OT - Stolen Rounds

[Tim Fitz]

We in Illinois are days away from limited access to golf.  Generally speaking, weather in Chicago doesn't lend itself to golf all that often prior to May in any event.  But, it had me thinking, does anyone have any good stories about sneaking onto a closed golf course for a clandestine round?  Ever live on a golf course and hop the fence to practice your mid-iron shots at dusk?  Anyone cut through a hole in the fence at the local private gem to play a few holes on an off day?


I really must be itching to play if I am starting to think about stories of trespassing to do so...I trust I am not alone.

[Peter Flory]

The only time I ever snuck onto a golf course was from 1984-1994.  I felt so horrible about it that I never did it again.   

[Duncan Cheslett]

For a couple of years as kids my brother and I snuck onto Stockport Golf Club on Christmas Day mornings and played a few holes. It was the only day of the year the course was closed.


The finest example of guerrilla golf I have heard of though, involves a good friend of mine who assures me that while on a trip to California he braved the twilight gloom and hit a couple of balls on the 16th at Cypress Point while his wife waited in the car.


I've not seen any photos so can't vouch for the veracity of this claim!

[Ian Mackenzie]

When I moved to Boston in 1984, I snuck onto The Country Club and played 3-4 holes.
Pulled my car over on Route 9 (I think), walked right on around 630 pm.


Funny...last summer, I was in Southampton, NY for a family reunion and I drove around NGLA, Shinny and Southampton GC in July during the week.


It would have been VERY easy to hop on and play a few holes...;-)

[Brian Finn]

Pretty good story here...

https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/sports/features/12549/

[Jon Wiggett]

In the March 2002 I was with a group of friends playing and staying in St. Andrews. We had played the New Course and after finishing in the gathering dusk we walked across the Old Course for a couple of pints in Jiggers. Coming out to find it dark we decided to play the approach to the 17th and then up the 18th. No lost ball and two pars, one bogey and a birdie were the result for our fourball on the 18th. Amazingly there was still four people to watch our group finish off.

[JLahrman]

Yep, did it quite a few times in my younger days.

[Matthew Rose]

Not famous courses, but I used to live very close to the 2nd green at Thornberry Creek in Wisconsin where they have an LPGA event now. Did quite a lot of short game practice. I also used to walk the loop of holes around the lake before they opened.

As a kid my brother and I snuck onto the Janesville Country Club on occasion, usually at an access point near the 11th green. We later lived in a house on the 8th fairway. Several spots on the course were popular sledding hills in the winter.

[Jason Topp]

After the bars closed we played a couple of times at 2 am when I was young.  Adherence to the rules was suspect at best.

[Stan Dodd]

Used to sneak on to  a course in San Clemente Ca.  Walked between some houses to the 10th tee and Richard Nixon was teeing off with full Secret Service detail.


And on a golf outing to Monterey we got rained out in the morning.  Got tired of sitting around hotel room and we were pretty  well toasted..  So 12 guys loaded into motor home and went to Cypress Point.  Parked in caddie lot we all took 3 balls and played 15.  Green was littered with 25 balls.

[Brad Tufts]

I had a buddy that played Seminole on Xmas Day one year...walked down the beach and started on the nearest hole, played all the way around and waved to one guy mowing.


I can't say Ive SNUCK on...but I did play Harrison Hills once after arriving and finding a note on the shop door saying "shop/course closed."  It was a brilliant Mon or Tues afternoon, I waved to a couple maintenance guys, saw a few others fishing in a lake on one hole (the shop staff?), and had a fun round on a great (and free at the time!) course.


I assumed i was going to be shooed off at any point, so any holes were a bonus, and 18 was sublime.

[Rob Marshall]

My caddie at Pebble told me that the local caddies played Cypress on Christmas morning for a while before they caught on.

[Peter Flory]

Pretty good story here...

https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/sports/features/12549/

The thing that makes this possible are all of the rounds that head pros get for other pros and industry people.  It isn't unusual at all for a stranger to be playing your private course and it could be really embarrassing to confront someone when 99% of the time they are there legitimately.


I do like reading tales like that though.  That paranoid mindset of the author is what makes it so funny. 

[John Kavanaugh]

I had a rater tell me how he and his other buds were out at Bandon and wanted to play the Sheep Ranch. For whatever reason legal channels were not available so they stole a round, or whatever it’s called out there.

[jeffwarne]

For a couple of years as kids my brother and I snuck onto Stockport Golf Club on Christmas Day mornings and played a few holes. It was the only day of the year the course was closed.


The finest example of guerrilla golf I have heard of though, involves a good friend of mine who assures me that while on a trip to California he braved the twilight gloom and hit a couple of balls on the 16th at Cypress Point while his wife waited in the car.


I've not seen any photos so can't vouch for the veracity of this claim!

Played 15 and hit tee shot on 16 at CPC this way with a college buddy. Wife in getaway car ? check


And as I have posted before, as a kid. I often used to go through the fence on 13 at ANGC for twilight summer golf.


Might've played the North Berwick pitch 'n' putt with a couple of bonnie lasses long after dark...

[John Kavanaugh]

I once went with a group of raters to a course that at the time charged $500 per round.  When the pro was handing out the additional swag prior to the round I stopped him and with sunken eyes and a distended belly took out my wallet and explained that I'm not a rater and would like to know what I owed him. I do believe he could see the reflection of Sally Struthers in my eyes. Yea, I stole that round.

[John Crowley]

Pretty good story here...

https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/sports/features/12549/

Yes Brian, Good story.


My teenage friends and I didn’t think of it as stealing - we did know we were trespassing.


We thought of it as our 7pm memberships. In Summer by that time of day two of the city’s private clubs were almost deserted. We played quickly and often finished 18. Sometimes starting on the first tee dressed as likely offspring of real members and behaving as if we belonged.


Only once were we apprehended. The Superintendent’s dog spotted us and raised a ruckus. We ran for the fence, jumped it and were making it down the street when the Super pulls up in his car and tells us to get in. “I’m taking you to the sheriff station.”


After a few blocks he says “What would you guys do in my situation?”


After a long pause I said “it depends on what kind of guy you are.”


Super says “Get out of the car and never come back!”

[Erik J. Barzeski]

I haven't ever, no.

[JLahrman]

Pretty good story here...

https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/sports/features/12549/

The thing that makes this possible are all of the rounds that head pros get for other pros and industry people.  It isn't unusual at all for a stranger to be playing your private course and it could be really embarrassing to confront someone when 99% of the time they are there legitimately.

I do like reading tales like that though.  That paranoid mindset of the author is what makes it so funny.

There is always a bit of paranoia to it. At a place like Maidstone I'm sure the paranoia level would have been elevated.


Some tips:
- Scouting your parking spot for your getaway is key and requires advance reconnaissance. Needs to be concealed yet easily accessible. The other option is to drop your clubs in a hidden spot and then parking your car a ways off and walk back to get your clubs when you sneak on. But, as a last resort, being able to hightail it over a fence and immediately jump into your car is the preferred tactic.
- Look the part. Dress well, be polite and wave to anyone you see on the next fairway. Most members are out to enjoy themselves, not to police the ground. And they'd be embarrassed to approach someone only to have it be so-and-so's nephew. There is always That Member who fancies himself a security guard, but 99% of the members will leave you be.
- The maintenance guys are just looking to get their work done and get out of there. They won't bother you.
- Have a handy excuse. If you're approached, just say that your in-laws live in the house behind the 6th fairway and you just couldn't resist the temptation to sneak out for a few holes while you're in town visiting.
- Fixing two ball marks and two divots for every one of yours will make you feel better about the admitted trespassing. You're helping the members take care of their course and leaving something better than you found it.
- The irony is that middle aged men are less likely to draw notice because we look like we should be out there. And prevailing wisdom is that we shouldn't be so juvenile as to sneak onto a private course. Use that to your advantage. I haven't snuck onto a course in 20 years but I'd have an easier time doing it now than I did back then.


Good luck gentlemen. Looking forward to some more stories.

[Quinn Thompson]

I used to sneak on some courses in my college daze...Went out East to the wee state of Rhode Island and reckon it was Junior year that I found myself living with a bassist and a skateboarder across the street from Point Judith CC. I found little trail through the woods and would walk over there in the afternoons to play 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 holes. I would put on the best golf shirt and some slacks and act the part and nobody really bothered me - just give the maintenance guys a 'country club' wave and fix your divots.


I later found a dirt road amongst the winding and lavish lanes on Newport Island that led to a tee box at Newport CC. It may have been about the 5th hole...I'd drive down the dirt lane in my '84 Volvo on a foul afternoon and park it off to the side and venture out for a few holes. Thing I remember about Newport was there was never anyone out there, yet it always felt like someone was watching from that castle of a clubhouse !

[SL_Solow]

I have a different experience.  When my wife and I were shopping for our first house, we concentrated on an affordable area in Highland Park, Il which was offering attractive rate mortgages (for the younger set, there was a time in the late 70's when rates exceeding 14% were common) we focused on 2 similar homes.  One backed up to a school and its playground.  The other overlooked Old Elm.  My wife assumed that I would prefer the golf view but we chose the other with my full support.  At the time, I could not have afforded to join a club, and in any event, the existing policies at the club eliminated any possibility of my joining.  Incidentally, the world changes and I have been hosted there on more than one occasion.  I knew that I would never sneak on to the course and the thought of living that close without playing was something I was unwilling to do.  We bought the other house, I played some very nice public courses for about 12 years, built our own house and later joined a wonderful club.  But I still remember my wife's shocked expression when I told her that the house on the course was not my first choice.  I am sure that living there I could have sneaked on from that location.  Just not my style.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Probably my first several rounds of golf at Medinah, courtesy of my neighbors who were members.  They didn't want to pay guest fees for their son/my best friend to take me out there, so we went on Mondays when the course was closed.  You could play, but the clubhouse was not open.


We did that for a few rounds and then one fateful day we played no. 1 and no. 2, and then decided to go over to the famed No. 3 course, which doesn't return to the clubhouse.  When we got to 17 tee, the long time pro, John Marshall, was sitting in a golf cart behind the green, waited for us to putt out, and handed me a bill for $140.  That was a fortune to a 12 year old.  One other "guest" of my friend was also there.  My Dad made me pay out of my meager savings account.  The other Dad stiffed our friends for the bill and decided his son shouldn't hang out with us anymore, probably to avoid pressure to pay.


In reality, that was the second thing Medinah and my dad combined to teach me.  One, of course, honesty pays.  Two, despite me begging and begging, even though Dad was a Campbell Soup executive and presumably able to afford the club his neighbor joined, he let me know that you take care of essentials before the luxuries, and wouldn't join.  Probably the right call. Our neighbor was a really avid golfer, and later, also joined Bob O Link.  Dad was winding down his golf career (as I was starting to beat him.....) and knew country clubs would be like owning a boat - not too many people can really use it enough to justify the cost.

[Peter Flory]

I am sure that living there I could have sneaked on from that location.  Just not my style.

You can't really do it as an adult. 

I agree with your house decision.  That would be a form of torture overlooking Old Elm and not being able to play. 

[Bill Seitz]

My mom grew up in a house on Hermosa Drive adjacent to the first green at San Gabriel Country Club.  The first and eighteenth holes, range, clubhouse, etc. are all south of Hermosa.  The rest of the course is north of Hermosa.  Legend is that my uncles used to sneak on and play 2-17 all the time in the late afternoon.  I'm not sure I buy the story though (it probably happened a couple times at most).  I played with one of my uncles once, and he may have been a decent player as a kid, but didn't play much as an adult.  I can't imagine the other has touched a golf club in 50 years or more. 

[Peter Sayegh]

Grew up two doors from Manasquan River GC. Two friends and I would sneak on and try to steal 3 or 4 holes at a time, carrying only three clubs in our hands. There were so many points of ingress/escape it was quite easy to avoid being seen or caught. The backside was especially easy to "assault" since it is flat and relatively treeless. Made it easy to see any oncoming security.To this day, I maintain those forays made me one of the world's greatest (and most creative) "approach" putters. If I find myself within seventy yards of any green-in/behind a bunker or behind a rise-I survey how to putt it first. Still relish the looks I get now after I cozy one up off a perfect lie fifty yards from the pin.