When is the last time you goofed off on a golf course?

[George Pazin]

My wife signed my son up for golf lessons. I'm still confused as to why, but that's a post for another day.


I'm supposed to meet up with them at 7ish, at the end of the lesson. I'm planning to head out early and play a quick 9 during his lesson. Due to poor planning on my part, I don't have my clubs. But I do have a 6 iron sitting at my shop. So my plan is to go out a little ahead of his lesson, play 9 with my 6 iron, and then meet up when I'm done.


When is the last time you did something like this? I think there are things to be learned, not sure what they are...

[Emile Bonfiglio]

I was playing w/ my 9 year old a few weeks ago and suggested I would play him over the last 3 holes with just using my driver. I still dominated him!

[George Pazin]

Well done Emile! Hope I can share a similar story shortly.

[Pete_Pittock]

Back when I worked, last century, my division decided to hold a golf tournament at Sah-Hah-Lee a short course (18/2,500) in the area. I decided to play a cayman ball (the course sold them) and still won

[Tim Martin]

George Pazin-I think it's awesome that you weren't deterred and hope you hit a pile of sweet 6 irons.

[Joe Zucker]

I like to play cross country golf in the winter or early spring when a course is empty. It's a lot of fun to create holes and try to find interesting shots to play.  Unfortunately, it's always very soggy so the interest and challenge of tough angles is mitigated because any club will stop on a dime. 


I bet if I played cross country golf in the summer, it would expose how tough it is to hit into some greens from the opposite angle, so I guess that is something to be learned?  I haven't been to the loop yet, but I might be more likely to appreciate how good the greens must be to handle shots for different directions if you have played cross country golf to greens from the "wrong" side.

[Joe Bausch]

Not goofing off but maybe a bit close:  in the wintertime I frequently take out of the bag the odd numbered irons one round, even the next.

[Steve Lang]

it been a while but I liked using a 7 iron, with 2 balls.. in homage to Tin Cup

[Steve Wilson]

Tuesday evening in Golspie I played 15, 16, 17, 18, 1, 2, 3,4, and 18 with a 17 degree hybrid.  Sank a 60 foot putt chip and two putted all the other greens.  Actually one of my best nines.  Makes me ask myself why I bother with all those extra clubs.

[Sean_A]

I played the 1st & 18th at Kington in jacket & tie after dinner and obviously with too much drink on board...with a 5 iron...all too many years ago now.


Even longer ago I was the one caught on the 17th at TOC after dark by the coppers...who politely pointed out that in the morning I would need the clubs I shoved under a car.


Ciao   

[Jay Mickle]

Goofing off would be riding a "golf board". Shared one with Golf 's Most Beloved and his brother. I believed the consensus was that while fun, it added nothing to the game.

[Doug Lindahl]

+1 for cross country golf


I belong to a small 9 holer in the middle of Missouri.  Some of my buddies had just taken up the game and one night when we had some twilight I suggested we play from #7 tee to #2 green.  Two years later they spend more time debating which cross country holes to play than anything else. 


We also have a night golf tournament twice a year.  Just happens to be tomorrow! 

[George Pazin]

George Pazin-I think it's awesome that you weren't deterred and hope you hit a pile of sweet 6 irons.

Actually, I was. It never occurred to me I would be. I paid, teed off - pull hook to the left rough - and by the time I got to my ball, a ranger rode up and said I needed a bag. There was literally no one I could see ahead of me or waiting, so I thought he was kidding. He wasn't. He said it would be $4 for a bag and clubs, so I gave him $4, he drove back, and by the time I got to my next shot - a 6 iron pushed into the right rough - he had a bag of clubs for me. I carried them around, but only played with my 6.🙂


9 holes, 2 par 3s that were actually good yardages, and 2 par 5s. I didn't hit one fairway. That's kinda hard to pull off, but pretty much every tee shot, I aimed at the right side of the fairway and managed to start it there and hook it into the left rough. 7 freaking times, 8 if you count my pin high left rough tee shot on the par 3 2nd. Most consistent shots I've ever hit!


No surprise, my other challenge was pitching, chipping and putting, that was kinda ugly.


But all in all, a fun 9 holes.

[Steve Wilson]

George,

You were required to have a bag?  Not allowed to play without carrying a bag of clubs even if you only use one.  I hope I never
accidentally play that course. 

[cary lichtenstein]

I bet my playing partner, a lefty $20 straight up, I could outhit him with his driver. He accepted the bet, I never even tried this before or since, turned his driver upside down and rifled it past him. All were astonished especially me...we all laughed down the fairway

[George Pazin]

I bet my playing partner, a lefty $20 straight up, I could outhit him with his driver. He accepted the bet, I never even tried this before or since, turned his driver upside down and rifled it past him. All were astonished especially me...we all laughed down the fairway

  good stuff.


Steve -


They seemed worried that others would see me... and this is a muni that costs $20 to walk 18. Not sure what they were worried about. I wasn't slow, caught the twosome riding in front of me on the second hole. Stayed behind them till they invited me to hit up with them on the 6th hole. They asked why I was carrying one club in my left and a bag on my right shoulder and seemed genuinely annoyed when I explained. They even hassled a ranger who happened by when we were on the 7th tee, demanding to know why I needed to carry a bag. I just laughed it off, but I'm still a bit confused.

[Steve Lapper]

Does playing dozens of holes with Neil Regan and just two putter on otherwise well-known golf courses count as "goofing off?" I think not!

[Garland Bayley]

,,, a ranger rode up and said I needed a bag. ...

Guys like that probably wonder why golf is losing patronage.

[Garland Bayley]

,,, But I do have a 6 iron sitting at my shop. So my plan is to go out a little ahead of his lesson, play 9 with my 6 iron, and then meet up when I'm done.


When is the last time you did something like this? I think there are things to be learned, not sure what they are...

An 85 year old friend that was a member of my club and I would play sometimes. I would only play with a 6 iron when with him. i hit some sweet 6 irons doing that. One hole has a more than 180 yard carry to catch the turbo boost slope, so I stepped on the 6 iron hard, made the carry and was able to cover the 400 yard hole with two six irons.

I have some Cayman balls that I would play on the course with ladies for awhile to match up our length, but stopped after a few rounds of that.

[Joe_Tucholski]

,,, a ranger rode up and said I needed a bag. ...

Guys like that probably wonder why golf is losing patronage.

Most places I've played have a similar rule where each player must have their own golf bag.  I believe it's a revenue issue.  At higher end clubs when traveling they get an extra $50 per person.  There could also be a rules of golf, tradition or pace of play argument.


Never going to make everyone happy.

[BCrosby]

There isn't enough goofing off on golf courses. It was a big part of how I learned to play the game, but also a big part of how I came to love it.

In my early teens there was a group of about eight of us who would tee off late on summer afternoons when the course was empty. Once out of sight of the pro shop, we would drop balls and try crazy shots or cut across fw's and make up new holes. (BTW, we discovered a much better routing for our course than Ross'. A story for another time.) We tried water carries not part of any hole solely for bragging rights. (I lost a lot of much needed balls that way.) We sometimes played holes only with a driver or a 7 iron or a putter. Once we played the par 3 eighth for a coke throwing our balls.   

There were thickly wooded areas where we would stop for ten minutes or so and sneak a cigarette. And then we played out of our piney hideaway to the nearest tee as if a separate hole, and played that hole from the regular tee, unless someone spotted a green on another hole that he thought would be more fun to play to. Which happened frequently.

There was an unwritten rule that we played on without regard to rain. When the inevitable Georgia thunderstorms rolled through, we kept playing. A couple of times, figuring we couldn't get any wetter, we jumped in the lake to snag golf balls we couldn't reach from the bank. We also - stupidly - played through lightening (with our metal spikes no less). Looking back now, we were very lucky.

This sort of stuff went on for several summers. Perhaps my fondest memories of golf. I also think it was the beginnings of my interest in gca.

Bob   

[Pete_Pittock]

Tualatin CC used to have a 170ish par 3 below the clubhouse. Water front, stone wall and OB behind. I almost aced it with a Hogan utility club. 6" short.


From my knees,

[Matthew Petersen]

I went out to the Links at Terranea a couple weeks back, a charming little 9-hole par 3 course designed by Todd Eckenrode near the coast in Palos Verdes. They were having some kind of youth/college event going on at the resort and they were on the putting green but no one was on the course, so I spent quite a lot of time on the holes north of the road (1-6) that all sort of run up against each other, playing various shots to different greens. The second hole has a boomerang green that's fun to play to from any angle.

[George Pazin]

Thanks for the stories, everyone, I hope more share.


Goofed off isn't really the right term for most of this, I just couldn't really think of a better way of saying it without sounding like a beard puller.


Bob Crosby, love your post, which is of course pretty much standard...the feeling, that is.

[Rick Lane]

We frequently have four couples play a serious match of one sort or another, (foursomes, fourball, etc) followed by cocktails and storytelling.   Great summer fun.  This is also usually followed by an "8 person, barefoot,  three club, five hole scramble", which, in the late summer setting sun with your friends, laughing and hitting shots, is about as good as it gets.......