partner were side by side in our fairway and one guy walked over and asked if either one of the balls were his, and we say "No, they're both ours" but he proceeded to put a smirk on his face and walk the 20-30 yards over to look for himself......that's what bugs me, is people not believing me, and when he found his ball, it turned out he hit it about 50 yds shorter than he thought.