A story: Finding a Ball around a Green...

[mikemakeitso]

The other day our posse was playing at this course for the 1st time....

Here's the scenario... My Buddy hits his second shot... it's short off to the left slightly, but only about 20 - 25 yards from the green.

On the left hand side... people are teeing off coming the other way....

As my buddy gets close to the general location, he sees the guy (who was teeing off in the other direction), pick up his ball and place it in his pocket. He starts waking away....

My buddy stops him, and asks nicely... dude have you seen my ball (knowing he just stuffed it in his pocket)... The guy replys "no... but there are 2 on the green..."

My buddy stares him - knowing the guy is lieing through his teeth....

Then the guy... obvious lost his ball in the nearby fescue.... throws a ball down and plays it...

My buddy tells me all this afterwards, when the guy is gone... still kinda in shock that he now has to play a penalty stoke for this.

Bottomline here is weren't about to go track this guy down an fight over a $5 ball - But I swear, if more of us were there to witness this and if he were still around, the sticks would have come out based on principle alone... :rolleyes:

Why do Golfers continue to do this on a golf course... I see this time and time again... If the freak'n ball is in close proximity of a Fairway or green... leave it the F alone... Plain and simple....

Sometimes it takes a few holes to recover from a bone head move like this....

I told my buddy afterwards, he should have said... "Can I see the ball you just picked up"... if he asked what I was playing, I would have told him... "The BALL in your Pocket - you jerk".

Sorry for the rant... but what would you do in this case...? When it was so obvious?

[klink1983]

I would say, "Sir, I have reason to believe that you picked up my ball thinking that it was yours"

If he says no, Happy Gilmore his *** with a driver(preferably his)

thats not right. happenned to me first game this year, took me 10 minutes for the jerk to finally say f___ its yours, as all of his buddies were laughing at him.

[McBogey]

Well I have a similar one for you, playing at Victoria Park East in the Forum Sports Invitational, I shot 72 and got into a playoff, 5 hours later(quite a few beers in between) with Brian Decorso and Kelly Mills. We all had good tee shots down the middle of the 1st hole, Brian hooked his 2nd shot into the water and Kelly hit his over the back of the par 5. I came out of my shot, which of course went short right into the rough greenside. We starting walking up to our balls and everyone starts screaming, I was like, wtf? Some guy watching the playoff picked up my ball and walked off with it, now 30 people chasing him, so he throws it back to around where it originally laid, of course, real Deep in the rough. Hacked it to about 5 feet below the hole, Kelly chunked his pitch and then rolls in a 30 footer down the hill, for those who know the green, it is quite steep. Oh well, I was a 7 handicapper having fun back in those days :)

[tjhayko]

Mikemakeitso, next time to posse comes out ;)

I hate this. I've had a couple of balls lost on occasion because of this, and you are right, it takes a couple of holes to get back mentally to where you need to be. I mark my balls, and I think you would be completely within your rights to say, "Um, may I see the ball that you picked up please? I'm pretty sure my ball was right around here". If the person won't let you see it, then they are definitely a lying you know what, and the golf gods will get them in the end.

I'm just thankful that I guys who taught me to play the game made sure I knew better than this very early on.

[Flogger]

I hate this too! The game is tough enough without having to deal with some f--kwad stealing your ball. Not sure if some folks are just oblivious to all that surrounds them or just evil do'ers :rofl:.

How can you take someones ball out of play and sleep at night. Blasphemous I say :nono: :nono: :nono: .

[thecoach]

I really, really, really, really hate this!:mad:

This is exacly why I have a very unique ID mark on my balls (no not a birth mark:rofl: ) ... see my icon pic ... that's what I use all the time ... when people see it (as they pick it up) they tend to drop it as they know it's no ordinary mark (dots or a line) ... it seems to work and it's easy to call them on it.

You just say "hey I have a bunch in my bag with that mark on it and you only have one in your pocket with that exact mark?"

Now, no copying my mark!!!:nono: Make up your own ... it works.;)

[Zeuser]

You want to hear something weird?

My buddy and I were the last players on an executive 9 course. The group ahead of us was long gone (they were 3 holes ahead of us) and on our way to the green on the 7th hole we find a ball in the fairway to the right of the green.

My buddy and I look at each other: "Did you hit another ball?" WTF? somebody played a perfectly good ball and just left it there. I was tempted to play it instead of my own ball because it was in a better lie.

So here we are near the 7th green with 3 balls. The sun is dropping below the horizon, nobody else is on the course, and I do mean not a single soul. So what did we do? Picked it up of course!

[Zeuser]

I really, really, really, really hate this!:mad:

This is exacly why I have a very unique ID mark on my balls
All my balls are marked with a big red "Z". I'll probably be reducing it to a small "z" soon since I noticed some of my Irons have traces of red ink on the clubface.

[HUYman]

When in doubt, leave the ball the hell alone.


You want to hear something weird?

My buddy and I were the last players on an executive 9 course. The group ahead of us was long gone (they were 3 holes ahead of us) and on our way to the green on the 7th hole we find a ball in the fairway to the right of the green.

My buddy and I look at each other: "Did you hit another ball?" WTF? somebody played a perfectly good ball and just left it there. I was tempted to play it instead of my own ball because it was in a better lie.

So here we are near the 7th green with 3 balls. The sun is dropping below the horizon, nobody else is on the course, and I do mean not a single soul. So what did we do? Picked it up of course!
When there's no doubt... grab it! PRO V1? :)

[tjhayko]

When in doubt, leave the ball the hell alone.


Wow, a common sense approach! Wouldn't it be cool if more people weren't idiots? ;)

I try to use exactly this rule. I'm sure I could have pick up a few decent balls along the way if I hadn't, but it's only a couple of bucks at most.

[Twi-light Launcher]

I was playing Richmond Hill with a buddy - we got paired up with a couple of once a week hackers (not that we shot low numbers but I digress). Beating me by about 7 strokes in stroke play, my buddy drives the ball straight as an arrow, heading for the middle of the fairway but on top of a crest so momentarily out of view. A big guy, who was playing a company tournament, with a pull cart waddles onto the fairway, where his ball must have been headed.

On the way to our drives, hacker 1 and 2 and chunking up the course 30 yards at a time so it we got ahead of them (I know you shouldn't do that, but you had to be there). My buddy yells at the guy that waddled onto the fairway and asks him what ball he picked up. Big guy says that it was his ball and holds it up in the air as if we could see it from 80 yards away. Then he quickly waddles the other way.

Then one of our hackers chops one out of the rough and hits my buddy in the leg on one bounce. He lost it mentally - just doubles and triples the rest of the way. For some reason, I found the whole thing amusing and I guess it had a calming effect and I played the remaining 6-7 holes at 2-3 over par (good for me) and winning easily.

[Jaydog]

i do the same thing and it really works. caught a few ppl not intentionally stealing my ball a few times too. :rolleyes: :D

I really, really, really, really hate this!:mad:

This is exacly why I have a very unique ID mark on my balls (no not a birth mark:rofl: ) ... see my icon pic ... that's what I use all the time ... when people see it (as they pick it up) they tend to drop it as they know it's no ordinary mark (dots or a line) ... it seems to work and it's easy to call them on it.

You just say "hey I have a bunch in my bag with that mark on it and you only have one in your pocket with that exact mark?"

Now, no copying my mark!!!:nono: Make up your own ... it works.;)