What do you do on the golf course that others may consider rude?

[Daryl David]

Which is the step where they have to make amends?  That is the one I am waiting for.  Maybe I will get back all those wasted minutes waiting for human statues to hit the fricking ball!

That's not till Step 9.

Figures. Guess I have a long wait.  I sense a trend.

[Jim Sherma]

I used to put my ball down and pick up my mark even when it wasn't my turn. My uncle informed me this was pretty rude and now I try to always have my ball marked when someone else is putting. This has caused me to always have a mark (hate it when others say they only have a tee) and now it bugs the hell out of me when others are placing their ball when it's my turn. This is something most players may not even notice or think about.

I've been thinking about this very issue recently. I joined a private club back in March and each of my (former?) regular games on public courses are very particular of having all balls marked when on the green. When I joined a private club the expectation of pace of play was much higher and I've taken to leaving my ball unmarked in order to be ready to putt when it's my turn. Obviously this assumes it is not near anyone's intended line. I am not the only player that does this and I don't feel like this is seen as bad manners. However, when I've played with my old gangs I feel like I am being rude by not marking my ball and it strikes me as very time consuming when everyone is marking and unmarking their balls all of the time. Clearly the norm of the game is important interms of "rudeness" but now that I am accustomed to much quicker pace of play I feel that the tediousness of "politeness" and the resulting slower play is more rude than having a ball somewhere unmarked on the green while I'm putting.

[Dan King]

Did you ever use 'the sheik' technique when smoking on the course?

Looks like it might be something worth trying when I am smoking something other than tobacco.

Cheers,
Dan King

Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?
 --Henry Ford

[Michael Whitaker]

I do it most of the time, but I don't really see the point in marking your ball when it is not in someone's line. How did this dumb habit ever get started... I bet it comes from watching the PGA Tour.

[Tim Martin]

I do it most of the time, but I don't really see the point in marking your ball when it is not in someone's line. How did this dumb habit ever get started... I bet it comes from watching the PGA Tour.

Whitty-I`m with you. I play with guys occasionally who will ask me to mark it in a casual game and then miss the hole by two feet.

[Carl Johnson]

I guess playing ready golf, like others have said.  But it depends on the crowd.  At my home club we play sensible ready golf, but several days ago I was playing with a lady and her husband at a different course, and she chastised me for playing out of turn (ahead of her).  The the first time I thought she was kidding, but the second time I knew she was serious.  So, I dropped ready golf for the rest of that round.

I know this is off topic, but in my view the rudest thing others do is to provide unsolicited "advice."  I still haven't learned how to deal with that very well.

[Joe Stansell]

It is not rude to not mark your ball. Nor is it rude to ask another player to mark their ball, even if it is only remotely in line. Seems to me that anyone who is bothered by this is way too easily bothered.

[Joe Stansell]

I know this is off topic, but in my view the rudest thing others do is to provide unsolicited "advice."  I still haven't learned how to deal with that very well.

+1  Also, advice (solicited or not) violates Rule 8-1.

[Michael Whitaker]

One other thing that I see many experienced golfers do is splat the pin onto the green.  How about placing it gently on the green or better yet, the fringe.  I can feel the grass dying every time a pin is felled like a giant oak.

John - this is a phobia of clubs with super soft bent greens where the membership demands every blade of grass be kept in Augusta National-like condition. Drop a pin on one of these greens and you can almost hear the super shrieking at the prospect of having one of his AAA-personality members berating him for a blemish on their pristine putting surface. I mean, at the top sandbelt courses in Australia they roll a fully weighted trolley across the greens without causing any damage. How would that go over at your courses that freak about a dropped pin? Oops, I forgot... trollies are too blue collar for those clubs.  

How much damage does a 275 pound man's size 12 clodhoppers do when he's stomping across a green? I guess we should have weight limits for the players at some courses!

[Bill_McBride]

I do it most of the time, but I don't really see the point in marking your ball when it is not in someone's line. How did this dumb habit ever get started... I bet it comes from watching the PGA Tour.

I think lots of players do it for two reasons:

1.   To clean their ball

2.   To get that alignment mark ("cheater line") perfectly, if inaccurately, aligned when they replace the ball.

I think incessant cheater line fiddling is really rude.

[Kalen Braley]

I'm a pin dropper....

But I can't see how that's even 1% as bad as the members of the group walking all over the green in the course of playing.

Even the lightest golfer in the world only weighs a small fraction of a pin with flag.

[Mike Hendren]

I talk to others' ball.

Bogey

[Bruce Wellmon]

I was playing at my club here in SC 2 Saturday's ago with a friend and the gentleman whom I take lessons from.
He is Australian.
Normal behavior is Aus is take your trolley/buggy/fancy push/pull cart right across the green.
Not in SC.
I thought alarms were going to go off in the clubhouse.
Luckily no one saw us, and I'm still, technically at least, a member in good standing.

[John Kirk]

I shriek, "GET IN THE HOLE!" a fraction of a second after a playing partner completes each golf swing.  Well, not really.

My clubs click, some days I'm overly talkative, and I will from time to time need a place to pee inbetween bathrooms.

[John Kirk]

I was playing at my club here in SC 2 Saturday's ago with a friend and the gentleman whom I take lessons from.
He is Australian.
Normal behavior is Aus is take your trolley/buggy/fancy push/pull cart right across the green.
Not in SC.
I thought alarms were going to go off in the clubhouse.
Luckily no one saw us, and I'm still, technically at least, a member in good standing.

I dislike the player who pushes his trolley right on the border of the green, or even between bunker and green, in order to minimize their distance walking.  That's BS, because it wears out one specific area of the course.

[JC Jones]

I only do this if it has been done to me by that person:

The "good putt" jinx.

Anytime some one says good putt while the ball is tracking at the hole, before it goes in, it inevitably misses.  Perhaps, moremthan rude.

[Colin Macqueen]

Gentlemen,

I admonish myself continuously. I mutter incoherently to myself. When chastised by other members of the group I ask them not to criticise chaps who talks to themselves as they may be the best company available. My ramblings, their response and my retort are all acts of unspeakable rudeness.

So John.......mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Cheers Colin

[Greg Tallman]

I talk to others' ball.

Bogey

Guilty - I only curse at my own.

[Matthew Essig]

I talk to others' ball.

Bogey

Guilty - I only curse at my own.

Who hasn't yelled at their ball before??? It is one of those things that golfers understand and nongolfers have no idea what the hell we are talking about. There is plenty of golf lingo that golfers don't even recognize as golf lingo.

[Mark Steffey]

i don't fill in divots with mix on par 3s.  ever.

i search and look for a divot and play my shot from right behind it so as to keep grass death at a minimum.  i don't fill my divots as an encouragement for others to do the same.  i hate to walk up and see 100 little 3x5 inch sand stripes on a teebox.  under my thinking, either the last group of the day, or the crew in the morning, can walk up and fill three long rows (one in the middle for the straight hitters, one on the left for the hookers, one on the right for the cutters).

[Sean_A]

Oh yes, pin dropping really gets me.  I mean the nerve of some folks. 

JK - If a club doesn't tell me I can't push me trolley up near the green I am damn well going to.  I am fed up with treating golf courses like the Queen's garden.  Grass is another name for a weed.  If grass can't take the wear of a golfer and trolley, plant a grass that can.  Better yet, cut the greens to the edge of the bunker.   

Ciao

[Michael Whitaker]

I only do this if it has been done to me by that person:

The "good putt" jinx.

Anytime some one says good putt while the ball is tracking at the hole, before it goes in, it inevitably misses.  Perhaps, moremthan rude.

Among other horrible bad habits I am very guilty of the "early call" on putts. I once did it in a game with the Executive Director of the SC Golf Association and I thought he was going to hit me over the head with his putter!

To be safe I've learned that a good rule to follow is "don't talk to another player's ball," no matter how encouraging or well intentioned that conversation might be.

[David_Elvins]

I say "good shot" before a ball has landed.  Which becomes awkward when the ball doesn't end up where I thought it would.  

I am sure I stand within player's periphial vision all the time.  I never notice others myself when hitting, so am not that conscious of it.

I am sure there are others that people are too polite to mention.  

[Michael Goldstein]

1. Lay my golf sack on the green;
2. Don't mark my ball on the greens;
3. Use a non conforming ball;
4. Don't watch the ball in flight.

[Cory Lewis]

1.  Speed
2.  Speed
3.  Speed
4.  Speed
5.  Speed
6.  Complain about only being even par.