64 replies to this topic

[swbyps]

I was playing at Lake Toxaway CC in NC a few years back. I hit my drive on 9 straight down the middle..right at the 150 stake in the middle of the fairway. I get up there and the ball is nowhere to be found. I looked all over the place and was saying to myself there was no way that ball was gone...I hit it right down the middle. I was by myself so I probably took more time looking than I should have but eventually I just dropped one by the 150 marker and moved on. On my way to the green I was looking back thinking maybe a different view would turn up the ball..no luck. After I finished the hole, I went back out to the fairway to look again..still in disbelief that I couldnt find that ball. Well, this time I found it! It was plugged in the fairway by a sprinkler head with only about a quarter sized white spot showing. And it wasnt like a usual plug where there is a bit of a pitch mark sticking up. It was as if the ball was sitting on the grass and then just sucked in leaving no sign of an impact. It was crazy. It also never even dawned on me that it would have been plugged because the fairways were not at all wet. I figured later that since it was by the sprinkler the ground was damp in that area.

Edited by swbyps, 02 May 2012 - 12:56 PM.

[bermuda]

Equally baffling is the ball you hit and never see it in the air or on the ground but somehow you know where it went and walk right to it.

[wvuwhat]

We have a rule about this in our group.  If you saw it land and everyone else in the group agrees that it should be in play it's a free drop after looking around for a little while.  

I've had this happen multiple times where I've hit a drive just slightly off line, bounces in the fairway and should just be a few feet into the rough.  But, when you get up there it's just gone.

[stryper]

divotbeltran, on 30 April 2012 - 10:20 PM, said:

Happens to me all the time.

Yup can't tell you how many I've lost...in the  middle of the friggin'  fairway.  

Edited by stryper, 02 May 2012 - 04:52 PM.

[Spooky67]

Couple weeks ago I teed off on a short par 4, 330yds or so, very slight dogleg left and very slightly downhill.  When I hit my tee shot, I knew it was good...blasted.  Then I see the ball climbing and drawing just a bit- perfect.  I bend down to pick up my tee as I know the ball will be waiting for me very close to the green.  

Never found it.

Years ago on a 185yd par 3, caught my tee shot just a bit heavy, thought I saw my ball disappear into a bunker guarding the front of the green.  Looked in that bunker for 10 min or so until my playing partner says.."It's in the hole."

Ace.

[tembolo1284]

greens hit, on 30 April 2012 - 02:36 PM, said:

Somewhere, there exists a big pile of unmatched socks and golf balls.

yes!

[Thrillhouse]

tembolo1284, on 02 May 2012 - 05:08 PM, said:

greens hit, on 30 April 2012 - 02:36 PM, said:

Somewhere, there exists a big pile of unmatched socks and golf balls.

yes!

The unmatched socks are in a pile on a shelf in my laundry room. So thats one mystery solved.

[lukesmurf59]

This happens to me all the time!  Well not all the time but it happened twice in the last week so it seems like that.

Today I hit a shot that finished inside a tree.  Rolled in a little hole at the bottom.  Ended up making double with the drop on my first hole.  Great start to the day.

[RainShadow]

QWKDTSN, on 30 April 2012 - 12:32 PM, said:

Today I went out for a dawn round, just practicing, not really keeping score.  I make the turn about 7:30 AM and tee off on the short 13th hole at my home course with a 2 iron into a stiff breeze.  Pull it slightly, left side of the fairway, in good shape.  My second shot is just a little 50 yard chip wedge over the corner of an elevated bunker to a front pin location.  Smooth swing, good contact, ball is right on line.  Heck, it might even be in the hole.  I couldn't see it land because the bunker is actually taller than the surface of the green.  I walk up, expecting to find the ball within 6 feet of the hole.  No ball on the green.  Sweet!  I must have put it in the hole for an eagle two.  Bend over the cup, and.... no ball.

I started looking around, my gaze taking in the whole green, and then look back in the cup just to double-check.  No ball anywhere in sight.

I went back and checked in the front bunker, in a few clumps of tallish grass, and then started walking in a spiral around the green.  There was nobody else around me, and I wasn't worried about my 5 minute time limit - I just wanted to find that ball - it was a nearly new Pro V1X!!

Over ten minutes of searching could not locate it anywhere.  The only thing I can imagine is that it hit the flagstick and ricocheted off in some random direction, but I think I should have noticed that from 50 yards away.

You knew the answer when you were up here. Your ball was 3" under the ground in the mud.
Now down there in Puerto Rico, it may be in the Burmuda Triangle.
Hope you're enjoying the Carribean!
Marc

[souledge]

I once skyed a tee shot straight down the middle of a wet fairway. As I got to the spot maybe 100 yards away, there was no ball in sight. We all clearly saw the ball land in that area.

What ended up happening was that the ball embedded itself into the wet fairway so deep that the surrounding grass was pulled in over it. We barely saw a quarter of a ball when we finally found it in the middle of the fairway.

[DaveLeeNC]

Based on the ruling that Tiger got on the 5th hole at Quail Hollow last Friday, I assume that all these balls lost balls were taken by an outside agency.

dave

[Locked]

can't believe it took 41 posts for somebody to blame an outside agency

I blame it on my vision.  I had Lasik a few years ago and I swear I have good sight but my ability to find my golf ball in the rough just off the fairway is akin to my ability to fly.

[DaveLeeNC]

Locked, on 08 May 2012 - 03:00 PM, said:

can't believe it took 41 posts for somebody to blame an outside agency

I blame it on my vision.  I had Lasik a few years ago and I swear I have good sight but my ability to find my golf ball in the rough just off the fairway is akin to my ability to fly.

Along those lines, I recall a time when the ability to hit the ball out of sight was a positive thing.

dave

[Splitter]

Somewhere there is a small man in a lab coat with thick glasses, crazy hair and a warehouse full of sock singles and golf balls.....  

There's probably some key rings in the warehouse too...  

And singles of child size shoes...  How does a kid lose *one* shoe....

[gambit]

At one of the course near me, Wente, there are times I hit a ball just a foot into the rough. I locate a marker like a tree or change in fairway pattern to use as a line for where my ball should be. I've given up on several calls that should be right there. Frustrating.

[jblackb042]

The worst for me was a few weeks ago, hit a bomb right down the center of the fairway probably 80 yards from the hole. I saw the ball hit and bounce forward, when I get up there no ball. What I do see is bubba driving across the the cart path back to the hole running parallel to mine. Couldn't convince my buddy that the guy had to have taken my 3 hole old Pro-V1. One of the most maddening experiences ever. Went from looking at birdie to double after catching a deep bunker from anger!

[JDorfler]

I contacted Giorgio A. Tsoukalos and he said, "Aliens!".

[MarkFromTheUK]

Happens all the time at my course. I think the biggest problem is that it's a links course, so there aren't many trees to help judge distance or direction, and a lot of the time you end up looking in the wrong place as you lose your bearings.

If one of the big golf ball manufacturers released a high quality ball with a microchip in the core and linked it to a GPS iphone app, they would make a killing.

[justinp766]

How do you guys score .....what is it... a 1 penalty for lost balls?  So instead of hitting shot 2 ....100 yards into the green .....now your hitting shot 3 100 yards into green?

So brutal this game...

[Swingem]

The key to unlocking the mystery of the "lost ball in the middle of the fairway" is understanding the "reality distortion field". On occasion, our minds simply cannot accept the reality of the shot "sh***ked into the wilderness. The subconcious then must create an alternate reality in line with our visualization of the desired outcome. The end result is that, as our ball flies OB, we see it splitting the fairway.

[ruascott]

Playing in a HS match many years ago at Brickyard in Indy. Par 5....6th hole i think. Hit tee shot right behind trees. Layup with a short iron over trees. Hit perfect, heading right for center of fairway. We arrive, ball is nowhere in sight. Eventually walk back and play another.
When i get up to my 2nd ball, we see the first one plugged.

Now at the time I wasn't a rules expert. I asked my opponent, who was beating me pretty good, the proper play. He tells me i can play my first one. Stupid me plays it out, rather than playing both balls out. I make par, go on to play really well, and end up beating my guy, and medalist for the match. We are walking in, guy then says, 'i don't think you played that right.' He was of course correct, but i wanted to slug him. I end up DQ....we lose the match.

[ruascott]

justinp766, on 18 May 2012 - 08:52 AM, said:

How do you guys score .....what is it... a 1 penalty for lost balls?  So instead of hitting shot 2 ....100 yards into the green .....now your hitting shot 3 100 yards into green?

So brutal this game...

That's how we play, but not correct...by rule you have to go to prior spot and replay hitting 3. Sometimes I've seen guys drop and play hitting 4 to the green, which is closer to rule, but still incorrect.

In a busy day, you'll piss a lot of people off going back to the tee to replay. Would like to see usga adjust this rule.

[Gbyeball]

You play enough golf and realize two things

There are " Golf Gods"

There are " Golf Gremlins"

The same little bast*ards with the single shoes, socks, remote controls, spare car keys etc. all stock piled in a thrid dimension far far away.

[Jimbud]

wvuwhat, on 02 May 2012 - 04:40 PM, said:

We have a rule about this in our group.  If you saw it land and everyone else in the group agrees that it should be in play it's a free drop after looking around for a little while.  

I've had this happen multiple times where I've hit a drive just slightly off line, bounces in the fairway and should just be a few feet into the rough.  But, when you get up there it's just gone.

In late September and October here in Northern Minnesota we play a similar rule once there's lots of leaves on the ground.

[forgedforever]

Happened in golf league last Tuesday evening.  I picked the wrong time to make my best contact of the year with a 3-wood.  On top of that, we're playing downwind.  And the ground is starting to get just a bit hard.  Bad combination.

Anyway, my pretty yellow Bridgestone was pushed just a bit.  I figure it will be 10-15 yards right of the green.  The ball flat out refused to be found. Six players are in the group.  Everyone is doing their best to find the dang ball. My cart partner thought that it may have hit the truck of a tree 25 or so yards from the green, but I don't think so.  There's a group of pine trees behind the green. Nope.  There's out of bounds right behind the pines.  The out of bounds area includes a ditch, so that's probably where it ended up.  But who knows?

So then I get to take an embarrassing solo cart ride back to the scene of the crime and hit another shot.  I wave and apologize to the group behind us as I drive back toward the green.  

I'm not one to give up easy, so the next night I'm on a solo search for the ball!  I probably spent 20 minutes looking everywhere!  

No ball.

As I get ready to leave the hole I look back into the fairway.  One of the guys in the group behind us the previous night was playing with his son. I know he saw me poking around the pine trees etc. again.  I'm sure he thought I'm nuts.

And he's probably right.

[Mr.Rob]

This is by far my number 1 cause of lost balls. Not water or the 7 gullies to hit over on my home track. Lost balls on well struck tee shots where I am a tick slow looking up and never see it in the air. I play solo 99% of the time and every time this happens I can't help but think, 'This would never happen to Phil. Where's my damn gallery to point out where it landed!" LoL

[TheBerk]

Happens to me at least once a week. Frustrating as hell. Not so much what with the lost $2-3, but what the hell you score yourself when you take a drop so as not to slow up play.

[SurfDuffer]

A couple of years ago I was playing a tournament and on the second hole I missed the green just left int an area of wide open rough.  Searched and searched and couldn't find it.  Ruined my day and I missed the cut.  The next day I played the same hole and found my ball from the previous day exactly where I thought it should be.  

[jabrch]

It's the Fairway Monster...he's a bastxxx.

[Greenie]

Those "Gremlins" are jokesters too.

I had the weirdest thing happen to me a few weeks back. My two friends and I were playing this course and the rough was really high. It was one of those days.  I seemed to be a foot off the fairway all day long. We had spent alot of time looking for balls in the thick rough during our round . By the time we rolled up on seventeen I was tired of looking for balls and just wanted to get the round over with. Seventeen was a par 3 . I hit my ball about ten yards short and to the right of the green just short of a bunker. I was playing a yellow Srixon. All three of us looked and looked . The yellow ball was gone and in its place was a pink ball.

So one of my buddies tries to get me worked up as we rode over to eighteen. " Man, getting penalty strokes on a par 3. How do you lose a ball on a par 3? It was so funny your yellow ball turned into a pink ball just like your swing, blah blah blah" So then I hear "you letting me back into this thing. Score check please"

Eighteen is a par 5. Now I only have yellow balls in my bag. I loaded my bag with yellow Srixons before I headed to the course. My buddy is trying to get into my head. "You only have me by four strokes. It's a tight driving hole, in the woods and I got you. I tee up my yellow ball and stripe it right down the middle. It's dead center fairway. We ride up to our balls. Mine is nowhere to be found. In its place is a white Bridgestone with a green dot. I mark my balls with a green dot too.  If I'm not using yellow Srixons , I'm using white Bridgestones. The only problem is the green dot isn't where I put my dot. It's not my ball even if I had played a white ball. So I am looking for my ball in the rough. I don't know how it would have got there. We saw my ball stop in the middle of the fairway The other two guys are wondering what I am doing. The one guy sees the green dot on the ball and insists it is my ball. They both agreed it's my ball. I disagreed. We never saw anyone in our fairway. I don't know what happened to my ball.  I know what I played. I know how I mark my ball. "GREMLINS"

Now the joke is I'm old and senile. I can't see the difference in yellow and white. I have no clue what ball I'm playing anymore.