Played in a 36 Hole Pairs open Competition Yesterday at one of my courses. My Partner was a Visitor to the Course and the two guys we played with were also visitors.

The pair we played with were of highish handicaps compared to us. One guy was off 14 and the other off 19.

We played all 36 holes, one round in Bogey format and one round Betterball Stableford and everything seemed okay. Seemed like nice guys, probably struggled with the strange course compared to me and my partner who played it freqently and din't score as well as they'd have liked.

After the final hole of the 2nd round. The 19 Handicap Golfer suddenly changed character and started a rant about how we should be penalised shots for infringing rules. Straight away this irked me and my partner who couldn't think of anything we'd possibly done wrong. This guy then proceeded to say that everytime I told my partner where he should aim or what he should use as a marker we should get 2 shot Penalities. He then said on the 13th Hole when I told my partner to aim just inside one of their ball markers this was a massive sin. He then tried to have a rant about me taking relief on the last hole from a Caged Tree, despite the local rules clearly saying any stake, caged, fenced or young trees you get relief from. He argued that as the tree was over 6 feet I shouldn't have taken relief and then incurred all manner of penalties.

Where do people like this come from? There is a perfectly good book called the R&A Rules of Golf available free from most Golf Clubs and Pro Shops. Surely every golfer has picked one up and read it.

The bit that made me laugh was if it was a penalty everytime I told my partner where to aim on a hole and where to hit is ball, what was it each time they asked me on the tee where to go and what dangers were faced ahead?

i have a feeling that if they were playing well non of their rubbish would have been brought up....sore losers

Yeah guess some people have a strange mentality. I got the impression from them all day they'd entered to win and that was it. Where as me and my partner thought at £20 a man to play 36 Holes and get a Meal that was good value golf, the competition attached was just a bonus.

My partner has since told me that the guy who started complaining actually on 5 occasions tee'd up in front of the markers, but hadn't said anything because, "They weren't playing very well so didn't see the point." but wish I'd know.

i know it's a bit picky but in the GS open final one of our ball tee'd up slightly ahead of the markers, i just pointed it out, no harm, no foul

"Your feet are wet" is never met by any ill feeling by a proper Golfer.

TheLyth

Perhaps I should try that one next time it happens to me. Normally I go for the "You playing from the Ladies tees today?" approach and that doesn't sometimes go down well.