At the very least, skip a hole and go around them...

Being hit by a ball on the golf course is one of my biggest fears. I don't know why, but whenever I feel as though I'm in danger of being hit, I get shaken up pretty badly. I was the same way in baseball. And the thing is, whenever I did get hit, I never got hurt. I even took a line drive to the chest when I was pitching and I just shook it off.

They could be mafia bodyguards told by their boss to learn to play golf.

man up a little bit?

So, let me paint this picture for you. Today, we had an 0832 tee time at one of my favorite golf courses. We get there at 0740 and hit the range. Our 4th backed out, so we went off as a 3-some today. There was a lot of rain last night and early this morning, so they sent us on our way starting at #10. We teed off at 0825 and had a great first nine. We made the turn at about 1015 and saw that there was a lot of groups waiting on #1, so went into the clubhouse and got some water and an egg salad sandwich. After buying our snacks, we head to #1 and go up to the starter and inform him that we are making our turn because we were sent out on 10 in the morning.

Well, he just put us in line of walk-ups. There were four groups in front of us and two behind us that we could see. A foursome, a twosome, a threesome, a twosome, us, a twosome and a foursome(in that order). The foursome and twosome looked to be fairly decent golfers. The threesome hitting two groups in front of us was a whole different story. There were three men, playing from the tips, none of them looking like they have ever been to a range, much less played a round of golf. The first guy in said threesome gets up and tops the hell out of his drive and doesn't clear the red box. The 2nd took three full swings before he made contact and the 3rd shanks his really high and right. At this point we knew that we were in trouble. The starter asked the twosome in front of us if they minded joining with us to create a 5-some and they agreed, so we proceeded at the starters request as a group of 5. After a few holes, my patience was completely gone with the group in front of us. They were constantly looking for their balls in the woods and stuff and we were playing considerably faster than them. Finally after being behind them for 3 holes, I drove up to their carts and asked if they minded if we played thru them. They said no since there was 5 of us and said that they would pick up the pace. It was then that I noticed that one guy had a Driver and a 6 iron in his bag. That was it, two freaking clubs in his entire bag. I drove back to our group and said that they didn't want us to play thru, but we would work it out. The next hole is a par 3, followed by a 4. We played the 3 amazingly with 5 pars and proceeded to number 6's tee box. Well, the group in front of us is about 150 yards ahead of us and all three of them are in the woods on the right hand side of the fairway, searching for two balls. We waited for 10 minutes on the box when I decided I had waited long enough. I said screw it and teed off, followed by two of my playing partners.

At this point, one of the guys that was searching for his ball drove out to my ball(pro v1) and picked it up. This is where things started going downhill. I drove out and asked him why he picked my ball up. He said it was because we hit it at them(my drive cleared them by 100 yards and was down the left side of the fairway). I told him that we were just playing thru since they were pre-occupied. He said that it didn't matter and I could get my ball out of his pocket if I wanted it. I walked up to his cart, took the key to his cart and told him when he was ready to give me my ball back, he could have his key. He tossed me my ball, then got his key back and went back out and put my ball back down. They went ahead and played the rest of the hole out quickly and went on. Well, then we get to #7's tee box. I guess they sped thru 7 and were already teeing off on 8. Realize that 7 and 8 are right next to each other with 7's green being next to 8's tee box and 8's green being right next to 7's tee box with only a thin layer of trees separating the two fairways. Since I butchered 7, I was last on the box. Just as I finish teeing up and going thru my normal drive routine, I notice that the guy that I talked with previously was driving thru the trees towards our fairway. I think that surely he is going to wait until after I swing. Well I swing and he doesn't wait. Just about the time I make contact, he jumps out of his cart to hit his ball.

My drive is heading directly for him down the left side. I yell "FOUR" and the guy throws his hands up at me as if I am just yelling at him. I realize that he is right in my landing zone, so I yell "DUCK GOD DA#$IT" about a second before my ball crashes down on top of his cart, 4 feet from him. Just my luck, a course marshall is there and asks me to leave due to me yelling obscenities. I couldn't believe it. I had a few choice words with the marshall(he was in his 60's and I am in my late 20's, so they weren't confrontational) basically telling him that he had caused this and it wasn't my fault. Then I drove out to pick up my ball. The guy that I almost killed was pissed and asked why I hit it at him. I just laughed and said that if someone is on the box, you probably shouldn't drive into their fairway. I have a golf etiquette book in my bag that was given to me about 2 years ago when I started, so I just tossed it to him and asked that he and his friends read it, then I left. I talked with the club pro(along with the 4 guys I was golfing with) and we ended up all getting refunds for our round and apologized to a few times by various people at the course, but I will never go back there. Found a young kid(15 or so) on the way out and we all gave him our credits. He has a lot of free golf coming his way. Anyway, sorry for the long rant, but I just couldn't believe the experience I had today.

Sorry, but you NEVER intentionaly hit into someone. It all started with that. I can't stand it when people get so up tight about pace of play, if you have somewhere to be, go there. Did you ever think maybe these guys don't get to play that much golf and just wanted to enjoy it.

Your reaction tells me this isn't the first time you've been bent qnou pace of play, and have unrealistic expectations ofnhow fast a round should be played in

You kindly (I assume) asked to play through which should have been the end of it, it is wrong for them to decline if they are holding you up all the time, you are allowed to look for a ball for 5 minutes maximum. Sounds to me as if they marshal should have spoke to the guys in front of you rather than you.

......and you should never have been put in a 5 ball! (but I dread to think how long you would have been waiting as a 3 ball!).

Not to bash you or anything, but that sort of thing bothers me almost as much as actually being hit into. I can't begin to count how many times I've heard a thud in my backswing and damn near had a heartattack thinking the thing would hit me. Just my 2 cents.

I'd probably do the same thing as you, but then again, I'm a hot head, especially with annoying people. Probably the best thing to do would be just skip the entire hole and blow past em. Chalk down 5 par's for everyone and move on. Just make sure you play faster, which it sounds like you have no problem.

The last time I almost got in a fight was when a group of slower players skipped my group and went to the next tee...While we were finishing up putting, and they skipped to a Par3. They were slow, some played tow tee shots. We had some words for them (actually my more calm playing partners, not me.) They proceeded to hit some practice chips and putts. That blew us up. Get the F* out of the way, What the F* are you doing? F* you, No F* you, no you're a D-bag, get the F* out of the way, back and forth blah blah blah. I am thuroughly enjoying the banter and the effot my friends are putting into it, so I just remained mostly silent for this one....

Finally the head ****** puts his hands up and offers and invitation to a fight. In my foursome I had a marine, two 6'3" 225+lbs guys, and a martial arts dude in my group. They were a bunch of Orange County momma's boys wanna-be punk rockers covered in Nordstrom's prep gear. Lucky for them, they moved on quickly, the course layout did not have us crossing paths and they were nowhere to be seen in the parking lot. It was very close to a brawl. The martial did come over, but he didn't do anything. He just apologized for getting slowed down and said he'd tell them they aren't allowed to do that. He drove off the opposite direction and never said anything.

So, asking a slower group to allow my group to play thru is starting animocity? I am not tracking that at all.

In the Rules of Golf slow play will cause you to be stroked and in match play cause the loss of a hole.

At my course, the rules state to "Yield to quicker golfers"

And also, calling the pro shop first seems to be the "tattletale" route. Remember that kid everybody hated in Middle School that would run to the teacher over everything, rather than discuss things like gentleman? You should definitely try to talk things out first before running to mommy.

Taking that guys key for bargaining purposes was awesome. I can picture the guys in front of you and I'll be honest, I don't like them.

what can you do if let's say you asked the people ahead of you to speed up play and they say no, they won't let you play through, and the marshal doesn't give a crap. what can be done at this point?