Golf is a lot of fun, and it is one of the sports with the most etiquette rules that you need to follow while playing.

What would you do if you were playing a hole and you noticed other people up ahead of you who didn’t seem to be playing at all, but just looking for golf balls?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, so he started to play through, but when he walked up to what he thought was his ball, one of the guys yelled at him, saying that it was his. He was correct, so he stepped away and said that they should be playing, not just standing off in the rough wasting time, which seemed to upset them even more.

This is one of those situations that could have been avoided if everyone had just followed standard golf etiquette. Fortunately, things didn’t escalate further, and hopefully everyone had a good time the rest of the day.

Unintentionally Outhunted Golf ball hunters

I was playing 18 as a single mid-afternoon recently at my local club on a beautiful sunny day.

Sounds like a nice day of golf, so far.

After the first few holes as I approached the tee box on a par 5 and there were 2 carts farther down; one in the middle of the fairway and farther down one near a pond.

I assumed it was a foursome so I waited patiently for them to hit their 2nd shot because they were within my driver range (I’m not a big hitter like the Lama).

Nice tee off.

I was in no rush and thoroughly enjoying my time on the course. The cart in the middle of the fairway hit and moved on but the other 2 players farther down still were over by the pond and not playing, so I assumed that they were part of the maintenance crew working on something near the pond which was OB on the right, well out of my range.

I therefore went ahead and hit my driver about 230 along the right side and proceeded up to my ball.

You have to be cautious while playing golf.

During my drive from the tee box, the 2 players who I saw hit were hitting chip shots onto the green and the guys near the pond were still milling around and not paying any attention to me, so after waiting for about a minute I disregarded them and decided hit my second shot.

I was concerned about hitting them because they were only about 50 yards ahead of me on the right and because I rarely hit the ball where I aim, I didn’t want to hurt either of these “maintenance” fellows.

Finding lost golf balls is a lot of fun, and it can save you money.

I drilled my 2nd shot straight down the right side of the fairway ( 200 yards) and I was feeling really good because one, I hit the ball well, and two, I didn’t hurt anybody in front of me.

Meanwhile the two players that were actually playing the hole were on the green putting, so I couldn’t hit my 3rd shot so I decided to search in the tall grass/trees on the left side of the fairway for balls because beside scoring well, finding lost balls is just as rewarding for me.

Score! Great find.

I found 4 balls in about 30 seconds, so I was elated. As the guys were walking off the green I drive my cart up to a ball that is in the area on the right side of the fairway where I thought I hit my ball.

I didn’t pick the ball up or examine it because I assumed it was mine because I was the only one playing the hole.

Oh, I guess those guys are playing. That is odd.

I took out my Gap wedge and approached the ball. As I am lining up for my shot the “maintenance” guys drive up in their cart and yell “that is my ball”.

I look at him dumbfounded and he says it’s a Pinnacle and I look at it and he is correct. I then say to him “sorry but I didn’t look at it because I am the only one playing this hole so I assumed it was my ball”.

It was an honest mistake, no big deal.

He got offended and said that it was his ball. Now this guy looks like Carl from Caddyshack wearing a bucket hat, dirty pants and a t-shirt.

He gave me the “hairy eyeball” look like I was in the wrong because I didn’t realize that him and his clown buddy were also playing this hole even though they were carrying ball retrieval poles, and a small shovel, not clubs.

Well, this might not have been the best way to handle the situation.

I respond by saying he should pay attention to what is going on instead of searching for balls while others are trying to play the course. I mentioned that he was lucky I didn’t drill my ball into the side of his head because I don’t have that good of aim.

I then walk up the fairway another 20 feet and see my ball just off the fairway in the deep grass. I assume that at least one of the 4 balls I found was one of their balls, which I never saw them hit during my entire time waiting for the guys in the fairway in front of me to hit.

If they aren’t going to play, they should step off and let others play through.

I then hit my 3rd shot on the green and finished the hole (Par). As I walk off the green (with 4 new to me golfballs) the ball hunters still are off in the weeds looking for balls as another 2-some pulls up into the area on the fairway I just vacated.

What a couple of dopes!

Golf is a lot of fun, but some people just don’t know standard etiquette. You can’t let people like this ruin a perfectly good day out on the course.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who is feeling guilty about having an unauthorized car towed from her assigned spot.

Let’s see what the people in the comments thought about this story.

Golfers can be weird, that’s for sure.

LOL. Very funny.

This guy hated the story, I guess.

There is no need to escalate the situation.

Some people just assume the worst in others, no matter the situation, and that seems to be the case here. Of course, those other golfers should have been playing rather than just standing there. Or if they were going to stand around, they should have signaled to him to play through.

Oh well, it sounds like everyone still had fun, and that is the main thing.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who wasn’t keen on contributing more to a coworker’s gift than originally planned.