COMMUNITY

I prefer the group behind me to hit in to me and keep up rather than waiting on the group in front of me to wait for the green to clear from 300 yards out holding 3 woods and hitting from the rough.

I will sometimes hit into a par 5 if my best shot has a chance of rolling up on the green.

The whole point of golf to me is to relax, enjoy the weather (usually) and spend time with friends. Now, if the group in front of you is fishing for balls in a pond or hitting two balls, they're getting hit into.

I don't think it is ever acceptable to intentionally send a flying object at a high rate of speed in the general direction of another person with the possibility that it could strike them and cause injury or worse.

I play relatively fast so I seldom have to worry about it. About 6 months ago, my playing partner and I were behind a 3-some of 65+ players who were not the fastest dudes out there. They weren't playing as fast as we would have liked, but they weren't causing much of a problem and we caught up with them on #15 so things slowed down.

The douchebags behind us decided that while we were still on the drivable and visible green on #15 that they'd take a few tries. One of their tee shots hit the green about 15 feet from my playing partner. That ball became ours after they were returning to their carts.

On #18 (par 5), we were waiting for the guys to clear the green and I was within ~170 so I was going for it. The green is visible from the tee box and the landing area where I was is clearly visible. Nevertheless, the idiots decided to send 3 balls our way. Called the clubhouse, but they were busy (they did eventually show up). I decided to wait on the idiots.

Him : "oh, you're just mad that I out drove you"
Me : "No you stupid piece of ignorant trash. I'm mad that you are too stupid to realize that we're waiting on the 3some in front of us and so your GED response is to send 3 golf balls flying in my direction." .. at which point he bowed up and the clubhouse manager showed up to prevent him from loosing even more teeth.

If the course isn't busy, I'll usually approach the group in front of me and say something like "ya'll don't mind if I play through do you?" which is usually received well.

Using words is much better than sending objects flying.

I carry a sharpie in the bag so I can write polite messages about picking up the pace on a ball before hitting it into them.

That was you?

Since I've got a lot of extra space in my bag, it might be fun to carry a paintball gun in case I ever get hit into again. I'll just return fire with a similar round object.

Edit - won't work. Max distance is ~90 yds. I'll stick with just hitting their second shot for them right into the hazard.

How about a rolling ball? If I am 260 yards out on a par 5 and the max of my 3 wood is 350 and that is including the roll. Do you care if I hit the ball in the direction of the green and it happens to roll on?

My philosophy is go ahead and hit into me. If the ball is in the air near me we have a problem. If it's rolling I could care less.

Rolling onto the green with a well placed an unexpected shot is something I'd tolerate without fussing.

There is a difference between getting an unexpected 20 yards on top of your normal distance, and intentionally hitting where you know you could strike someone. In your example (assuming 250 - if you've got 350 on a 3w, I'll loop and we'll go on tour), the green was further than you expected to get will roll and so low of a risk that you'd even hit someone's shoe that it doesn't matter. In my experience posted above, the mentally handicap golfers knew they could reach us both times, fired 3 balls at us each time, and acted like the doucebags they are. I'm surprised they could hold onto their clubs with all the Astroglide on their hands, but that is another story.

Getting a solid strike, wind helping, and unexpected roll up on the green - no big deal. Hitting 3 balls at two players twice - big deal.

What is "astroglide?"