golfrewind.com

I was reading the other thread and thought I would open one about funny golf tales. :)

I was playing at a local course yesterday where I witnessed yet another of the golf gods mighty acts performed on us mortal golfers. One of my playing competitors hit his tee shot on the 11th hole 203 yrd par 3 that landed albeit pin high to the right of green and behind a very large wheeping willow. With a bunker just between the tree and the green, and yet another trap on the other side of the 20 ft portion of the green.

With his second shot, the ball was sent over the tree and on the green for a split second then it rolled into the sand trap. He took his stance and flew the ball over the green and over the other sand trap but this time directly under that willow tree. Once again faced with a lower shot that has to clear a bunker and land on this tiny portion of the green. He now takes his shot and it hits the edge of the bunker and rolls back into the bunker. He then misses his next shot as the ball never got out. :mad: This is where the story gets good. He looks into the blue skies above us and asks the golf gods for help and to help now to ease the pain, he takes his swing at the ball and it bouces twice and into the cup for a hard earned triple bogie 6.

Now of course as we're still laughing this up all the way down the next fairway and as we talk about how the gods have helped him, he ends up going birdie birdie on the next two holes. But with that comes the other end of it, back to a triple on 14th.

Gotta luv the golf gods.

Yessir, I've seen--and even produced--that kind of display more times than I'd like to admit.

Sounds like your friend needs a chain saw in his bag, along with a sand wedge that works the first time!

One of the advantages of working on a course is that if a certain tree starts interfering with my game, it suddenly gets a 'disease' and has to be cut down. Tress should not be near bunkers or other hazards because for all practical purposes they make them double hazards. Trees on courses that I have worked on suddenly seem to have an outbreak of problems that can be solved by becoming free firewood for the grounds crew, regulars and members! Love cutting down trees!!! Sorry if that offends some people, but my golf game comes first

With an attitude like that.....We've got to play now greenguy!

greenguy - I absolutely agree with you about trees - especially some trees I've seen in the middle of fairways. Same goes for stuff they grow in bunkers nowadays - sheesh isn't getting out of a bunker enough of a challenge?

I experienced something like that once. It was a 186 yard par 3. I take my three iron (which I still had in my bag at the time) and I literally topped it so badly that it flew back several inches! A bit flustered, I removed my tee and hit my second shot with the same club. Amazingly, I hit my best recovery shot ever. I hit the ball within two feet of the pin and I saved par.

I played a course (years ago) around St Helen's Michigan that had a green built around a large Oak tree. If you were on the green, but on the opposite side of the hole, you had to literally putt around the tree trunk. Isn't this game hard enough without adding "quirky" hazards?

leaguegolf: I'm guessing you wouldn't like the sixth green at Riviera Country Club, then! You've probably seen it on TV during the LA Open. It's the one that has a small bunker in it. Some guys use a wedge from the green to go over the bunker if it's between them and the hole. I saw Chris DiMarco make a nice putt around the thing, though. Amusing to watch; might not want to play it regularly. The rest of the course seems OK, though.

greenguy: Are you available for a consult at my home course? We've got our own equivalent of Augusta's Eisenhower Tree. It's a real tall one at the end of a line of trees, about 50 yds in front of the green (hole plays uphill from the tee-shot landing area). The tree's branches are naturally spreading into all the airspace I need to bring in my laser-guided approach shots. This year I'm reduced to hitting punch shots under it, trying to run the ball on that way. Well, they do say that we're spoiled here in the States. Heaven forbid some nature should get in the way!

Can I borrow that chainsaw some time, too? One of the courses I used to play fairly often around here has a tree dead center, about 260 out, at the edge of a big hill. If I can carry the edge of the hill, I'm *usually* all right, though the face of the hill is all rough, so you get a downhill lie out of the thick stuff if you can't get it all the way down the hill to where the fairway continues. If you don't get it to the hill, you need to be far enough left or right to play your second shot, or hope you can get over it with a long second shot into the green. Either way, not a fun par 4.

But keeping with the topic at hand, I don't think my most memorable moment with the "golfing gods" had much to do with them at all, rather a little extra help from above. I had a 9am or so tee time a September morning in '96, and woke up to find out that my great uncle (an avid golfer and the closest man I had to a "grandfather") had died overnight. With nothing I could do until the viewing the next day, I played my round as scheduled, and came to the par 3 12th, about 170 yds or so, with the tee elevated a good 40 or 50 feet, I'd say. Water to the back and left of a decent sized green. My tee shot heads straight left. Just as I put my head down and reached for another ball, it hits the rocks on the bank of the pond (sloping AWAY from the green, mind you, probably only 6 or so feet wide) and bounces 90 degrees right and rolls onto the edge of the green. I don't remember if I finished off a birdie or par, but that extra guiding hand definitely kept me from the "other" category!