Random Golf Thoughts

In regards to putting your name down on a day there's competitions on, it's whatever your club policy says is what you should do by right.

My club is on competition days if you're teeing it up I think between 8am-12:30pm or something then you must play the comp. Depends on how busy the course was/time of day too imo. If you took up a prime slot like 11am where everyone around you was playing the comp but ye weren't; you've potentially blocked out a paying competition member. However, if there's no club policy in place surrounding that situation then it's fair game.

If hardly anyone played that comp over that weekend and they're simply just asking you why didn't you bother playing, at least you can say you've no interest in those types of comps and they may adjust future competitions in-turn if there's no interest for them.

No all four of us just played our own ball. None of us scoring well!

But there would be no cards as they played a casual round.

My club is fair game for time slots, you don't have to play the competition if you don't want, however the only kind of pre requisite would be that you keep pace of play, fourball playing their own ball could potentially fall behind a better ball format - not saying ye did....

I think a lot of people assume you have to play in the comp, I remember getting some funny looks from playing partners when I told them I wasn't in the comp and was just playing casually - I pay enough money every year on my sub, don't need to be coughing up €5 once or twice a week for comps - especially when you need 40+ points to feature in the prizes

I think that is very much dependant on the club. I know our club has a waiting list for the competitions ever Saturday and Sunday so they generally won't allow you take up a competition time slot if there is 20 lads waiting to play in it...

Just reading @callaway92 on the Links Thread there re driving onto a green and not calling fore. I had a similar in Grangecastle recently on the Par 5 18th where playing partner's ball landed about 20 yards short and ran up onto the green. Now it did pass out the players on the green but the pin was left side and this ran on the right side.

We never shouted fore and got the glare and grumps afterwards from the guys on the green who hung around signing their cards just to emphasise the point. For me, Fore is a term of danger so when he didn't shout it, I also wouldn't see it as necessary as it literally ran along the green 10 yards away from them.

Is "Fore" an interpretation for people or should it always be used no matter the situation?

It's an easily reachable par 5 with two good whacks, so maybe it was more a case of them thinking that your partner should have just waited rather them being really concerned for their safety.

Personally I wouldn't be bothered by it and I don't think I would have shouted fore while they were putting / presumably never in any danger.

A hand in the air as a sign of an apology usually works to diffuse similar situations, and just make sure you get the first word in on the green to apologise that we didn't think it would run on etc etc...

Would work in the majority of cases I imagine but you'll always get a few who just want to be annoyed.

In my eyes, Fore is there to signal danger (perhaps not seeing where your ball is gone or if you see if putting people at risk)

Ball rolling onto the green is not danger - and moreso is something that can create something to laugh about.

Hardly gonna shout fore for lads to cower with hands on their heads when a ball is rolling onto the green. I think it’s just people being cunce for the sake of it.

If my ball is going to pitch within 50 yds of the green I will wait to hit.

To hear a ball pitching while putting is off putting.

In all cases if the ballis off line or going towards anyone ,fore is mandatory

To be fair a ball landing 40/50yds away makes a distinctive noise and would be enough to put most people off. I would be similar and hold off, 2 minutes wont kill me.

Yeah I see it from your point of view aswell. It's similar to lads talking loudly a fairway over, it can be off putting but I'm always saying I need to be able to play well when things like that happen

But one of the pace of play problems is guys waiting because they, might just might, trickle on, or as you say pitch 30 or 40 yards from the green.

It's nonsense, you know if you can fly it there or not, if you can't fly it there and at best will trickle towards the front of the green play away and speed things up. Now context is always important, if there's no one behind and it's quiet on the course them maybe take your time. Weekend comp, keep the pace up and keep moving. And we all know that after waiting for the green to clear from 230, we proceed to chunk it in front of ourselves!

Now some course have different etiquettes, but where pace of play is seen as a problem, you'll get some looks for waiting for the green to clear when you can't get there.

As I said most people know what's dangerous or not. Possibly dangerous, do not hit, anything else come on let's speed up!

Not sure how conceding a match could be seen as a sign of respect etc

I’m guessing they didn’t try to reschedule the match with the other team?

Things like that can often be one person suggesting it and then others afraid to say no for fear of coming across potentially poorly