Forum > Rants

Nick Thomson

What really grinds your gears whilst playing?

For me it's if anyone gives a running commentary on a crap shot. For example after hitting a slightly wayward drive, ''Oh thats heading towards the bunker, its going right at it. Yep, you're in the bunker. I though it was heading that way.''

Always makes it a bit better if you are not in the bunker/water/other form of hazard though.

Also people who have some form of issue with you/something you are doing, then not mentioning it until well after the round, mentioning no names (David, LOL!!!)

Martin Devlin

For me, It's most definitely slow players. I can not stand people who stand on the tee, spend a lifetime looking at their shot,go to the ball and are like a statue. Proceed up the fairway only to do the same again on their second and third and fourth and fifth Then it comes to the green,now there are only a certain amount of angles needed  to look at a putt before they pull it left.

Sorry had to get that off my chest.

John Pettitt

I can understand your frustration, Martin, but I have stopped worrying about the problem of slow play as there is very little that I or you can do about it. Some players just cannot play fast and you only need one of this type in a fourball and the whole group then becomes tarred with the same brush.

I am a very quick player, probably too quick for my own good, but I make my decisions very quickly and as I have had my swing over fifty years I don't need to practice it before every shot I play.

My eyesight is not good enough now to read a line so I just use the plumbline method, and then hit it towards the hole. If it goes in thats a bonus.

Paul Everett

Martin Devlin

Paul

It can happen from time to time like you say "on pressure shots" but it is the golfers that do it over and over again through every shot.

My fault is (like most golfers) i tend to play quicker after hitting a bad shot ,but not the people i spoke about. It is endless monotony.

I think that is why the majority of people like the exciting players like Seve, or even in different sports like snooker, i would rather watch Ronnie than most because he is the most aggresive.

Paul Everett

Martin Devlin

Spot on Paul. Thats how golf should be played and thats how everyone wants it (well most people)

If the majority of golfers speeded up i genuinley think it would improve their game. You can think about the shot,conditions or even hazzards too much. concentrate on the shot you are playing and let everything else leave your mind, that will make you a better and more cosistent golfer.

PS What has happened to golf in this era. Is every player going to fold if playing with Tiger. I have never seen such the like. This would never have happened in the Nicholas or Faldo era there were to many good players in years gone by.

Chris Perry

People who don't rake bunkers, especially when my ball ends up against where their foot was meaning it is effecively plugged.  Just damned bad manners. 

And the player who waits until everyone has taken their shot before deciding which club to take out of their bag, takes seven practice swings, goes through an elaborate pre-shot routine, followed by four more practice swings, stands over the ball for what seems like 5 minutes and then tops it ten yards.  Five practice swings to 'figure out what they did wrong', club back in the bag, walk to ball, study lie & shot options & wind conditions & what direction that squirrel is about to run off in, then return to the begining of this paragraph and repeat........ 

David Brown

EDITED BY MODERATOR - Sorry David, you're not putting that on there.  I'm sure I don't have to explain why

David Brown

Dave ley

Chris Perry

David B - I edited.  Phrase it differently and without the comment which was likely to offend and I may consider allowing it to stay.

David L - Anything not annoy you?  And you missed "when I have to take my shoes and socks off to play my shot and the stream is cold"

Nick Thomson

Martin Devlin

David Marshall

David Ley.

I have a remote golf trolley, and i'm playing with you and Kevin on 18th May.

Would you prefer I leave it at home and use my pull trolley?

Martin Devlin

Come on Chris

David L and myself have not seen eye to eye on previous posts but you have to admit that was funny.

Dave ley

Nick I meant behind my line of sight to my right .........anywhere else does not bother me but there i find it very distracting......................and yes it is bad etiquette.Not an excuse because they are not there whilst putting as i always politetly ask them to move away.

Chris that was my first bath for a week !!

Paul Everett

I forgot to mention people who do not remember / bother to repair their pitch marks!

I rarely land on the green hard enough to leave a mark, but when I do I always repair it.

Nick Thomson

I know thats what you meant Dave. Why is it distracting, you should be looking at the ball. Any other focus should be on the hole.

Granted if the person is moving or making noise I could see an issue. But someone standing still should make absolutely no difference. Does it bother you if someone is stood behind you whilst hitting a full shot??

Paul Everett

David Brown

It's just that you see them out the corner of your eye peripherall vision is thats how you spell it It can be annoying

Paul Everett

Close enough David

I must admit that when I'm stood over my putt, I am totally oblivious to all that is around me (even the hole on most occassions LOL). But from now on I shall watch where I am standing.

Chris Perry

Matin - Should've put a winky thing at the end of my comment

Dave - When you got home, did the missus say "Oh good, that funny smell seems to have gone at last"?

Paul - I believe the 'rule' is 30* off the line.  In matchplay (per the naughty goings on thread) I have been known to drift behind the line if I'm on a similar one if I can get away with it........

David Brown

Dave ley

Paul you should never stand behind a player with the intension of watching the line you should stand away from the players peripheral vision.You may walk in to check the line once the stroke as been made.

Nick I don't have people stand directly behind me on any shots not that on a full shot it would bother me , putting is no no I just don't like to have something that can potential distract me in my peripheral vision whilst putting that shouldn't be there.

Owners of remote control trollies can't help themselves but steer the things to the next tee whilst the opponents are preparing to play

Nick Thomson

I just cant grasp this at all.

You aint looking at whats in that direction, your eye should be on the ball, any other concentration on the hole. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

David Brown

Chris Perry

Paul Everett

Dave ley

Paul Everett

I'm getting a complex now!! I often stand behind (at a distance again) playing partners during their tee shots to help spot the shot. Think I will be best waiting in the clubhouse till the course is empty that way I will be out of everybodies eye line!

I appologize now if I upset / distracted any of my playing partners in todays South East Qualifier.

Tim Hawkins

Funnily enough I got stuck behind a society fourball yesterday that just about ticked every 'let's get Tim p*ss*d off' box out, viz.  Waiting for the fourball in front to clear the green before teeing off - on a 425yd dogleg (SI 1) - despite none of them managing 150yds on the previous 10 shots.  Chatting on the fairway with us on the tee.  Going to the first players ball and standing in a group, waiting for the shot, going to the next players ball and standing in a group etc: etc:.  Leaving at least one bag on the front of the green.  Marking cards on the greens.  Forgetting to put the flag back in, walking 40yds, then shuffling back to replace it.  Doing a jig on the 18th green along to the strains of the bagpipes from a nearby wedding after they've putted out.

OK, the last one isn't in the top ten as it doesn't happen that often... 

James Illsley

My one is (and the player(s) concerned shall remain nameless) when someone slices a shot which kicks back from the rough in the approximate direction of the green and they then spend the next 5 minutes explaining how they hit the shot with a little left to right, to take advantage of the 11 mph breeze blowing over their right shoulder and how they intended to use the contours of the course to leave the ball exactly where it ended up!

Oh and those people who insist on chucking handfulls of grass around because they've seen someone on TV do it!

David Lythgoe

Patrick Bourke

Stuart Govan

My regular playing partner has an annoying habit of taking ages over their shot and then saying to me you better hurry up the group behind have caught us up! Also seems incapable of leaving his trolley on the correct side of the green, so after holing out it's another 30 seconds before we clear the green, although to be fair to him he's getting better!

Dennis Visser

Mine has to be:

1. slow play, 2. slow play & 3. slow play!!!

Martin Devlin

Another one for me is green keepers who think they own the course.

I am quite a long hitter and slightly hooked my tee shot off hole no2 and landed at the back of the first tee which lies adjacent, only a few small trees seperate them.

My god did i get into bother "you cant do that again, ridiculous"

I was so amazed i didn't really argue that much, which i would normally have done, but i hardly bloody meant it and shouted 4. IDIOT!!!!

John Flood

I have also agree with Dave L I don't like people standing behind me when putting because you don't know if they are going to move during your stroke. Also I think it is an infringement of the rules as your not suppose to take a read from someones's else's line until they have hit the ball.

Another annoyance is people who don't take their putter with them when they are going to just chip from off the green. They then have to walk back to their bag replace the club get the putter & then walk back to the green!!?!

Another is people who throw tantrums on the course. Grow up or find something else to do, we don't wanna see it or hear it.

Chris Brannon

Patrick Bourke

 Now that people 'in line of vision' has come up it does bug me sometimes if things are not going my way but I let it go if they are still as they are my regular playing partners, if a new player did it I'd tell them to kick it in the head straight away.  I suspect it's to see how I'm set up (or maybe I'm flattering myself). Regards standing behind me putting to see the line: it's a bloody cheek whether you're playing for beer vouchers or not.

Darren Ramowski

You are all grumpy  

I get annoyed with ..................

1, Slow play

2, People telling you how to swing/play during a round

3, People counting your scores whilst playing

John Flood

Lee Butler

I remembered one whilst playing yesterday.

I hate it when you land in a bunker only to find great big dogs pore prints in the sand.  We have to rake the bunkers when you've played in them, why not the dog owners too??!

John Flood

Lee it could have been worse.... you could have found a big steaming turd!!

Oh & it's "paw".

Dennis Visser

Lee Butler

Martin Goodman

Alex Turner

i hate fourballs that dont let you through

my own bad play and water :]

Stuart Govan

Taking an iron off the tee for safety then putting it in trouble.

People who think they are John Daly and wait for the group ahead to be 350 yards away before playing, then consistently hit it less than 100 yards.

Wayne Santorini

Adrian Fallon

Golfers using Mobiles even though there are signs everywhere to say not to!

Mobile phones going off while your swinging/putting!

Slow play!

Not being called through even when every member of the fourball in front has duffed their shots and your hitting straight 1's up their arses behind them!!! And even worse when 1 of the group suggests letting the guy behind play through 2 of them say definatley not loud enough for the guy behind to hear!!!!

Gary Hand

1. Pitchmarks on the green bend over and sort them out you lazy gits, they are allways the first peole to complain when one forces there puts to lip out but the last to fix them.

2. Slow play more annoyingly for me from playing partners than the people in front at least if it's the people in front you can have a leaisurly stroll and a bit of a chat but when you are stop start in deadly silence waiting for your so called friend with the only concilation being that if I'm this annoyed I wonder how pi**ed off the poor sods behind are.

3.People playing up your jacksy and everytime you wave them through they pass the offer up to have a bloody fag and then next hole it's the same all over again.

Brian Robson

Chris Hooley

My number one at the moment has to be the ever increasing number of people who don;t shout "fore" when there is a risk of hitting someone.

Some examples:

About a month ago at Styal in Cheshire I had just hit my shot into the green on the 9th. I always set my bag down to the right of the ball and a couple of yards behind me. I walk back to the bag to pick it up and as I do...thud! Golf ball lands a foot from me. I indicate to the people behind where their ball was and nothing, no apologies...nothing. So When on the tenth I tee off (its a par 3) and then see them walking up so hang fire. I ask them why they didnt shout....all he said was sorry I didnt think Id reach. I explain that we are stuck behind a 4 ball and that theres no rush....they say "but theres a buggy behind us"....*sigh*

Two weeks ago. I'm playing another local course and am walking down the fairway on the third...thud! 5 foot from me a ball lands. People on the second tee hit it and that hole has a hedge in front. No shout. Why? If you hit the ball onto another hole and your view is obscured...shout!.

The very next hole, I'm about to tee off and playing back up the 5th is a two ball...he takes his shot into the green, slices it....1 foot away from me! No shout. His explanation - I lost the ball in the sun. *Sigh*

1 week ago...walking off a par 3 green....just down the slope into the rough....Thud! 3 foot from me...didnt see you there mate sorry. Argghhhhh!!!

Is it just me finding this? Is it down to the fact that pro's dont shout so they think they can copy? Dont  people realise you could seriously injure or god forbid kill someone with a golf ball???

Chris Perry