Match Play Horror Stories

Seve OB

I’ve heard of that rule alright but I think it is only ever in play for elite competitions.

Seve OB

Russman wrote: »

Worst I've seen (as a spectator) was an older guy claiming a hole off a kid in a match on the basis of a comment the kid made to a supporter along the lines of "I see the pin is right up the back of this green" to which the supporter replied something like "yeah they're up the back of a lot of the greens today". The old guy said the kid was getting advice, so picked up his ball, said he was claiming the hole and walked to the next tee. Despite the rules explicitly stating that information about a pin position is not advice.

Unfortunately the kid didn't know any better and there was no one around to fight his corner for him.

Just heard a similar story the other day. Inter club comp last year, must have been metro or something as it was a singles. A 15 year old asked his opposition how far it was to the pin on tee box of a par 3. The dude didn’t tell him how far it was........ just claimed the hole. Unfortunately the kid didn’t know any better. It was another kid, his friend who told me the story the other day and he was twice as surprised when I told him that no rule was broken!

Russman

harpsman wrote: »

Club at least, should be named and shamed

No, I’m not going to do that. It was one player, not the whole club. To be fair his own team mates were pretty disgusted with what he did.

Russman

Seve OB wrote: »

Just heard a similar story the other day. Inter club comp last year, must have been metro or something as it was a singles. A 15 year old asked his opposition how far it was to the pin on tee box of a par 3. The dude didn’t tell him how far it was........ just claimed the hole. Unfortunately the kid didn’t know any better. It was another kid, his friend who told me the story the other day and he was twice as surprised when I told him that no rule was broken!

It’s actually shocking how many guys go out in inter club just waiting for any perceived infringement and opportunity to try claim a hole from someone, often based on incorrect knowledge of the rules. Especially in match play where you can ignore a breach by your opponent as long as you don’t agree with him to ignore it.

I’m don’t know the answer to this tbh and I’m not trying to tar anyone, but, would it be fair to say that it’s usually the mid handicap guys (say Metro, PP, Barton etc) as opposed to the much lower, elite players that try that sort of carry-on ? It’s definitely been my impression, although of course that’s far from scientific !!

In the case above I’d make it my business to make sure that guy is aware he was in the wrong though.

augustus gloop

It is a rule in effect in pennant matchplay in most districts in australia.
Nevertheless, total dick move to enforce it

Wichita Lineman

I've seen lower handicap guys with as much / little knowledge of the rules and use of petty mind games as mid handicappers so I think it's fair to say it's across the board.

If a player is playing to the very best of his ability and qualifies for the Pierce Purcell team (for example) it's a tremendous honour to be asked to represent the club and they should be applauded for getting selected. Not everyone on a PP team (again for example) is a chancy bandit as is often claimed on these pages.

Mantis Toboggan

augustus gloop wrote: »

It is a rule in effect in pennant matchplay in most districts in australia.
Nevertheless, total dick move to enforce it

As someone else said on this thread we cannot pick and choose which rules we enforce. Problem for golf is lots of these silly rules exist and aslong as they do players will use them to their advantage.

Felexicon

Tyson Fury wrote: »

As someone else said on this thread we cannot pick and choose which rules we enforce. Problem for golf is lots of these silly rules exist and aslong as they do players will use them to their advantage.

You can in Match Play though

mike12

Played metro at the weekend and the guy hit a provisional without declaring it properly.

I was going to win the hole so no need for me to be a ass and make the remaining ten holes a pain by penalizing him.
If it was later in the match I may have though.

RoadRunner

mike12 wrote: »

Played metro at the weekend

Quick Q, did you play against St Margarets?

harpsman

Webbs wrote: »

Playing the provo and having the option to use that as the ball in play if the original ball is unplayable surely isnt a bad idea, it helps hugely with pace of play to start with.

The option you described whilst am sure it has happened would be a really rare occurrence, to be honest if someone has hit their third ball and is then playing six I would imagine a lot of players would be thinking of just playing on without a care in the world as you may as well tear the card up at that point!
The maximum score strokeplay that is planned to come in in 2019 would come into play if adopted to help this slowing up of play

Is this really happening?-halleluia!! Ive always thought it would be a good idea for club strokes events just to allow someone to write down quadruple bogey in the event they cant or dont want to finish a hole. I know its not "true strokes" but it would make life alot easier with absolutely no bearing on the result in 99.99% of cases.

opinionated3

I'm hoping to make my first start on a bruen team this year with my club (was a panelist last year but didn't get to play) but some of the stories here have me a little freaked out. Some guys will clearly chance anything in order to gain an advantage. I'm not that kind of guy and would prefer my golf to do the talking. Maybe I'm too quiet for this matchplay lark??!! Should I be more cunning/streetwise??

kiers47

opinionated3 wrote: »

I'm hoping to make my first start on a bruen team this year with my club (was a panelist last year but didn't get to play) but some of the stories here have me a little freaked out. Some guys will clearly chance anything in order to gain an advantage. I'm not that kind of guy and would prefer my golf to do the talking. Maybe I'm too quiet for this matchplay lark??!! Should I be more cunning/streetwise??

I usually just go out and play golf. Lads will try to get in your head. Just ignore it and keep the head down.

If people need to resort to antics to try and win a match it usually signifies to me that they don't believe they can beat me fair and square which usually spurs me on.

Just try to get the ball in the hole before your opponent and most importantly have fun. At the end of the day it is only a game.

Russman

opinionated3 wrote: »

I'm hoping to make my first start on a bruen team this year with my club (was a panelist last year but didn't get to play) but some of the stories here have me a little freaked out. Some guys will clearly chance anything in order to gain an advantage. I'm not that kind of guy and would prefer my golf to do the talking. Maybe I'm too quiet for this matchplay lark??!! Should I be more cunning/streetwise??

Don't stress about the horror stories on here, they're very much in the minority. I'd say 90%+ of guys you come across in inter-club are fine, yes its competitive and we all want to win, but almost everyone realises its not their livelihood and is only a game. Plus, with social media etc nowadays, most people don't want to be known as "that guy".
I bet every club has 2 or 3 who everyone knows about. I could probably pick a couple from my own club who'd cause a row in a phone box when it came to inter-club down the years.
No need to get involved in any of that rubbish, play your game and if you win, you win.

Russman

I've just remembered one from last year !

I was caddying in a JB Carr match - the format is scotch foresomes. Anyway, on a par 3, my player hit his shot miles off line, like 50 yards wide of the target. His partner hit the green, so obviously they used that ball. I went over to pick up the unused ball while they played out the hole. My player lagged up, and his partner holed out for par and a half.
So, we get to the next tee and I hand my guy back his ball that I'd picked up and they all tee off.
As it happens all 4 players were on much the same line off the tee. When it comes for our side to play, they used my player's ball as it was a good 20 yards ahead of his partner's. The opposition insisted that the ball chosen was in fact the partner's ball and that my player was the one 20 yards back. No amount of explaining things would convince them that we were correct. To us it was pretty clear cut, I had picked up the ball from wide of the par 3 and handed it to my player on the tee. They had clearly holed out on the par 3 with the partner's ball, which he then teed off with.
The opposition were purely basing it on one of them claiming that "....I have excellent eyesight, and I know that his drive went further than his....."
It's actually hard to debate with that kind of stupid. Made for a lovely atmosphere for the rest of the match !
Gamesmanship or an honest mistake ? I'm still on the fence tbh. There were one or two other little things later in the match that make me think it might have been deliberate.

Dbu

Russman wrote: »

I've just remembered one from last year !

I was caddying in a JB Carr match - the format is scotch foresomes. Anyway, on a par 3, my player hit his shot miles off line, like 50 yards wide of the target. His partner hit the green, so obviously they used that ball. I went over to pick up the unused ball while they played out the hole. My player lagged up, and his partner holed out for par and a half.
So, we get to the next tee and I hand my guy back his ball that I'd picked up and they all tee off.
As it happens all 4 players were on much the same line off the tee. When it comes for our side to play, they used my player's ball as it was a good 20 yards ahead of his partner's. The opposition insisted that the ball chosen was in fact the partner's ball and that my player was the one 20 yards back. No amount of explaining things would convince them that we were correct. To us it was pretty clear cut, I had picked up the ball from wide of the par 3 and handed it to my player on the tee. They had clearly holed out on the par 3 with the partner's ball, which he then teed off with.
The opposition were purely basing it on one of them claiming that "....I have excellent eyesight, and I know that his drive went further than his....."
It's actually hard to debate with that kind of stupid. Made for a lovely atmosphere for the rest of the match !
Gamesmanship or an honest mistake ? I'm still on the fence tbh. There were one or two other little things later in the match that make me think it might have been deliberate.

all the more reason to mark your ball

GreeBo

For the love of God mark your ball when playing golf, especially during interclub matches where most guys are going to be playing with the same bloody Prov1 that the manager just bought in the Pro shop for the occasion!

callaway92

Russman wrote: »

I've just remembered one from last year !

I was caddying in a JB Carr match - the format is scotch foresomes. Anyway, on a par 3, my player hit his shot miles off line, like 50 yards wide of the target. His partner hit the green, so obviously they used that ball. I went over to pick up the unused ball while they played out the hole. My player lagged up, and his partner holed out for par and a half.
So, we get to the next tee and I hand my guy back his ball that I'd picked up and they all tee off.
As it happens all 4 players were on much the same line off the tee. When it comes for our side to play, they used my player's ball as it was a good 20 yards ahead of his partner's. The opposition insisted that the ball chosen was in fact the partner's ball and that my player was the one 20 yards back. No amount of explaining things would convince them that we were correct. To us it was pretty clear cut, I had picked up the ball from wide of the par 3 and handed it to my player on the tee. They had clearly holed out on the par 3 with the partner's ball, which he then teed off with.
The opposition were purely basing it on one of them claiming that "....I have excellent eyesight, and I know that his drive went further than his....."
It's actually hard to debate with that kind of stupid. Made for a lovely atmosphere for the rest of the match !
Gamesmanship or an honest mistake ? I'm still on the fence tbh. There were one or two other little things later in the match that make me think it might have been deliberate.

Please tell me your lads won. The others sound like some tossers

dball

GreeBo wrote: »

For the love of God mark your ball when playing golf, especially during interclub matches where most guys are going to be playing with the same bloody Prov1 that the manager just bought in the Pro shop for the occasion!

huh? free balls:eek:

Russman

Dbu wrote: »

all the more reason to mark your ball

No, no, both balls were marked and were different brands. Despite this the opposition were insisting that their guy has excellent eyesight and in his opinion partner A's ball travelled further than partner B's, so therefore partner B should be hitting next if the longest drive was going to be the one our pair selected. No amount of showing them the brands and marks would convince them otherwise. Everything from "ye must have switched somewhere" to "well, I know what I saw and his drive definitely went further" was thrown up.

Russman

callaway92 wrote: »

Please tell me your lads won. The others sound like some tossers

No, unfortunately they lost early-ish, either on 15 or 16.
It was the weirdest thing, they were actually ok up to this, but whatever got into yer man's head, I dunno. He maintained he was doing it to avoid any penalties, which is fair enough, but he couldn't accept all the evidence. AT no point was it possible to switch balls, as I had to go off to the side to collect my guy's ball, and the partner held out with his own ball. Wires crossed somewhere.

harpsman

stockdam wrote: »

You cannot declare your ball lost. You can hit another ball (without declaring it as provisional) or play your provisional (until it is hit from closer to the hole) before the ball is found.

Remember Dermot Gileece talking about an incident in a west of ireland final years ago-downwind par 4 the guy hits his drive into the hay;plays a provisional which he nails down the middle and the ball ends up 6 inches from the hole; apparently he sprinted the length of the hole to tap in before anyone found his ball

Seve OB

Russman wrote: »

No, unfortunately they lost early-ish, either on 15 or 16.
It was the weirdest thing, they were actually ok up to this, but whatever got into yer man's head, I dunno. He maintained he was doing it to avoid any penalties, which is fair enough, but he couldn't accept all the evidence. AT no point was it possible to switch balls, as I had to go off to the side to collect my guy's ball, and the partner held out with his own ball. Wires crossed somewhere.

So did they fold and give in to the opposition? Always stand your ground, or in interclub match like that, call someone over, manager or ref etc.

Russman

Seve OB wrote: »

So did they fold and give in to the opposition? Always stand your ground, or in interclub match like that, call someone over, manager or ref etc.

No, they stood their ground. Sure what else could they do, they'd done absolutely nothing wrong. I mean honestly yer man was purely basing it on him having excellent eyesight and thinking that one guy's tee shot absolutely went further than the other guy's, with no account of roll, bounce etc etc.
The opposition went with the slightly sulky "...........no, it's fine, don't worry about, carry on......" approach.

Long Turn

I don't think you are allowed caddies in the JB Carr

Russman

Long Turn wrote: »

I don't think you are allowed caddies in the JB Carr

Really ? Maybe it was the Purcell, I was sure it was the JB. Will check with my father, ‘twas him I was caddying for.

backspin.

Russman wrote: »

Really ? Maybe it was the Purcell, I was sure it was the JB. Will check with my father, ‘twas him I was caddying for.

Was he 4 shots higher than he his playing ability if so id say it was the JB Carr then

Seve OB

wasn't Purcell if it was scotch. That is only coming in this year

Russman

Seve OB wrote: »

wasn't Purcell if it was scotch. That is only coming in this year

Definitely scotch alright. I’ll ask my father when I see him next.

slingerz

had something similar this past weekend in interclub match. as i stood over a putt for a half there was a question on the number of shots whether it was for a half or if opponents were in the hole for a win. Had similar in the back 9 when a ball plugged and opponents wouldnt assist in the search. i know they dont have to but it is good manners to. There was no talk throughout the round and not even a 4 inch putt was conceded by them. immensely satisfying to see my partner hole a putt on 17 from a good 20ft to win. not so much as a 'great putt' comment from them