So here is my story.

It was Friday and luckily I was able to have a day off from work.
I went to a local golf course with a buddy.
We were paired up with these 2 guys and exchanged greetings at the 1st tee box.
They both sliced their drives to the woods then took a liberty of taking a "provisional" shots.
I and my buddy were okay until the first couple of holes but as we went on playing, it was obvious they repeatedly took at least 2-3 drives each at every single hole.
After taking poor drives, they would both automatically reach in to their pockets then take shots after shots.
Their driving and iron shots were really awful and they chipped left to right passing the green.
They stepped on our putting lines and didn't even seem to notice.
You don't have to be a mathematician to figure out how long it took us to complete 18 holes.
It took more than 5 hours and I feel like my golf game as well as what could have been a nice day off from work were seriously ruined by these 2 etiquette-less guys.
I don't mind being paired up with people who can't play well, as long as they know rules and etiquette of the game.

I remember how nervous I was when I was in a foursome playing for the first time being on a golf course.
My buddies still made sure I understood the basic rules and etiquette when they took me out to the course.

How would you deal with these type of players on a course? I really had a hard time managing my anger time to time.

i was paired w/ a threesome that repeatedly took mulligans off the tee as well. like you, it made the round painfully slow. it frustrated me to the point where it affected my game. the "problem" was they were perfectly nice people they just didn't realize how slow it made the round. on the fourteenth hole it was a par 5 so the pin was off in the distance. one of the guys asked me where the pin was and i pointed it out (my home course so i knew for certain). the guy kept saying, there's no way that's the pin. after he hits his shot he says i'll bet you that's not the pin. so i say ok, if i'm right you guys can't take any more mulligans the rest of the round. to their credit they honored the bet but because i let it get to me the damage was done, i didn't enjoy the round, and played poorly.

in hindsight, since our group was so slow there were 2 to 3 open holes ahead of us. I should have just played ahead myself. i'd probably come off rude for playing ahead but would have worked out better. i should have explained to them earlier how much slower the round is because of excessive mulligans... i hate having that tension in a group after explaining etiquette if the person doesn't take it well. not trying to be a snob. i don't care if people play by the rules, just care if what they do gets in the way of my own game. lesson learned is that you should bring it up early and deal w/ the consequences. otherwise you'll just get steamed and it will be too late to do anything. even though it was them slowing us down i feel like it was my own fault for putting up w/ it.

Being relatively new to golf I fall into the category of a newbie. However the only reason for re-teeing a new ball for me would be if i hit it into the water or over a fence. I would say that once or twice a round I will hit a horrid slice but still don't call a mulligan. I really don't like slow play, I enjoy taking my time on shots because for me stepping away from the ball and looking at my target takes my mind off the actual swing and I usually play better. What bothers me is other players who think they are automatically superior to my grouping because our drives go 40 yards less than theirs and then they hit their balls right away because they think they will hit it in the center of the fairway and we are in the rough. This has happened twice and the most annoying part is that we offer to let them play through and they don't. (not same group).
From my point of view if there are open holes ahead and me and my partner/whatever are slowing you down I have no issues with you playing ahead. I find that a lot of people feel that it would be rude so usually I just suggest it and a couple times people have taken me up on it and I have actually talked to them a few times after wards and we both had a better round. I think its win win. In my personal experience I have run into a lot more friendly/nice people who have good etiquette than rude people on the course and it has made for a really good early experience of golf. Also though I read a lot of posts here about golf etiquette before stepping on a course because I plan to play long term and I know I would be pissed later on (even now) if people were ruining my round.

I hate it when people finish the hole before they are supposed to!

last time i went out i was always left alone on the green (which i dont really mind) however when your grouping is headed up to the next tee box as you make ur approach it gets kind of annoying!

Happened to me not to long ago, after 3 holes I politely ask "guys do you mind if I play ahead, I have a meeting in 4 hours and need to finish" worked without a problem, when I finished on 18 I saw them teeing off on 10!!!!!!!!!!

When I play with my brother and we get hooked up with people like this, after about the second hole (when we see a gap forming ahead of us), we just pick up our balls, tell the guys (politely) that we're in a hurry and both groups would probably play quicker if we separate, then head to the next tee. We never see them again, and I'm sure they're just as comfortable playing without us as we are without them. No use ruining your whole round out of fear of hurting their feelings.

Sometimes that's golf. It's unfortunate that we get paired with guys that take 2 from the tee and take mulligans every hole. The worst part is that they don't count every shot. You put down 5 and they put down a 4 after two balls off the tee and two chips and then miss a 5 footer but counted it as a gimme. If there's no room in front of you to jump ahead, you just have to relax and concentrate on your game and no one elses. Remember that golf is about being out and enjoying nature and other people's company. So what if they don't know all the etiquette, if they were cool guys, then just have fun with it. If they were jerks about everything, all bets are off. Most guys that are out playing golf are pretty cool guys. Just have fun.

A bad day playing golf is better than a good day at work.

+10

as long as they're playing quickly, I don't really care if my group hits 3 teeshots each and writes down a score 3 shots better than their real score for each hole

usually a courteous golfer will speed up their routine for mulligans, and as long as they're not playing "hunt for tee shot #2" for 10 minutes or something it's not a big deal


there are all kinds of golfers out there, some serious, some just 100% recreational

I'm just jealous that some of you can play somewhere where this actually slows down play, my area is too busy and this wouldn't slow down play a bit

It sounds like these guys were total hackers and didn't really care about their game that much.

I would have asked to play ahead or stopped at the turn and had lunch to allow them to play on ahead of you.....by several holes if you know what I mean.

True, I still played golf and didn't have to work!

Thanks for all the replies.
Like many of you said, fortunately those 2 guys were friendly guys.
They were not jerks.
That's why even though we were frustrated time to time, we helped them to locate their balls, waited for them and etc.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I guess I could have asked politely if we could play ahead of them.
I'll definitely try that next time.

This could be a sign.

I hate it when a course pairs you up with others period.My friend and I recently got paired up with an older couple.They were real nice people but played real slow.After 3 holes the ranger comes to us and says we are gonna have to skip a hole because of our slow play.I lost it. I said you are the one that paired us up and my friend and I are not the reason we are playing slow so no we will not be skipping a hole.I felt like an @ss towards these people who were nice.

If you're the type that lets this kind of stuff ruin your day why not just arrange for a foursome who meets with your approval; or play a course/time where you won't get paired up.

In this day and age when people have different work hrs,family,kids, etc it is hard for me to get a foursome together each time when I am playing 2 to 3 times a week.Because I do play 2 to 3 times a week I am always playing when the rates are reduced which usually means the slow time on the course anyway.I used to ask any course I book if there is a chance of being paired up and they always just say if need be.I bet anyone that has ever been paired up will either say well that worked out well or man that was a disaster.As you say I should play with people that meet my approval and randomly being paired up I have no way of knowing if they meet my approvel or I meet theirs.I will say I have had more positive rounds being paired up then not .But it is that negative pairing that makes you feel that you just pissed away your money for nothing.Not only that but when you end up with some idiots the whole foursome gets blamed for how you act when you don't even know the others.As for my above post I will say I enjoyed playing with the couple we were paired up with.But I certainly didn't feel like my friend and I should be penalized being told by the ranger we will have to skip a hole for slow play when my friend and I play at a decent speed and the problem was the guys wife.

Understood; and I was not directing my comment specifically at you. I just get tired of all the whining "oh... the folks we got paired up with ruined my day and my score". Some folks here consider themselves real "players", yet they can't even deal with a couple of "Sunday Golfers" in their pairing.

If play is so slow there is an opening ahead than the folks that have a problem with it should just assert themselves and play through... point out the behavior to the members of their pairing, plan ahead to avoid the pairing, or just deal with it. But whining and blaming others for a bad day/score simply because they chose to do nothing about it except let it get to them is rubbish.