Most unusual thing that happened while playing

[Tommy Williamsen]

Last week I played a course early in the morning.  I was the first one off.  When I arrived at the par three 17th I noticed that there was no flag on the green.  I decided just to hit it to the middle of the green.  I miss-hit the ball and it came up half a club short.  It landed on the front of the green and disappeared.  I thought it tumbled into a little valley.  Nope--hole in one, although it doesn't feel like one.

Other unusual happenings?

[Michael Rossi]

Congratulations on Hole in 1. was that the first?

Although we were not playing but working on an irrigation issue on a par 3 tee deck this last spring with my assistant. As we repaired the sprinkler head we heard a loud screech, we looked up an spotted an osprey soaring over head, then almost instantly we heard and loud splat.

A 15" cut throat trout landed on the cart path right between me and my assistant and flopped around, still alive. Very bizarre.

[Kenny Baer]

I don't know how unusual this was but it was very very cool.

At The Ocean Course at Hammock Beach on the 12th hole my brother, my father, and I saw a Hawk circling over the pond to the left of the 12th green, a second later we saw a Bald Eagle fly by and chase the hawk away, then the Bald Eagle swooped down and plucked a rather large fish out of the pond and flew off with the fish in his mouth, it was amazing to see how graceful, large, and powerful the Eagle was...truly awesome.

[David Smolensky]

I MAY BE SETTING THE BAR UNREASONABLY HIGH THIS EARLY IN THE POST…… BUT THIS REALLY HAPPENED. 

ABOUT 10 YEARS AGO MY FOURSOME WAS PLAYING AT THE GRAND GENEVA RESORT (OLD PLAYBOY CLUB) IN LAKE GENEVA, WI.  THE EVENT WAS A SCRAMBLE FUND RAISER FOR A LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL HELD ON A THURSDAY SO THAT LOCAL PROFESSIONALS (MEDICAL, INSURANCE, EMT’S ETC.) COULD ATTEND.   

MY GROUP WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FAIRWAY ON THE 5TH HOLE OF THE HIGHLANDS COURSE (OLD BRIER PATCH).  OUR GROUP HAD CONGREGATED AROUND THE 150 YD. MARKER AS WE HAD JUST SUMMONED THE DRINK CART (ACTUALLY 2 DRINK CARTS HAD COME TO OUR SERVICE).   DURING THE DRINK ORDERING PROCESS I NOTICE AN AIRPLANE TAKING OFF FROM THE AIRSTRIP LOCATED ADJENCENT TO THE HOLE.  WE LOOKED UP JUST INTIME TO SEE THE PLANE STRIKE A TOP OF A TREE ABOUT 60-70 YDS FROM US.  THE PLANE WENT DOWN, LANDING ON THE GOLF COURS PROPERTY….. AND ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE.   APPEARENTLY THE PILOT KNEW HE WAS IN TROUBLE AND ABORTED AN ATTEMPT TO LAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FAIRWAY (AROUND THE 150 YD MARKER).   FORTUNATLY FOR THOSE FOUR INDIVIDULES IN THE PLANE, THEY WERE QUICKLY SURROUNDED BY EMT’S, SURGENS, AND EMERGENGY ROOM DOCTORS FROM SURROUNDIN HOLES.  THE GOLF PROFESSIONAL ARRIVE D AND REMOVE THE FLAG FROM THE 5TH GREEN TO ALLOW THE FLIGHT FOR LIFE HELOCOPPTER TO LAND. 

TURNS OUT THE NO ONE DIED…… IN PART TO THE FACT THAT THE PLANE CRASHED IN THE MIDDLE OF A GROUP OF DOCTORS.  THE EXCITEMENT DIDN’T END ONCE THE DOCTERS ARRIVED.  LOCAL RESCUE SQUADS (NOT IN THE GOLF EVENT) ARRIVED AND DID NOT COMPENSATE FOR THE SOFT CONDITIONS ON THE GOLF COURSE.  FOR 5-6 MINUTES THERE WERE AMBULANECES CRASHING INTO EACH OTHER ATTEMPTING TO BE “FIRST RESPONDERS”.  FORTUNATLY NO ONE ON THE GROUND WAS HURT DURING THE RESCUE ATTEMPT. ……………NEEDLESS TO SAY THE DINNER AND AWARDS WERE RESTRAINED THAT EVENING.   

[astavrides]

I MAY BE SETTING THE BAR UNREASONABLY HIGH THIS EARLY IN THE POST…… BUT THIS REALLY HAPPENED. 
 

I think you set the bar a little loud.  Please unlock the caps button next time.  Glad no one died in the plane crash.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Greetings Tom!

Some time back in the 1960s I was carrying the bag for my father who was playing in a three-ball match at Shifnal GC in Shropshire. One of the three was rather loud. At a short hole across a pond the loud man hit first, finding the edge of the green. The second player thinned his off the bottom of the club but the ball skimmed across the pond like a stone, finishing in a good position on the green. There was much laughter. My father was easily put off his game and promptly thinned his shot, too, skimming the ball across the pond and again finishing on the green. The loud man was no longer amused, saying what a rubbish hole it was that two such awful shots should finish better than his properly struck ball. It would be nice to say that the two 'skimmers' resulted in twos, but they didn't. In fact I rather fancy that my father, being humbled by the experience, three putted.

My own best experience was hitting the fuselage of an Avro Vulcan bomber parked on the side of the home-made golf course at RAF Waddington. But there is no fairy tale - the ball didn't bounce onto the green or into the hole, but bounced off I know not where into oblivion.

[Joel Zuckerman]

I MAY BE SETTING THE BAR UNREASONABLY HIGH THIS EARLY IN THE POST…… BUT THIS REALLY HAPPENED. 
 

I think you set the bar a little loud.  Please unlock the caps button next time.  Glad no one died in the plane crash.

And while you are unlocking the caps button, maybe you should turn on the spell check?

[Mike Tanner]

My dad and his older brother Harold were playing at Harold's club, Sylvania CC, in Toledo, Ohio, one fine summer day when I was in my early teens. Send ahead to forecaddie on a long par-four, I stood along the treeline on the right side of the fairway so I could watch their shots crest a rise  that hid the landing area from view from the teeing ground.

My dad hit a power fade (OK, slice—sorry, Dad) that locked onto my position like a guided missile. I turned to run for safety behind a tree trunk and his ball struck me, in flight, directly on the ankle bone of the leg that was on the upstride. What are the odds on that?

I was sitting on the ground watching my ankle swell up when my dad and my uncle came over the hill. Before they even got to me, I shouted out that I'd been hit. My dad's first question was, "Are you all right?" His second was "Did you see where my ball went?"

Lucky for me, his ball hadn't broken any bones, just produced an ugly contusion. Lucky for him, his ball was sitting in the middle of the fairway instead of the woods.

       

[Ian_L]

On a 400-yard par-4 with a blind landing area, I hit my tee shot right down the middle.  When I got to the fairway, it was nowhere to be found.  After the 5-minute search, I went back to re-load, and continued playing the hole.  When we arrived at the green, we found my original ball (with some very unique marks) just right of the green, 400 yards from the tee.  I didn't see anyone in the area for the entire hole, and I know for at fact none of the other players hit my ball.  An animal perhaps?

[JSPayne]

Funny Mike, a very similar incident occured just recently at the President's Cup at Harding Park. My GM was attending the event and said that in the alternate shot event, it's very common for the partner not teeing off to proceed forward along the sidelines to about where he would expect his partner's shot to end up. So on one hole he was watching from the right treeline, Johnson walked up the right sideline while Perry hit his tee shot. The tee shot sliced badly into the trees, and when it came down, it hit Johnson's caddie! Apparently, the rules state that their team (Johnson/Perry) can choose to play the ball where it lies, or replay the shot. Needless to say, Perry reteed and striped it down the middle. My GM said the look of irritation on Villegas's (Johnson & Perry's competitior's) face after that ruling was priceless.

As for my own experiences, two events come to mind:

Just this last weekend, two other supers and myself got paired up with a gentleman at a course near Lake Tahoe. On one of the back nine holes, this unfortunate player sliced his first shot way out of bounds. Frusterated, he reteed and promptly hit his second shot directly into a tree about 70 yards off the front right of the tee box........and it bounced right back to him and stopped at his feet! He didn't even move, just readdressed the ball and swung again, this time finding the fairway. Luckily he was a good sport and didn't make us stifle our laughter too much. I'd never seen a boomerang golf shot before, at least not one that accurate!

The other memory is from a few years back, playing with 3 other supers at a local course. The particular tee we were on was narrow, like a small pennisula jutting out into a lake, with water to carry in front, but also water behind. One of our players teed up close to the round, ball-shaped tee marker like many like to do and swung to hit his drive. I thought my eyes were decieving me when his ball seemed to blow up 5x in size and flop 40 yards forward into the lake.....and we heard another plop! in the lake immediately behind us. Looking down we realized that both his ball and the white tee marker were missing....the ball had struck the marker and launched it forward into the lake and shot his ball straight back into the lake behind! We were rolling on the ground with laughter. And what's more, ever the concious superintendent, this guy forgot all about his ball and waded into the forward lake to retrieve and replace the tee marker so the super of the course wouldn't have to buy a new one! Priceless.

[Joel Zuckerman]

Call it unusual, or maybe just humiliating...

http://www.badgolfer.com/departments/features/pine-valley-golf.htm

[Brent Carlson]

Tommy - My father also had a hole in one with the flag out.  We thought it had gone into a hollow.  Congrats on the shot.

Another time I was playing with a friend while he teed off with a driver.  His swing was mighty and he hit the ball with pretty good force between his own legs.  I didn't know this was physically possible

[Scott Sander]

I doubt I can explain this well, so please accept my apologies.

Back in 2000, I was playing Heritage at Westmoor in Colorado.  Poorly.  
My approach to one hole was so far wide that it sailed left completely over a pond and landed on the shaggy bank of a different hole.  
My playing partners were cold and tired and weary of watching me play by the rules during what they considered to be a lost round.  So, it was with great irritation that they watched me march the looong way around the pond to search for my pellet.
I found it immediately. It was unmistkable - worn and torn and bearing my long-used, highly exclusive marking:  "X-OUT"

It was sitting down so deeply in the snarl that I considered swallowing hard and going BIPSIC.

Instead, fueled by more than a little redass, I squinted hard and took a mighty swipe with a wedge.
The contact felt full, but the ball popped straight up all of a foot, then meekly tucked itself back in the weeds, the X staring straight at me.  Weird.  Oh well.

Without taking a breath or step, I swiped again.  Hard.  This time the strike was a bit thin, and I watched with some embarassment as it redlined for the green - directly at my partners, who were standing by the hole... applauding???  

As I started to shout something about their sarcasm, the applause ceased abruptly.   The group scattered.  And one of my friends bellowed:  "What the..?!?  Don't be a $*#@&, man!"

To make an already-too-long story shorter, my first swing felt solid because it was solid.  Though I never saw it, it turns out that my discount Titleist actually flew straight, true, and in the hole on one hop - prompting the applause.   What I saw as "my" ball must have been directly underneath the first and flopped out as I thrashed over it.  It never gave me a moment's pause when I looked down, because it was the exact same make and number and even bore my cheapskate stamp!

To recap:  1) I holed out! 2) My amigos warmly cheered as... 3) I rocketed another ball right at them. 4) They took understandable offense, and 5) to this day they still think I threw down another ball and swung with ill-intent, since nobody with any pride plays X-OUTS.  

I still have no pride.   And I still play X-OUTS.

[Doug Ralston]

We had a bit of a driver problem too.

My friend Mack is legally blind, but still a pretty good golfer. His playing partner, in this case myself, orients him on a line and he has just enough sight left to see the ball. He tends to hit low crisp irons and fairway woods. He walks off his putts carefully and is amazingly good.

One day he and I were playing a wide open course, riding a cart in the fairways. Now Mack has never driven anything, of course. So I asked him [I think joking at the time] if he wanted to drive the cart. After a laugh, we actually wondered why he could not/should not here. So he did. He drove and I directed. He was having the time of his life. But, of course, I should have been more responsible.

On a green in the middle of the second nine, there is a hole on slightly elevated land. Mack drove to about 20yd and we stopped. I got out and them so did Mack. But he couldn't feel the land upturn, and didn't quite get the brake set. The cart was already quite away by the time I saw it. It hit a fence and recieved a dent in the back bumper.

Mack never tries to drive a cart anymore. I am sorry about that because it was such a neat thing for him to be able to do. And the accident was my fault, not his.

A sad outcome, but a truly joyful experience.

Doug

[Sean_A]

I doubt I can explain this well, so please accept my apologies.

Back in 2000, I was playing Heritage at Westmoor in Colorado.  Poorly.  
My approach to one hole was so far wide that it sailed left completely over a pond and landed on the shaggy bank of a different hole.  
My playing partners were cold and tired and weary of watching me play by the rules during what they considered to be a lost round.  So, it was with great irritation that they watched me march the looong way around the pond to search for my pellet.
I found it immediately. It was unmistkable - worn and torn and bearing my long-used, highly exclusive marking:  "X-OUT"

It was sitting down so deeply in the snarl that I considered swallowing hard and going BIPSIC.

Instead, fueled by more than a little redass, I squinted hard and took a mighty swipe with a wedge.
The contact felt full, but the ball popped straight up all of a foot, then meekly tucked itself back in the weeds, the X staring straight at me.  Weird.  Oh well.

Without taking a breath or step, I swiped again.  Hard.  This time the strike was a bit thin, and I watched with some embarassment as it redlined for the green - directly at my partners, who were standing by the hole... applauding???  

As I started to shout something about their sarcasm, the applause ceased abruptly.   The group scattered.  And one of my friends bellowed:  "What the..?!?  Don't be a $*#@&, man!"

To make an already-too-long story shorter, my first swing felt solid because it was solid.  Though I never saw it, it turns out that my discount Titleist actually flew straight, true, and in the hole on one hop - prompting the applause.   What I saw as "my" ball must have been directly underneath the first and flopped out as I thrashed over it.  It never gave me a moment's pause when I looked down, because it was the exact same make and number and even bore my cheapskate stamp!

To recap:  1) I holed out! 2) My amigos warmly cheered as... 3) I rocketed another ball right at them. 4) They took understandable offense, and 5) to this day they still think I threw down another ball and swung with ill-intent, since nobody with any pride plays X-OUTS.  

I still have no pride.   And I still play X-OUTS.

I too must be a prideless bastard.  Though I take it one step further and play the most exclusive ball to be found in any golf bag - Titleist Pro V PRACTICE.  Though with the X OUTs I don't get accused of stealing from ranges nearly so much.

Ciao

[Scott Sander]

I too must be a prideless bastard.  Though I take it one step further and play the most exclusive ball to be found in any golf bag - Titleist Pro V PRACTICE.  Though with the X OUTs I don't get accused of stealing from ranges nearly so much.

Ciao

It was a sad day when the manufacturers switched from "XXXXX" to X-OUT.  I don't need semantic perfume to mask my stinginess, thankyouverymuch. 

[Sean_A]

I too must be a prideless bastard.  Though I take it one step further and play the most exclusive ball to be found in any golf bag - Titleist Pro V PRACTICE.  Though with the X OUTs I don't get accused of stealing from ranges nearly so much.

Ciao

It was a sad day when the manufacturers switched from "XXXXX" to X-OUT.  I don't need semantic perfume to mask my stinginess, thankyouverymuch.  

Scott

XXXXX!!  You are going back quite a ways.  I used to get those back in high school.

It used to be the highlight of my June links trip when my mate coming from the States would unzip the bag of goodies.   I always hoped for the company logo overuns - Boston Medical being my favourite, but usually got PRACTICE and X-OUT.  Now of course, companies are too cheap to order balls in the sort of quantity that there may be overuns - heavy sigh.

I often get guys telling me its illegal to use MY ball in competitions.  My response is standard "bite me dude" said at a volume directly proportional to how close they are to me.  Its a whisper when he is stood next to me and a holler when he is across the fairway.  The Brits are too polite to respond in a voice any louder than a whisper unless its a "pardon me", but their shaggy eyebrows tell the story.  

Ciao        

[Melvyn Morrow]

David

So looking at the awful event (and glad no one died) from a golfers perspective, the 150 yard marker proved of no use or help to the pilot, yet the helicopter landed without any distance aids spot on the pin. Proving yet again distance aids are not required on a golf course.

Is someone ‘On High’ trying to tell us something?

Melvyn

[Tom Yost]

... THE PLANE WENT DOWN, LANDING ON THE GOLF COURS PROPERTY...

Wow! That's a story!

Welcome to GCA.  Are you any relation to Mark Smolensky ?   

[Dan Herrmann]

My strangest..

I'm playing in a Philadelphia GAP event at Flynn's Woodcrest (President,Pro,Green Chair, Golf Chair event)...  Guest speaker is Tom Meeks, and we end up playing in the group behind him.

We get to around the 16th, and my friend hits his shot up onto the green.  Meeks is waiting on the next tee, directly behind and above the green.  So my other friend hits to the green - it collides with the first ball and send it about 15' directly into the hole!

We all knew the rule, but got a major kick out of it.  But Tommy boy was a bit of a grump - says he's seen it many times before and says we should be sure to replace the ball, which we were going to do, of course.    Who knows, maybe it was a tough day for Mr. Meeks, but at least he could've laughed with us.

[Bob_Huntley]

I MAY BE SETTING THE BAR UNREASONABLY HIGH THIS EARLY IN THE POST…… BUT THIS REALLY HAPPENED. 
 

I think you set the bar a little loud.  Please unlock the caps button next time.  Glad no one died in the plane crash.

And while you are unlocking the caps button, maybe you should turn on the spell check?
[/quote



Joel,

Where the hell is the spell check on this site?

Bob

[Jason Topp]

I came across this from the King's Putter in 2006.  Maybe not the most unusual thing that has happened but fun nonetheless.  Click on it to play:

[Joel Zuckerman]

Well Bob, I guess I meant the "internal" spell check!

[Stu Grant]

I came across this from the King's Putter in 2006.  Maybe not the most unusual thing that has happened but fun nonetheless.  Click on it to play:

Hey Jason,

Unexpected ending to that video, I was wincing getting ready for that carom shot to end painfully.  I tried a ricochet shot like that (except using a tree instead of a rock) a couple of years ago and the ball came straight up and hit me between the eyes.  Ouch!

[Evan Fleisher]

I came across this from the King's Putter in 2006.  Maybe not the most unusual thing that has happened but fun nonetheless.  Click on it to play:

Hey Jason,

Unexpected ending to that video, I was wincing getting ready for that carom shot to end painfully.  I tried a ricochet shot like that (except using a tree instead of a rock) a couple of years ago and the ball came straight up and hit me between the eyes.  Ouch!

Ahhh....those wacky leftys and their crazy golf shots.  when will it ever stop?

I had totally forgot about that shot.  It occurred on the 19th (bye) hole at Stone Eagle during a recent King's Putter outing.  I ended up stymied against that rock and thought I'd be "slick" and ricochet it off the sucker.  You see how attempt #1 went (FAILURE!), and had no idea my Phil Mickleson-esque sencond attempt would sail straight up and out into the oblivion of rocks and desert below.

Great stuff...