[Thomas Dai]

Been hit by a ball recently?
Where did it come from?
I suffered 3, yes 3, near-misses whilst playing 18-holes today.
Guess what?
All were tee shots hit by young lads aged circa 18-30 none of whom were low hcp players, but they all were big and fit and strong enough to hit shots that carried over 300 yds but were unfortunately at least 50 yds offline when they went by me.
Furthermore, for one shot there was no warning shout of “Fore”. For the other two “Fore” was shouted but was very muted and difficult to hear (one of my playing partners standing near me didn’t hear one of the shouts). Not surprising really that the shouts were muted given the distance from the shouter to the potential victim.
As one of my playing partners wryly commented, if you do get hit and survive don’t bother to call a doctor, call a lawyer instead.
Atb

[John Kavanaugh]

When opposing council reads the thousands of posts you have made bitching about the long ball and modern equipment how are you going to explain knowingly putting yourself in such a dangerous position. You need to pray one of your guests never get hurt.

[Terry Lavin]

Assumption of risk, unless they didn’t yell, “fore!”

[jeffwarne]

Been hit by a ball recently?
Where did it come from?
I suffered 3, yes 3, near-misses whilst playing 18-holes today.
Guess what?
All were tee shots hit by young lads aged circa 18-30 none of whom were low hcp players, but they all were big and fit and strong enough to hit shots that carried over 300 yds but were unfortunately at least 50 yds offline when they went by me.
Furthermore, for one shot there was no warning shout of “Fore”. For the other two “Fore” was shouted but was very muted and difficult to hear (one of my playing partners standing near me didn’t hear one of the shouts). Not surprising really that the shouts were muted given the distance from the shouter to the potential victim.
As one of my playing partners wryly commented, if you do get hit and survive don’t bother to call a doctor, call a lawyer instead.
Atb

yep.
One of several negative consequences of male projectile dysfunction...
The silliest arguments are always that golf is still hard and that it's only .01 %.
Plenty of 10's that bomb it-usually long and wrong.
I frequently get calls from our tennis pro 330 yards away to stop whoever's doing the shelling

[Garland Bayley]

So what if they yell fore. In the last two incidents I witnessed, the person that had the near miss did not hear the warning while other members of the foursome did.

People hear it when I yell fore. But, then I've been told to use my indoor voice. Today I had someone on a nearby green tell me to keep it down after yelling fore.

[Steve Wilson]

I wonder how many times even the loudest of shouts can be heard at 300 yards.   A good rule of thumb for the wild golfer might be to never hit it further than he can make himself heard.  I'm working on a rule of thumb for posters.

[Niall C]

The last time I played at Dornoch I was with Stan Dodd. Can't recall the respective hole numbers but there was a group of four with caddies on the adjacent fairway playing in the opposite direction. One of the players was playing a recovery shot out of the rough which got a flyer and landed between me and Stan who were only a few yards apart. There was no shout of fore. The ball must have travelled 200 yards to reach us so there was plenty of time for a shout.

That incident had nothing to do with players hitting the ball big distances which David is trying to imply is the problem and everything to do with 8 guys not having the basic idea of etiquette. Etiquette isn't just about good manners and pace of play, it is primarily about safety. If you don't know when to shout fore you shouldn't be on the course irrespective of whether you are a player or a caddie.

Niall

[Joe Hancock]

It’s become increasingly difficult to hear a shout of “fore” with all the Bluetooth speakers playing music.

[Jon Wiggett]

Niall,


I find the best course of action in such cases is to walk to the ball and pick it up. Usually the offender is really upset to begin with and complains about it but normally refuse the offer of reversing the roles. I hope you told the starter about this so they could at least refresh the caddies schooling.

[MCirba]

It’s become increasingly difficult to hear a shout of “fore” with all the Bluetooth speakers playing music.

+1

[Jeff_Brauer]

It's always been hard to hear any shout against the wind, no?

[Niall C]

Jeff


Not sure whether your post was in response to mine, but if so, no the wind wasn't a factor.


Jon


I certainly didn't say anything to the starter/pro and not sure about Stan. I suspect he had a quiet word with the caddies after although I think the Stan Dodd glare was probably enough.


Niall

[Doug Siebert]

Been hit by a ball recently?
Where did it come from?
I suffered 3, yes 3, near-misses whilst playing 18-holes today.
Guess what?
All were tee shots hit by young lads aged circa 18-30 none of whom were low hcp players, but they all were big and fit and strong enough to hit shots that carried over 300 yds but were unfortunately at least 50 yds offline when they went by me.
Furthermore, for one shot there was no warning shout of “Fore”. For the other two “Fore” was shouted but was very muted and difficult to hear (one of my playing partners standing near me didn’t hear one of the shouts). Not surprising really that the shouts were muted given the distance from the shouter to the potential victim.
As one of my playing partners wryly commented, if you do get hit and survive don’t bother to call a doctor, call a lawyer instead.
Atb

Knowing how far I hit the ball when I was college aged in the 80s, and how far offline some shots were, I shudder to think at what crazy places I would have hit it with today's equipment and what damage or injuries I might have caused.

That's just a cost of the USGA/R&A lack of control over equipment. But I'm done fighting that battle, I remember fighting it in rec.sport.golf on Usenet when the Pro V1 and big headed drivers came out and I was stunned at big a difference they were, and fought that battle here many a time over the years. Every time the naysayers claimed that all the big distance gains are behind us, and there is little or no room for further gains while staying within the existing rules. Every time those people were wrong. So while I expect the same things are still being said today, I don't believe they are any more true today than they were all the other times I heard them.

I expect eventually that 400 yard drives will become the mark of a "really long" drive an amateur is capable of hitting just like a 300 yard drive was when I first started playing in the mid 70s. If it already isn't. I've only hit two drives over 400 yards (both wind aided, but not at elevation) in my life, but if my physical peak had coincided with today's equipment I expect I would have had far too many to count.

[John Kavanaugh]

I'm just not seeing the violent duck hooks of yesteryear with spinney balls and woody woods.

[Peter Sayegh]

I thought the OP was a joke since "suffered" was followed by "near misses." Really?
Is golf a sport? Heed the words of my coaches growing up: "Head on a swivel" and "Expect anything, be ready."
John Kavanaugh hit it on the head. Technology has introduced the longest possible shots...but also the most accurate.

[jeffwarne]

That's just a cost of the USGA/R&A lack of control over equipment. But I'm done fighting that battle, I remember fighting it in rec.sport.golf on Usenet when the Pro V1 and big headed drivers came out and I was stunned at big a difference they were, and fought that battle here many a time over the years. Every time the naysayers claimed that all the big distance gains are behind us, and there is little or no room for further gains while staying within the existing rules. Every time those people were wrong. So while I expect the same things are still being said today, I don't believe they are any more true today than they were all the other times I heard them.

I expect eventually that 400 yard drives will become the mark of a "really long" drive an amateur is capable of hitting just like a 300 yard drive was when I first started playing in the mid 70s. If it already isn't. I've only hit two drives over 400 yards (both wind aided, but not at elevation) in my life, but if my physical peak had coincided with today's equipment I expect I would have had far too many to count.

First paragraph nailed it,
but as you said,
it's normalized now...

[Sean_A]

It would be interesting to read a proper study of golfers hit today VS 1980.

BTW I am with Old George on this. When things nearly collide it's a near hit, not a near miss.

Ciao

[Jon Wiggett]

It would be interesting to read a proper study of golfers hit today VS 1980.

BTW I am with Old George on this. When things nearly collide it's a near hit, not a near miss.

Ciao

[JESII]

Does anyone have actual numbers on this? Do more golf shots result in injury today than 30 years ago?

[Jeff_Brauer]

Jim,


I don't have any numbers, but did find this.  [size=78%]https://golfsupport.com/blog/sports-related-injuries-golf-more-dangerous-than-rugby/[/size]


According to that, there are 40K ball strikes a year out of about 434 Million rounds or about 1 per every 11,000 rounds.


I actually think Doug Siebert's first pp is just another attempt to fit nearly any subject into a long standing anti-USGA narrative prevalent here and in many places.  I doubt many could find stats to truly back up the correlations made.


I doubt equipment really raises the amount of ball strikes.  First, the number of 300 yard drives, much less 400 yard drives is so small in non tour golfers, its not significant.  Second, a ball and person being in the exact same place at a precise moment is also pretty low statistically.  Why would .001% of longer drives necessarily put another golfer in that area rather that a shorter one?  It would seem some relationships between holes might change, but too few to mention.


Also, statistically, contrary to popular belief, longer hitters are also straighter.  For any given swing speed, there is only so much ball energy. Its hard to hit a ball long and wide - If it uses 92% moving forward (mean) only 8% is moving sideways, etc.


Average golfers, who make up 90% of golfers on most courses, aren't hitting it either further or straighter for the most part.  As JK says, some tech is aimed at straightening out shots, most is aimed at distance, but perimeter weighting may help a bit.


I actually put this question to Frank Thomas years ago in his then regular Golf Magazine column.  He said that new clubs won't make existing condo canyons any safer, but shouldn't make them worse either.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

I wonder how many times even the loudest of shouts can be heard at 300 yards.   A good rule of thumb for the wild golfer might be to never hit it further than he can make himself heard.  I'm working on a rule of thumb for posters.

Since I can hear people's music 300 yards away, I'm pretty sure we can hear them yelling. 

[Lou_Duran]

I wonder how many times even the loudest of shouts can be heard at 300 yards.   A good rule of thumb for the wild golfer might be to never hit it further than he can make himself heard.  I'm working on a rule of thumb for posters.

Since I can hear people's music 300 yards away, I'm pretty sure we can hear them yelling. 

No worries hearing Steve's "Fore" for two reasons, 1) his driver is typically in quarantine, and 2) his voice carries a long ways- I think I heard him once while he was playing Golspie and I at Dornoch.


I've chased a few of Doug's foul balls, none of which would have gone out of the park if hit in the intended direction.  From my experience, Jeff is right.  Badly misdirected shots seldom achieve anywhere near maximum distance.  When I used to be able to swing hard, my left and right misses were typically the result of catching the ball with all parts of the face but the sweet spot.  These were typically harmless skanks.


I've been hit twice in 50 years, both times off shanks hit from within 50 yards.  I had a very close call this morning when one of my companions got a little more out of a punch out from close to a boundary fence and hit across the fairway where I was standing.  He yelled, we ducked, no harm, no foul.


A more honest, plausible argument for further regulating the ball with greater resolve is that the modern ball gives golfers who are able to generate abnormally high swing speeds a disproportionate advantage.  Of course, the big hitters might come back with the argument that golfers with superior feel and great nerves have an unfair advantage in a game where a 350 yard drive over a nest of bunkers counts the same as a 3' putt.  If action in the name of fairness is required to handcuff one, should the other (the great putter) not be similarly punished?  For the record, I am only a bit longer than Dai, but with a much lesser short game.     

[Steve Wilson]

Lou,
In what qualifies as a news bulletin from Ripley's Believe It or Not, my driver is out of quarantine and has tested negative for being as wild as a March hare.  Sometimes it's the best club in my bag, thank God for the new technology.  My voice continues to project to great distances.  And as an aside on that occasion when I was at Golspie and you detected my voice at Dornoch, were you struck by a golf ball?  I thought not and so rest my case.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I'd like to call a lawyer and sue my golf instructor from when I was 14 years old.  He taught me to swing within myself (i.e., about 85%) and I think he could have or should have been aware that equipment 50 years later would favor the harder swing to a greater degree, thus wasting much of my golf potential over the years.  He owes me!


Also, I have often joked that someone, at some time, in some liberal court (certainly not Texas)  will sue the gca after losing some large bet for design that unduly favored his opponent (i.e., narrow fw for straighter hitters, carry bunkers placed just past where he could drive that day, etc.)  Sad part is, I'm only half joking.  Most people's definition of "fair" design is one that clearly favors them, LOL>

[Lou_Duran]

Jeff,


My recollections are that you didn't listen to your teacher.  Or your 100% is Antifa violent.


Steve,


I wish I had a broadcasting voice; I tire of people saying "What?" to me.  I either need a thicker accent so I force the listener to focus or, as my then attorney in Spain once said to me after an evening of heavy drinking "you need to stop being so lazy in your pronunciation".  We were probably speaking in Spanish as his English was atrocious (which I noted), but we were in his country and. anyways, his criticism justifiably applied to both languages.


Glad to hear that you have invested in a new driver.  Are we past fiberglass yet?


My driver is the best club in my bag.  But even if I got 100% out of it and hit Dai on the ass out around 210 yards, it would hardly make a mark.  Call the lawyers in.  I like the "assumed risk" theory.  As if the law had a consistently fixed meaning, if you get my drift. 

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()