I play reguarly with a guy who is a fairly decent player. The strongest part of his game is driving distance, he's as long as anyone I have played with, and he's generally an accurate driver with the exception of an occasional snap hook.

These shots are laser beams that never get more than ten feet in the air and they are way,way left. I've seen him hit it not only left of the fairway on the hole we are playing but left of the fairway of an adjacent hole.

The last round we played he sent one of these shots through the tee box of a par 3, just missing a couple of seniors. There was hardly enough time to yell "fore!". That shot hit a tree with such a thwack that it made me cringe thinking about what might have happended if he had hit one of those guys.

We talked about it afterwards and his main response was that the chances of hitting someone are a million to one and everybody hits errant shots. That may be true but these shots are different than the average miss because of the velocity and height. And they go so far left, the ball starts left and peels away in a big hook.

I said he should consider waiting for the area where he might hit one of these to be clear before teeing off, just to be safe. That pissed him off and he said that would just put it in his mind and then he would almost surely hit a snap hook.

He also said that it didn't seem to bother the guys he almost hit. That's true, they just laughed it off but if I had been in their shoes, I wouldn't have found it funny at all. It was pretty quiet between us for the rest of the round and I'm wondering if I overreacted. Any thoughts?

By the way, he made par on the hole.

Were you overreacting? In my opinion, not really.

Positive mental imagery, sports psychology and all the rest aside, common sense would have me being conscious of potential hazards if I were in your partner's shoes. If he's got a dodgy shot that can rear its head at any time (by the sounds of it from having a vicious lash at the ball) he really should be trying to minimise the danger of an accident occuring and using some common sense - as well as practicing and sorting out the problem in the first place. It's not like it's going to be something he has to take into account on every tee. But it's surely reasonable that he should take some precautions when faced with a glaring opportunity to, potentially, seriously injure someone on the rare occasion that the course topography and happenchance put people in the firing line should his bogey shot come to the fore - no pun intended.

I'd say your advice was sensible and well-meaning and if he's got a huff on it needs to be directed at himself and his poor driving more than his playing partner who seemingly has a good head on his shoulders - which could quite easily be something someone else hasn't got if he's not careful.

That's all I was trying to tell him, just to be aware of others on the course and that with this kind of miss, if he hits someone thay could be badly injured.

He is normally a fairly accurate driver. He plays a fade so he's aiming up the left side to start with and he gets too quick and snap hooks it. It really doesn't happen all that often, but it has happened once in each of the last three rounds we played.

When he almost hit someone, I thought it was time to say something. Not to criticize his golfing abilities but just to remind him to be more careful.

I reposted this topic in the main forum. I'm not sure this situation falls under the rules and etiquette catergory.

Depending on how much gamesmanship you want to use and if you play for money, the next time there are people on the left would be a GREAT opportunity to get in his head with something like, "Hey maybe you should wait until they clear, remember last time?"

Of course stuff like that always has the chance to coax the best out of someone rather than get in their head. It all depends on the person. Remember what Tiger did to Stephen Ames?