Ever sneak onto a golf course?

[Andrew Buck]

I'm sure I'm curmudgeonly on this topic but I see it as theft. No different to reaching over the bar and helping yourself to some of the takings.

It is a problem at mid to lower end golf and with this being inexpensive, there is no real excuse.

My moral compass possibly gives a pass the more expensive / exclusive / out of reach the course in question is but still theft nonetheless.

I agree with you, and I don't think there is anything in this world I would steal.

That said, there have been at least a dozen times I've driven past Chicago Golf where I absolutely would have jumped on if I could have been fully assured I wouldn't be caught.  Heck, maybe even just to walk the course and see it.

Not sure what that says about my moral compass/flexibility.

[JLahrman]

I'm sure I'm curmudgeonly on this topic but I see it as theft. No different to reaching over the bar and helping yourself to some of the takings.

It is a problem at mid to lower end golf and with this being inexpensive, there is no real excuse.

My moral compass possibly gives a pass the more expensive / exclusive / out of reach the course in question is but still theft nonetheless.

Unquestionably, it is theft. But it's amazing how people can rationalize their own bad behavior.

Signed,
A thief

[Stephen Northrup]

This isn't a sneak-and-play but more of a sneak-and-look-around. Early 1990s, Augusta National. I was in Augusta to speak at a conference, and left the airport with rental car and the intent to drive over toward ANGC to see what was what. Something possessed me to turn down Magnolia Lane, and as luck would have it, the guard shack was unmanned.


Drove down Magnolia Lane and parked my car to the left side of the clubhouse. Got out of the car wearing a full suit and tie, and strolled down toward the par-3 course and then by the cabins. Went into the clubhouse after walking behind the 18th green, went into what must have been a card room, then went into the pro shop and bought a hat. Then left the clubhouse near the first tee, went back around front to my car, and left.


Must have spent a good 15 minutes on site and no one questioned my presence, which I attributed to the suit and tie. On the way out, I did get quite the dirty look from the guard at the shack though....apparently he must have returned to his post while I was sauntering around the grounds.

[Duncan Cheslett]

I'm sure I'm curmudgeonly on this topic but I see it as theft.

You're right of course Ryan, and it is something I've never done myself.


It has often struck me however, just how easy it would be at most UK golf clubs simply to walk to the first tee on a quiet day and play. I have played as a visitor at countless courses and never once been challenged as to whether I am a member or paid a green fee. Avoid the eye of the professional and generally I am sure you will get away with it.


Working one day in Southport  last year, I popped into Royal Birkdale for a look round. I parked my car, walked around the clubhouse for 15 minutes, and left. There was no obvious security, and not many golfers around. I couldn't help feeling that if I had been confident enough I could have slung a bag over my shoulder an nonchalantly teed it up!


I know that Adrian Stiff has been having problems with people not contributing to the honesty box at Portishead, but do any fully fledged golf clubs actually have a problem with guerilla golfers?

[noonan]

In the early 90s my BF and I decided to sneak on Moraine CC in Dayton. We played 11-17 twice. We even had someone play through. We decided another day to sneak on Dayton CC. We made it up to 7  and someone on a maintenance cart threw us off.

[Ryan Coles]

I'm sure I'm curmudgeonly on this topic but I see it as theft.

You're right of course Ryan, and it is something I've never done myself.


It has often struck me however, just how easy it would be at most UK golf clubs simply to walk to the first tee on a quiet day and play. I have played as a visitor at countless courses and never once been challenged as to whether I am a member or paid a green fee. Avoid the eye of the professional and generally I am sure you will get away with it.


Working one day in Southport  last year, I popped into Royal Birkdale for a look round. I parked my car, walked around the clubhouse for 15 minutes, and left. There was no obvious security, and not many golfers around. I couldn't help feeling that if I had been confident enough I could have slung a bag over my shoulder an nonchalantly teed it up!


I know that Adrian Stiff has been having problems with people not contributing to the honesty box at Portishead, but do any fully fledged golf clubs actually have a problem with guerilla golfers?

Duncan

I know they do.

Pitch up to a club, look like you belong, smile and say hello to everyone and you will get away with it as most middle / lower ranking members clubs in the uk. I know a four ball who played every week for six months at one course.

[Sean_A]

I would have sworn I snuck onto courses as a kid, but thinking back on it I can't think of a single incidence.  Mind you, playing high school golf was the equivalent of playing hooky and sneaking on courses 


I recall a chap at a club I used to belong to that played every Sunday throw-up for about a year.  As the chap was never seen any other day he was finally asked, unsuspiciously, a few questions.  It transpires the guy wasn't a member.  Nobody present felt outraged as it was extremely funny that this guy just played the part and said when asked questions he wouldn't lie...he just waited for the questions to be asked. 


Ciao

[Daniel Jones]

For about 3 years, I owned a condo near the 4th and 7th tee of Ocala Golf Club. I snuck onto the course 2-3 times a week, playing either 3 or 6 holes depending on the location of other groups and daylight. One afternoon, I was strolling down the 4th fairway and couldn't believe how empty the course was..there wasn't a group in sight on any of the roughly 7 or 8 holes visible from that point. What I did see, however, was a golf cart making its way toward me from the pro shop. Turns out the course had been closed all day for maintenance. This didn't put an end to my routine, but I did make sure to check there were groups on the course from that point on.

[Tommy Williamsen]

 

I'm sure I'm curmudgeonly on this topic but I see it as theft.

I know that Adrian Stiff has been having problems with people not contributing to the honesty box at Portishead, but do any fully fledged golf clubs actually have a problem with guerilla golfers?

I suspect that to a person people on this site would put their money in an honesty box.

[John McCarthy]

This thread has inspired me. 

In about ten years time I will be posting a thread entitled "The Quest Completed:. Sneaking on the World Top 100". 

[Joe Lane]

When caddying at Bob O’Link outside Chicago in the late 90s, another looper and I would walk onto another, even more exclusive North Shore course every Monday: no one ever bothered us. Aside from that, we also used to sneak onto Waveland, in the city, virtually every chance we could; an option facilitated by a starter not averse to taking a couple bucks here or there. I’m not sure it’s still possible anywhere these days. 

[Jon Wiggett]

To the theme honesty box. Of the many hundreds of golfers who have used ours over the past few years I have only had one occasion where someone tried to get away without paying. I have had a few times when someone has left a note saying they have not had the right money and will pay next time. One person even mailed the GF when he was unable to bring it up.


As to sneaking on the course I once played TOC followed by an evening meal in the Old Course Hotel. Upon leaving the hotel at 12.30 in the morning to return to my hotel I played up the last in the pitch black. 3 wood, wedge and 2 putt par was witnessed by 2 people behind the 18th.


Jon

[Joel_Stewart]

Fresh out of college I lived in New Jersey. The first winter I lived there it was very balmy and not very cold.  On new years day it had to be in the 50s so a guy I had met at a club I joined asked if we could drive over to Merion and sneak on.  I agreed. We parked on some street by the 2nd green and started on the 3rd hole.


We had quite the choice as we played down the 18th.  Do we skip the 1st or play since its now in the 60s and there are quite a few people at the club.  We decided to take our chances and teed it up on the 1st.  Nobody ever asked us anything and we happily played on.


The key is to look the part and it helps if you play well.

[Steve Lapper]

2 good stories....makes me a recidivist 


  As a young teen, I had a friend who lived aside Winged Foot West and we habitually would go out an play a few hole loop, mostly petrified that we'd be caught, arrested, and flogged by our parents. We did this for one late summer, fall, and spring before I started caddying there and stopped the practice cold turkey. But that wasn't to be the last of my trespassing days.


  In 2001, I had a summer rental house on Eastern LI, had just shut down a start-up business and had tons of time on my hands. On late Sunday evenings that summer, my housemate and I packed Sunday bags and proceeded to park in what wasn't then, but is now the entrance to a certain lauded JN-TD design. There were a few spots, literally in the woods, back then off then Shrubland Rd.


   We'd start on a famous Redan and finish on either a lovely Cape or Punchbowl, never tempting the gods by getting within eyesight of the ominous stone Clubhouse. We did this at least 5-6 times, each time dressing the part in our most preppy logo infested threads and never once acting as if we didn't belong or weren't some distant spawn of the some member with one or two sticks next to their names.


  Lo and behold, it's finally post Labor Day and as we head down the Short, we espy a cart with two (obvious) employees heading right for us at warp speed. We (trespassing chicken shits) moved post-haste to the nearby tick-infested woods and buried ourselves amongst the leaves and bushes, not daring to head back through the thickets to our car, for fear of rustling too loudly, and attracting what we surely thought would be the in-bred bloodhounds by now. In what seemed like an eternity, enough darkness fell that we felt is was finally safe to make the final retreat.


   Upon arriving at the car, there was the Superintendent and his first assistant. We embarrassingly plead for forgiveness and mercy before a certain K.O. interrupted and revealed he had seen us multiple times before, and hadn't bothered to bust us because he'd witnessed our diligence in fixing our ballmarks, raking the bunkers, and replacing our fairway divots. He had only "came after us that evening because the club's President was out that dusk with his son" and he didn't want us anywhere near them.


  We restarted our heartbeats and thanked Mr. O and his asst. for his "understanding," to which he responded: "Come up on Sunday nights after 5pm,  and park in his lot by the maintenance shed, get a sand bottle or two...... and stay the heck away from hole#'s 17-18 and 1-3!!" We smiled, and once safely back in town, decided to buy a healthy gift certificate to a local establishment of questionable taste    to deliver next Sunday.


   Years later, I ran into Mr. O nearby my home and picked up a round of drinks and we laughed our asses off about that summer!

[Paul Carey]

I grew up in the Maryland suburbs of DC and learned the game at a 9 holer at Georgetown Prep.  Learning the game meant learning how to gamble with older guys and the other important elements of the game.  No swing instruction.


Anyway, I snuck on Columbia, Congressional and Bethesda CC.  Not bad--two US Open courses.  Got busted by the pro at Bethesda and Congo.  I must have snuck on 30 times at Columbia and never caught ..the cool thing is my Mom would drive me to sneak on....she was awesome!

[Tommy Williamsen]

I grew up in the Maryland suburbs of DC and learned the game at a 9 holer at Georgetown Prep.  Learning the game meant learning how to gamble with older guys and the other important elements of the game.  No swing instruction.


Anyway, I snuck on Columbia, Congressional and Bethesda CC.  Not bad--two US Open courses.  Got busted by the pro at Bethesda and Congo.  I must have snuck on 30 times at Columbia and never caught ..the cool thing is my Mom would drive me to sneak on....she was awesome!

Since I have resigned from Four Streams, I'll have to sneak on now.

[Bill_McBride]

I grew up in the Maryland suburbs of DC and learned the game at a 9 holer at Georgetown Prep.  Learning the game meant learning how to gamble with older guys and the other important elements of the game.  No swing instruction.


Anyway, I snuck on Columbia, Congressional and Bethesda CC.  Not bad--two US Open courses.  Got busted by the pro at Bethesda and Congo.  I must have snuck on 30 times at Columbia and never caught ..the cool thing is my Mom would drive me to sneak on....she was awesome!

I'll bet you didn't start on the first tee at Columbia, it's right there in front of God and everybody!

[Carl Nichols]

2 good stories....makes me a recidivist 


  As a young teen, I had a friend who lived aside Winged Foot West and we habitually would go out an play a few hole loop, mostly petrified that we'd be caught, arrested, and flogged by our parents. We did this for one late summer, fall, and spring before I started caddying there and stopped the practice cold turkey. But that wasn't to be the last of my trespassing days.


  In 2001, I had a summer rental house on Eastern LI, had just shut down a start-up business and had tons of time on my hands. On late Sunday evenings that summer, my housemate and I packed Sunday bags and proceeded to park in what wasn't then, but is now the entrance to a certain lauded JN-TD design. There were a few spots, literally in the woods, back then off then Shrubland Rd.


   We'd start on a famous Redan and finish on either a lovely Cape or Punchbowl, never tempting the gods by getting within eyesight of the ominous stone Clubhouse. We did this at least 5-6 times, each time dressing the part in our most preppy threads and never once acting as if we didn't belong or weren't some distant spawn of the some member with one or two sticks next to their names.


  Lo and behold, it's finally post Labor Day and as we head down the Short, we espy a cart with two (obvious) employees heading right for us at warp speed. We (trespassing chicken shits) moved post-haste to the nearby tick-infested woods and buried ourselves amongst the leaves and bushes, not daring to head back through the thickets to our car, for fear of rustling too loudly, and attracting what we surely though would be in-bred bloodhounds by now. In what seemed like an eternity, enough darkness fell that we felt is was finally safe to make the final retreat.


   Upon arriving at the car, there were the Superintendent and his first assistant. We embarrassingly plead for forgiveness and mercy before a certain K.O. interrupted and revealed he had seen us multiple times before, and hadn't bothered to bust us because he'd witnessed our diligence in fixing our ballmarks, raking the bunkers, and replacing our fairway divots. He had only "came after us that evening because the club's President was out that dusk with his son" and he didn't want us anywhere near them.


  We restarted our heartbeats and thanked Mr. O and his asst. for his "understanding," to which he responded: "Come up on Sunday nights after 5,  and park in his lot by the maintenance shed, get a sand bottle or two...... and stay the heck away from #'s17-18 and 1-3!!" We smiled and once safely back in town, decided to buy a healthy gift certificate to a local establishment of questionable taste    to deliver next Sunday.


   Years later, I ran into Mr. O nearby my home and picked up a round of drinks and we laughed our asses off about that summer!

Awesome story

[Brian Bowman]

2 good stories....makes me a recidivist 


  As a young teen, I had a friend who lived aside Winged Foot West and we habitually would go out an play a few hole loop, mostly petrified that we'd be caught, arrested, and flogged by our parents. We did this for one late summer, fall, and spring before I started caddying there and stopped the practice cold turkey. But that wasn't to be the last of my trespassing days.


  In 2001, I had a summer rental house on Eastern LI, had just shut down a start-up business and had tons of time on my hands. On late Sunday evenings that summer, my housemate and I packed Sunday bags and proceeded to park in what wasn't then, but is now the entrance to a certain lauded JN-TD design. There were a few spots, literally in the woods, back then off then Shrubland Rd.


   We'd start on a famous Redan and finish on either a lovely Cape or Punchbowl, never tempting the gods by getting within eyesight of the ominous stone Clubhouse. We did this at least 5-6 times, each time dressing the part in our most preppy logo infested threads and never once acting as if we didn't belong or weren't some distant spawn of the some member with one or two sticks next to their names.


  Lo and behold, it's finally post Labor Day and as we head down the Short, we espy a cart with two (obvious) employees heading right for us at warp speed. We (trespassing chicken shits) moved post-haste to the nearby tick-infested woods and buried ourselves amongst the leaves and bushes, not daring to head back through the thickets to our car, for fear of rustling too loudly, and attracting what we surely thought would be the in-bred bloodhounds by now. In what seemed like an eternity, enough darkness fell that we felt is was finally safe to make the final retreat.


   Upon arriving at the car, there was the Superintendent and his first assistant. We embarrassingly plead for forgiveness and mercy before a certain K.O. interrupted and revealed he had seen us multiple times before, and hadn't bothered to bust us because he'd witnessed our diligence in fixing our ballmarks, raking the bunkers, and replacing our fairway divots. He had only "came after us that evening because the club's President was out that dusk with his son" and he didn't want us anywhere near them.


  We restarted our heartbeats and thanked Mr. O and his asst. for his "understanding," to which he responded: "Come up on Sunday nights after 5pm,  and park in his lot by the maintenance shed, get a sand bottle or two...... and stay the heck away from hole#'s 17-18 and 1-3!!" We smiled, and once safely back in town, decided to buy a healthy gift certificate to a local establishment of questionable taste    to deliver next Sunday.


   Years later, I ran into Mr. O nearby my home and picked up a round of drinks and we laughed our asses off about that summer!

This is so wonderful and fantastic, being in a smaller city like Louisville may not have the prestige of courses, but I have ran into two super's at the nicer courses and they gladly let me play on

[Paul Carey]

I grew up in the Maryland suburbs of DC and learned the game at a 9 holer at Georgetown Prep.  Learning the game meant learning how to gamble with older guys and the other important elements of the game.  No swing instruction.


Anyway, I snuck on Columbia, Congressional and Bethesda CC.  Not bad--two US Open courses.  Got busted by the pro at Bethesda and Congo.  I must have snuck on 30 times at Columbia and never caught ..the cool thing is my Mom would drive me to sneak on....she was awesome!

I'll bet you didn't start on the first tee at Columbia, it's right there in front of God and everybody!

I didn't but a friend of mine who snuck on more than I ever did had a great round going and played up 18 and then teed off on the first hole and "finished" the round. It must have been after 8:00 PM.  He got to the point that he was on speaking terms with the guy who brought the flagsticks in at night.  Guy figured he was just a member that liked to play in the evenings.

[Paul Carey]

I grew up in the Maryland suburbs of DC and learned the game at a 9 holer at Georgetown Prep.  Learning the game meant learning how to gamble with older guys and the other important elements of the game.  No swing instruction.


Anyway, I snuck on Columbia, Congressional and Bethesda CC.  Not bad--two US Open courses.  Got busted by the pro at Bethesda and Congo.  I must have snuck on 30 times at Columbia and never caught ..the cool thing is my Mom would drive me to sneak on....she was awesome!

Since I have resigned from Four Streams, I'll have to sneak on now.

I am in the same boat.  Maybe we can get Bushby to join us sneaking on there.

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

Until the mid-90's, Christmas Day was the the high holy day of sneaking on courses throughout Southern California.  There used to be a very big skins game at Rancho Santa Fe.  In 1992 or 3, there might have been close to 50 players who participated.  If some idiots, in 1997,had waited until the frost eased, they probably would never had paid a bag room guy double time to sit at the halfway house all day monitoring the 1st and 10th tees.

[Dan Herrmann]

Sure I've snuck on.  But my deal was a little different.


I'd play a 9-hole rate at about 6:30pm.   Or whatever time would get me to 9 or 18 when it was dark.   Always walked.


But I had a big mesh bag in my golf bag that I'd use to collect balls from the water hazards.   I grew up in a family without much money, and harvesting those balls for my own use was the only way I could afford to play.


PS - Keep in mind that the kid that sneaks on your course today isn't stealing.   I prefer to think of it as a getting a kid into the game, and who knows - someday that kid may become a member.