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You're coming up short...gotta put in some work on that comedy short game...

After reading this thread, I have to agree...wait, I already thought that. I have to commend BnR on the aplomb with which he's handled the responses in this thread. And shelby, even though you're a self-professed scrapper I have to think you'd be more effective by disabling offenders with your sharp wit. Especially nowadays Zakthan, I won't judge you on you're response to being swung at with a club because I'm not sure what I'd do if that happened to me...though I doubt I would have put myself in that situation in the first place. As far as the poke at the French...I'll overlook that this one time but we have members from all walks of life and from every corner of the globe, in fact we have a new French member, octave, who might not appreciate your humor...that would be sorta like me sayin' "once a cop, always a cop", right? So let's keep the nationality shots to a minimum, say zero, and consider other's sensibilties from now on, agreed? I'll leave this thread open so long as it stays civil...share your stories and thoughts but ixnay on the flames.

Shade

I've had one confrontation on a golf course get physical.

I was probably only 15 years old at that time, and I was playing with a friend of the family who was in his 30's. We're on the 17th hole, about 320 yards out from the tee box, and it was a dogleg so we couldn't see the tee box. After we hit our shots, as we go to pick up our bags I notice a ball right next to us. We didn't hear it land, didn't hear fore, and there's no one around so I decided to pick the ball up - obviously not the smartest thing to do, but hey, i was 15 :P.

As we're on the 18th tee box, a guy comes down the cart path in his cart, he was pretty young and was with his wife. He slams on the breaks next to the tee box, and comes rushing out of his cart towards the guy I was playing with. He's hollering "Did you pick up my ball??? *insert many expletives*" as he's charging my friend, doesn't even give him a chance to answer and shoves my friend. My friend tells him he doesn't know what he's talking about(obviously he knows I took the ball, but who knows what the guy would have done). Luckily for the guy, his wife jumps in and pushes him back(the guy I was with is a huge dude) and says "This loser isn't worth it!" and they take off.

We go straight to the clubhouse. The course calls the police. We tell the course we don't want to press charges since we're a couple of hours away from home on a camping trip, and we would have to come all the way back out here and it would just be a big hassle for nothing.

At least we have a funny story to tell!

That's hilarious. I've seen a bunch of guys get hurt trying to show off for women, and this guy sounded no different.

Thankfully, I've never had any really bad experiences on the course, except maybe a few cross words. I am a former Staff Sergeant of the U.S. Marine Corps (left service in 2006). I took up golf as a non-contact sport to relax and get away from my old ways. I used to have a quick temper, but hey, that's what I got paid for!!! But, all that aside, I don't believe there is any reason (with very few exceptions) to become violent on the course. If I wanted to worry about fighting and hitting others while playing, I take hockey back up.

I saw a guy get hit in the upper jaw bone(below temple) with a club, turn around and send the hitter to the emergency room. I knew the guy that got hit.. he was not one to mess with.

i've almost been in a couple of bad situations... glad nothing happen.

A takeoff on an old expression--"It takes two to tangle". I think that pretty much sums it up. But if a guy attacks me unprovoked with a lethal golf club, he might just get an answer from Smith and Wesson.....the key here is "unprovoked". Most encounters such as the above examples, result from BOTH parties being involved in the verbal altercation to start with. Some times it's best just to ignore them, especially when they're drunk. That's when a call to the club house or police is in order. But I'm not going to let myself be hurt by some nut/jackass drunk with a golf club.

I would take the Smith and Wesson comment seriously. I belong to a golf club that is a pretty good ways from town out in a rural community (a church and a stop sign). The majority of the back 9 plays down into a swampy area and it can be water mocassin city. I almost always see at least one. That being said I know several members, and I have thought about it on occasion too, who carry .22 pistols in their golf bags to thin out the herd so to speak. So next time you get mad enough to fight someone, just remember it might be one of us redneck Texans packin more than a golf club.

I have found that a long iron is a much better weapon against a water moccasin, anyway. It's a fully automatic repeater, does not need reloading, has no danger of richocets, and under excitement, is easier to hit with. The Smith and Wesson is reserved for two-legged snakes. With the legless variety, you can just use the head of a 3 iron to toss the critter out of the way. You seldom have to hit him. I make it a cardinal rule to very carefully watch where I walk around water hazards....here in south Florida, you have to be as wary of gators as you do of snakes. But it has been my experience with both that they usually leave in a hurry when you get close. Just watch your step.

Fighting never solves anything. Violence only begets more violence. Chances are you didnt teach these guys a lesson anyways and they will likely keep doing what they are doing. People like this never seem to learn.
The best thing would have been to tell a marshal or a starter and hopefully they would deny those people access to the course in the future.
Ive never had someone get in my face on a golf course. Ive had a few people hit into me, but they all apologized for it, so its all good.
Im not looking for a fight with anyone, but if someone were to accuse me of stealing their ball and shove me or take a swing at me with their putter, all Ive got to say is that they had better make their first swing count, because I likely wont give them a chance for a 2nd swing.
Im not going to sit here and brag what a tough guy I am, but Ive studied Judo for the past 16 years, so I can take care of myself if someone wants to fight. Im glad that it has never come to that though, because, like I said, fighting never solves anything.

Well, I wish I could say that violence is bad. But some people just don't understand words and the only thing that gets through to them is to get, well, walloped. While I can't give you a situation that actually progressed on the course that someone needed a walloping, I can give you a situation where it did occur, and you can be the judge.

About 15 years ago (give or take a year or two), I was golfing with my mother and father. My mother hits her drive with a slice into the next fairway over. There are two guys coming up onto that holes tee box and tell my mother to go ahead and hit. So she goes out to her ball and addresses it to hit. The two guys are taking practice swings. My mom hits her ball and right after she hit it, before she could even see where it went she gets pegged in the arm from one of the guys on the tee box. The guy apparently shanked his shot straight into my mothers arm, my father starts yelling at this guy and while this guy is stammering on about how sorry he is, he nonetheless pulls back his driver like he is going to hit my father when my father gets to him. One punch from my dad and this guy goes down like a bag or rocks. We were less than 50 yds away from the guys on the tee box, and my mothers arm got broke. Just imagine if it hit her in the head. Anyways, that is the only violence I have been privy to on the golf course, and it is the only time I have actually seen someone get hit with a golf ball. Although I will tell you that I have played many rounds with people who talk big about being hit into, then do it themselves.

All in all, this is what I say; you are on a golf course and propelling little balls as hard as rock upwards and sometimes exceeding speeds of 100 mph. Use that thing that sits atop your shoulders and think a little bit. If you don't want someone doing it to you, then you had better well accept the consequences of doing it to someone else.

Makes no sense at all...your Dad was the jerk in this scenario, aggressively pursued someone who was stammering out an apology and hit him...people go to jail for that kind of thing...


The whole "sometimes a person needs a whalloping" thing is a load...grow up...

I agree the guys dad was in the wrong.

I would say my father was an aggressor, but not a jerk. You must understand his point of view at the time. His wife just got pegged in the arm with a golf ball by a guy who told her she could hit before he teed off. And maybe I wasn't clear enough, she was straight away, less than 50 yds in front of him. To me, at least, that guy cared not about what happens if he misses his shot, because if he did, he wouldn't have hit yet. Or the other possibility is that he didn't care if he hit my mother, either way he got what he deserved. And my father wouldn't have hit the guy if he didn't swing his club back like he was going to hit my dad.

And I am sorry that you don't agree with the whole, sometimes a person just needs a walloping thing, but can you seriously tell me that no one you have ever know could have benefited from a walloping? Alight, yes I do agree that most situations can be resolved with civility, and by all means if the situation can be resolved amicably then civility should be tried. But where is the justice in one person having a broken arm and the other just saying sorry because they didn't care enough to not hit? Saying sorry to someone is a sign of remorse for an accident, not gross negligence. If you are driving 40 mph down a rural street with children playing, and hit a child, is sorry a good enough response?

"Grow up", well, I will assume that you are not trying to be too degrading with that statement, as we are just of different opinions and those opinions based upon the experiences of our lives, and I guess I will state the obvious, which happens as we grow up. And no, I am not an idiot, I do fully understand what you were saying with those two very short words; thy experiences and knowledge that thou have thus far gained in life are for naught, my opinion is the highest in which that thou should strive to achieve, to have any other is without controversy delusional and I shall not even try to convince thou anymore of my wisdom because it is to far above thy head. And in person, them there sir, are fighting words. Whether or not a physical altercation would follow would be completely dependent upon that which belongs to the mouth of which the words befell. Because I will attest that the words "grow up" are not civil. I guess however I will have to defend myself, for most of my life I have grown up, the last few years I have been trying to grow younger, although I will admit, without success.

Have to say I agree with your dad on this one. If someone fired a shot at my wife, 50 yards in front of him, after he told her to hit.......there would be trouble.

Sorry, especially an insincere sorry, just doesn't cut it in this case. He got what he deserved.

Thanks for that, although his past decision isn't really my dilemma. I posted my story just to say that some things require action, yet the first two replies I got were my dad is a jerk and he was wrong. Funny it is how nothing was said of the guy who broke my mothers arm. Wasn't he wrong? Who wronged who first? I do understand that two wrongs don't make a right but neither does a wrong and doing nothing make a right. The thing is that there are people who just don't care about others and if you let them continue their plights they will. If people are hitting into you and they know they are doing it, and you confront them. It may stop for that round, although when you are walking away they will be laughing about it. And chances are the next round they will be back to their wily ways. However if you knock them out, I bet they will think twice next time. Now, I am not advocating physical altercations on the golf course, after all this is supposed to be a gentleman's game. But what I am after is sound reprisal for the misdeeds of others, also for people not to overlook the wrong that has befallen others before they lash out at them. The original poster and many of the posts since all have common ground; that is that they were hit into by groups behind them, not only that but purposefully. When you are dealing with people who have no care for others well being you are left with very few options, and words being one of them, have little to no effect. Instead of persecuting those who did what they thought was necessary to remedy the situation I say we stop the nonsense from happening to begin with. Yes work it would require, more stringent rules perhaps. But nothing is worth having that has not been worked for.