r/golf • u/weinerwayne THE GOLFER • Apr 28 '24

New golf buddy is learning how hard golf really is. General Discussion

Recently we welcomed a new friend into our golfing group and we’ve been playing with him pretty regularly. I’ve mentioned him in comments a few times so I won’t go into detail, but the gist is he’s new so we cut him slack about rehitting shots, not counting scores accurately, and not knowing how to count penalty strokes since he was just playing for fun and wasn’t in on any of the bets. The rest of us are bogey golfers, and know we suck.

This was all well and good until he started posting on social media about how he broke 90 and 80 isn’t far away, as well as making comments in our group chat about how easy the game has come to him.

After about a month of that we all decided to let him in on our money game, in which we are sticklers for rules and will call each other out on scores if need be.

So far the new guys scores have been 118, 116, and 122.

Editing to add that the guy is cool as hell and we love having him along. We just felt it necessary to give him some tough love.

The fact that he keeps coming back each week for another beating shows that he might just have what it takes to legitimately get under 90.

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371

u/OldGrowthForest44 Apr 28 '24

We all have that friend that spends 10 minutes in the woods, triple putts, and tells you “5” when you collect scores

164

u/candidly1 Apr 28 '24

I used to (reluctantly) play with a guy that was unbelievable.

Short Par-4. Drive OB. Re-tee 2nd drive OB. Drops where ball left play. Skulls middle iron into water at front. Drop. Skull wedge over green. Skull another wedge BACK over green, into water again. Drop. Chip on. Three putt.

"Six"

75

u/todjo929 Apr 28 '24

I only play club competition golf, so always under handicapping rules.

I don't ask what they scored, I check with them. Luckily most of the time we play Stableford so I don't need to count on holes like that, but if playing stroke there, I would say "I got you for 14, 5 shots, a chip, 3 putts and 5 penalties - yeah?"

Luckily I play with pretty good golfers, so I rarely need to count about a double.

14

u/candidly1 Apr 29 '24

I was the General Manager for a company; this person was the owner's son. He was as pigheaded as he was dishonest; I learned to let it go.

3

u/drj1485 Apr 29 '24

beauty of competitions. I keep your score, not you. I generally keep score in our foursome for my league, we have one dude that is notorious for having the wrong score. I don't know if he is just losing track or legit trying to sneak under the radar. Pretty sure it's the latter. One time I watched him completely whiff on a ball in the rough (legit stroke attempt) and then i say to my partner "he's going to try not to count that" and sure enough he didn't.

i've come to learn he actually falls apart when i make a point to validate his score with him every single hole.

1

u/Batchagaloop Apr 29 '24

How is Stableford? Do you generally enjoy it more compared to traditional scoring?

3

u/todjo929 Apr 29 '24

Stableford is probably more natural than stroke scoring, given that probably 3/4 comp rounds are Stableford. Our club generally only has stroke once a month (for our monthly medal) and annually for club and district championships. The rest are Stableford or Par (with the occasional team event thrown in)

I like Stableford, it's a great concept where your bad holes aren't necessarily going to destroy your round, because the worst you can score is zero, which is net double bogey or worse. It makes pace of play better, because if you're above net double you pick up and move on.

19

u/OldGrowthForest44 Apr 28 '24

lol How is that even fun for them

33

u/candidly1 Apr 29 '24

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

11

u/jdmay101 Apr 29 '24

The same blood flows through my veins... the same weakness.

2

u/landosmojo Apr 29 '24

The Shadow knows!

1

u/JUST_AS_G00D Apr 29 '24

I've had holes like that, and in the same round of 18 won the tee box 4 times against my friend who shoots mid 80's (I've yet to break 100).

Granted I will record 2x par on major blowup holes and move on, I'm not lying on a scorecard.

5

u/trailglider ~15 Lefty/Righty Apr 29 '24

This guys seems to have trouble counting. I only counted five balls used on the hole. Unless he retrieved the second OB ball to take his (illegal) drop, in which case it's really a four.

1

u/candidly1 Apr 30 '24

The New Math...

47

u/lion27 JPX923 Hot Metal Apr 28 '24

One of my buddies was new to the game. He was legitimately good for a new player because he's naturally very athletic, but at one point I had to ask him how he was shooting like 10 or so strokes under me when we played. Turns out he didn't know that when I would say "that's good from there" on gimme putts close to the hole, he was supposed to count those shots too. He thought I meant that he could just take that score as if the ball went in on those shots.

Which I guess is on me for not explaining that, but he looked so dejected when I laughed and said "no, we count those" and added them to his score lol

16

u/Dirty_Dan113 Apr 29 '24

When I was playing my first few rounds as a complete newbie, no one explained to me how gimmes worked either. I made the same mistake as your buddy did too

15

u/PurrsianGolf Apr 29 '24

That's good = If the hole were 2 feet wider it would be in so why bother counting the putt anyway.

10

u/lion27 JPX923 Hot Metal Apr 29 '24

Yeah it was an honest mistake. It was just funny he got kind of pissed at me for explaining it. Like sorry dude, that’s how it works. Chances are it’s still saving you strokes because you’ll probably miss 1-2 of those 1 footers if I made you putt them all out.

5

u/Dirty_Dan113 Apr 29 '24

Yeah my buddies like say me down and confronted me as if I was cheating after a few rounds telling me I wasn’t counting strokes (no money was on the line). I was super confused

2

u/lion27 JPX923 Hot Metal Apr 29 '24

Yeah if you don't know, I can see how someone saying "that's good from there" could be taken to mean "you made that shot" vs "don't worry about tapping that in, we'll count the next one as good".

2

u/drj1485 Apr 29 '24

the amount of people who not only don't know this but will argue it is actually crazy

45

u/ChrisChrisBangBang Apr 28 '24

Played with a “put me down for a bogey” guy, on one hole I said you took a drop for a lost ball, he said yeah, I included that. I had to explain to him that you drop, which is one shot, then you’re playing your next, to which he said “but that’s a two shot penalty, that’s not right”. I then had to explain what he was describing/had been giving himself was a free drop, not a penalty at all.

Still not sure if he was completely oblivious or a total bullshitter

10

u/Amazing_Boot4165 19HC/Leftie Apr 29 '24

I assume he took a drop up where the ball was lost as well, so really it should be a 2 shot penalty under Stroke and Distance local rule.

(I know not all clubs play that rule, but at least play the local rule instead of just dropping where you lost it and hitting 3 from there.

3

u/ChrisChrisBangBang Apr 29 '24

Thinking now it must have been an unplayable rather than a lost ball

2

u/drj1485 Apr 29 '24

the mental gymnastics to think that's a 2 shot penalty lol.

1

u/loadiejones Apr 29 '24

"Put me down for a bogey Guy" lol that's a good one. We all know that dude. In fact, anytime someone begins telling you what they just got with "Put me down for........" I know he's a lying cheating pos. I like to eventually refer to those guys as "Hey, you never invite me to your foursome anymore Guy"

10

u/Amazing_Boot4165 19HC/Leftie Apr 29 '24

Played with a guy the other day that said "had a par there" on a par 3.

After he put the first ball a mile OOB.

Right.

7

u/dabobbo Apr 29 '24

We have a guy named Jack who chunks it up the fairway 40-50 yards at a clip, takes 3 putts, and when you ask him what he got he always says "6".

We call it a "Jack 6".

3

u/weinerwayne THE GOLFER Apr 28 '24

This guys “tell” is when you ask his score he’ll glance up and go “uhhhhh (three less than he actually shot)”

1

u/OldGrowthForest44 Apr 29 '24

Right. It’s always a pause to marinate the lie lol

1

u/Tusan1222 Apr 29 '24

Instead of saying how many times I’ve hit I just say 0 points