I really shouldn't let myself get upset by such things but sometimes it's hard.

I was on the 7th green today, having missed my birdie putt (it was a long putt, diagonally across a rise in the middle of the green so I wasn't that disappointed to have missed it) and was just starting to assess my second putt.

At the edge of my consciousness of the rest of the world I heard one of the guys in the pair behind me tee off. I had no problem with that as it was a par 4 with an elevated green, albeit a short hole at 254yds, but then I heard the thump of the ball hit the fairway, surprisingly close. I looked up to see the second bounce then watch as the ball rolls on to the green.

The green I'm standing on...playing golf...trying to save par...

OK, I quickly calmed myself down, reasoning that maybe he was as surprised to see he'd hit the ball that far as I was. He must have just got everything right and hit the ball on the sweet spot, and the wind was behind him.

Then he nearly got the ball on the green with his second shot on the 8th...when I was on the green.

Forward to the 14th. A par 4, 290yds, dogleg left with the green, including the flag, hidden from view on the tee thanks to trees and the rise of the fairway (which then drops down again to the green itself). I've already had a bit of a nightmare getting on the green in five including a lost ball. I'm just lining up my second putt and I hear another thump, to see this guy's ball almost roll on to the green from his tee shot. As the green is hidden from the tee I was really tempted to pick up his ball and throw it on to the nearby pond. He'd never have known.

On to the 17th. I'm on the green and...well, you get the picture...he didn't reach the green, but he did get close. He's obviously a long hitter and it's clear that the tee shot on 7th wasn't much of a fluke after all.

I'm pleased for him that he's blessed with some of the hitting-a-golf-ball-long-and-straight talent, but while I take a few more shots than most, including him, I don't exactly hang about. I rarely take more than two practice swings, I only line up putts from behind the line and I don't complete my scorecard until I've cleared the green. In this way I am a 'good' golfer.

His impatience, or at least lack of thought and courtesy, really bugged me, and genuinely put me off on the 7th. Then I felt under pressure to get a move on from the 8th onwards.

Like I said, I don't hang about, but still, I don't like to feel rushed either.

Was this guy out of order? What could/should I have done?

Definitely you should have thrown the ball in the water on 14 ..enough is enough

If his ball is just off the green I usually step on it and bury it. Usually they get the hint and don,t say anything. If his ball is on the green pick it up and casually throw it to the side. Of course with my older groups this issue hardly ever comes up any more. Now if it did I might turn around and applaud.

You had every right to be peeved.

I usually put the offending ball on a tee as long as the ball rolled on to the green. If it hit on the fly or 1st bounce I jump to step 2. The 2nd time I would walk back and engage the fellow in a conversation about courtesy, endangering others, etc.. In a nice way but firmly make the point that his lack of patience is not acceptable. If he gave me a hard time I call a ranger over or make a phone call to the clubhouse.

By the 3rd time, his ball would be stuck into the face of the deepest bunker or inexplicably "lost".

All of us have the ability to ocassionally hit a perfect shot and reach some target we did not expect. More than once and the player is just being a jerk - or what do you say over there, a bloody wanker.

If you hit his ball out of bounds he'll get the picture.

bkuehn1952 wrote:

...the player is just being a jerk - or what do you say over there, a bloody wanker.

We would be more likely to use the word jerk, I think. 'Bloody' is a lot less frequently used than Americans seem to think. A more likely combo would be 'F***ing W*****'.

There, next time you come over you'll fit right in!

Take a scrap of paper, write on one side: "See other side". On the other: "you just earned 2 penalty strokes!". Put that under the ball with the "See other side" facing up. Perhaps pin it down using a tee, ball on top.

If he doesn't act on the hint, let the marshall handle it. Picking up the ball, throwing it away, pushing it all the way down - it just generates conflict. The guys that are so oblivious to etiquette won't take the hint anyway.

I would probably throw my arms up in the air and yell "WTF?". If it happens again I would yell "F OFF". If that didn't work I'd call the clubhouse.

If a ball rolls up to me, I usually don't think twice about it. It's not going to hurt me if it's rolling.

But at the same time, rolling up on someone more than a couple of times in the same round is a bit rude.

Bryan K wrote:

If a ball rolls up to me, I usually don't think twice about it. It's not going to hurt me if it's rolling. But at the same time, rolling up on someone more than a couple of times in the same round is a bit rude.

Indeed. More than once is knowing you can do it, therefore there is a need to be aware of it. If it were me in his shoes I'd just have called the clubhouse. No need to get into an argument. It's pretty obvious that if he was doing it often that he didn't care for etiquette anyway.

Bryan K wrote:

If a ball rolls up to me, I usually don't think twice about it. It's not going to hurt me if it's rolling. But at the same time, rolling up on someone more than a couple of times in the same round is a bit rude.

Indeed. More than once is knowing you can do it, therefore there is a need to be aware of it. If it were me in his shoes I'd just have called the clubhouse. No need to get into an argument. It's pretty obvious that if he was doing it often that he didn't care for etiquette anyway.

At this course calling the club house is unlikely to help, sadly. It's a public (municipal) course and there's usually only one member of staff, who, of course, is manning the shop.

You'll not be surprised to learn that there are a lot of 'walk-ons'...