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Do you like golfing with strangers?

Urohawk

HR Heisman
Sep 30, 2001
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Wife and I joined a country club (no pics). She loves golf and was on a state championship team in high school but stopped playing for years due to work. Post pandemic, she wanted to join to get the kids involved. I'm a terrible golfer and shoot 60 on nine holes but I play fast so I can maintain proper play pace. I kind of like golf, but don't have the love to really work at my game. Nor do I care to put the time in. It's about the 25th thing on my list I would prefer to do with my free time.

Fast forward, my wife's commitment was to slow down at work and take some time for herself. She wants to spend time golfing. I sort of looked at as a way we could spend a few hours together and she would be happy. Anyway we have a 350 tee time. There is no one behind us. The country club allows you to schedule in empty spots to maximize member access. Some dude, total stranger, schedules with us rather than take the tee time 12 minutes later. I think it's a bit odd.
 
It depends on the stranger, and how they act.

Most clubs will pair people up if the course is busy, and there are singles or twosomes. That said, it can be awkward if there's a huge skill difference. May the single that got paired up with you had intentions of playing ahead after a few holes.
 
Wife and I joined a country club (no pics). She loves golf and was on a state championship team in high school but stopped playing for years due to work. Post pandemic, she wanted to join to get the kids involved. I'm a terrible golfer and shoot 60 on nine holes but I play fast so I can maintain proper play pace. I kind of like golf, but don't have the love to really work at my game. Nor do I care to put the time in. It's about the 25th thing on my list I would prefer to do with my free time.

Fast forward, my wife's commitment was to slow down at work and take some time for herself. She wants to spend time golfing. I sort of looked at as a way we could spend a few hours together and she would be happy. Anyway we have a 350 tee time. There is no one behind us. The country club allows you to schedule in empty spots to maximize member access. Some dude, total stranger, schedules with us rather than take the tee time 12 minutes later. I think it's a bit odd.
About 3 times out of 4, NO!

My 3 buddies and I have golfed together for years. One guy had to take a 2nd job to make ends meet a couple of years ago and is never available on Saturdays. The 3 of us left often get a single stranger put with us at the various courses we frequent.

Most often, the stranger is way better than us and is either stuck up or we bring the quality of his/her play down to our level, which doesn't end well for anybody.
 
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I like it. Don't mind in the least. Never had a "bad" pairing.

I've met some pretty interesting people on the golf course.

E.g. one time I got paired with a guy who kept alluding to his daughter being an actress. Normally when someone's kid is an actress they're really just a waitress looking for work so I wasn't going to pry. But after 8 holes or so he kept dropping it so I asked if I might have seen anything she was in. He listed several, one of which was Varsity blues. Then it got funny...

"Guess which one she was"
"Was she the one on the washing machine?"
"Uh yeah, that didn't bother her mother as much as the whipped cream bikini"

Varsity+Blues.jpg
 
Wife and I joined a country club (no pics). She loves golf and was on a state championship team in high school but stopped playing for years due to work. Post pandemic, she wanted to join to get the kids involved. I'm a terrible golfer and shoot 60 on nine holes but I play fast so I can maintain proper play pace. I kind of like golf, but don't have the love to really work at my game. Nor do I care to put the time in. It's about the 25th thing on my list I would prefer to do with my free time.

Fast forward, my wife's commitment was to slow down at work and take some time for herself. She wants to spend time golfing. I sort of looked at as a way we could spend a few hours together and she would be happy. Anyway we have a 350 tee time. There is no one behind us. The country club allows you to schedule in empty spots to maximize member access. Some dude, total stranger, schedules with us rather than take the tee time later. I think it's a bit odd.
If your plan was to bang the wife on the front 9 then send him on his way after the first hole. Otherwise, take the opportunity to meet a new and interesting character.

Oh, Pic of wife?
 
Wife and I joined a country club (no pics). She loves golf and was on a state championship team in high school but stopped playing for years due to work. Post pandemic, she wanted to join to get the kids involved. I'm a terrible golfer and shoot 60 on nine holes but I play fast so I can maintain proper play pace. I kind of like golf, but don't have the love to really work at my game. Nor do I care to put the time in. It's about the 25th thing on my list I would prefer to do with my free time.

Fast forward, my wife's commitment was to slow down at work and take some time for herself. She wants to spend time golfing. I sort of looked at as a way we could spend a few hours together and she would be happy. Anyway we have a 350 tee time. There is no one behind us. The country club allows you to schedule in empty spots to maximize member access. Some dude, total stranger, schedules with us rather than take the tee time 12 minutes later. I think it's a bit odd.
So is this a roundabout way of telling us you had a threesome?
 
Small town courses, nope never golf with others we don’t know.

Bigger cities, it happens all the time and for the most part I enjoy meeting new folks on the course while playing a round. But I would normally be expecting to know if I was gonna be golfing with ransoms and not spring it as a surprise.
 
Wife and I joined a country club (no pics). She loves golf and was on a state championship team in high school but stopped playing for years due to work. Post pandemic, she wanted to join to get the kids involved. I'm a terrible golfer and shoot 60 on nine holes but I play fast so I can maintain proper play pace. I kind of like golf, but don't have the love to really work at my game. Nor do I care to put the time in. It's about the 25th thing on my list I would prefer to do with my free time.

Fast forward, my wife's commitment was to slow down at work and take some time for herself. She wants to spend time golfing. I sort of looked at as a way we could spend a few hours together and she would be happy. Anyway we have a 350 tee time. There is no one behind us. The country club allows you to schedule in empty spots to maximize member access. Some dude, total stranger, schedules with us rather than take the tee time 12 minutes later. I think it's a bit odd.
As long as there's not a huge handicap differential, one way or the other. Can be a lot of fun. Played once with two unknown guys who were giving each other shit the whole round. last hole guy #1 misses putt and without missing a beat turns to the other guy, channeling Ted Knight, and says "i owe you nothing!".

Note here that while I don't know how busy your club is, by scheduling with you, he doesn't have to wait behind you on every shot as a solo, and he frees up the slot for another group.
 
Playing golf in my hometown I usually go with friends
or relatives. However, once I am outside the Midwest
on vacation, I find myself golfing with strangers at the
public courses I encounter.

In Florida, Colorado, Arizona for example I have meet
some wonderful folks. Everyone was friendly and I
enjoyed the conversation about golf and our careers.
 
Wife and I joined a country club (no pics). She loves golf and was on a state championship team in high school but stopped playing for years due to work. Post pandemic, she wanted to join to get the kids involved. I'm a terrible golfer and shoot 60 on nine holes but I play fast so I can maintain proper play pace. I kind of like golf, but don't have the love to really work at my game. Nor do I care to put the time in. It's about the 25th thing on my list I would prefer to do with my free time.

Fast forward, my wife's commitment was to slow down at work and take some time for herself. She wants to spend time golfing. I sort of looked at as a way we could spend a few hours together and she would be happy. Anyway we have a 350 tee time. There is no one behind us. The country club allows you to schedule in empty spots to maximize member access. Some dude, total stranger, schedules with us rather than take the tee time 12 minutes later. I think it's a bit odd.
So the wife pretended not to know the dude. Crazy.
 
Some of the worst people I have ever met was because a golf course paired me up.
 
Not seeing the problem so much.

You'll be in your cart with wife and he in his cart. So you'll be together 90% of the time, and relatively alone.

Oh, but you ARE going to be emasculated. Just don't count your score on the green after everyone has holed out, though, and no one will care. Except for you.
 
Wife and I joined a country club (no pics). She loves golf and was on a state championship team in high school but stopped playing for years due to work. Post pandemic, she wanted to join to get the kids involved. I'm a terrible golfer and shoot 60 on nine holes but I play fast so I can maintain proper play pace. I kind of like golf, but don't have the love to really work at my game. Nor do I care to put the time in. It's about the 25th thing on my list I would prefer to do with my free time.

Fast forward, my wife's commitment was to slow down at work and take some time for herself. She wants to spend time golfing. I sort of looked at as a way we could spend a few hours together and she would be happy. Anyway we have a 350 tee time. There is no one behind us. The country club allows you to schedule in empty spots to maximize member access. Some dude, total stranger, schedules with us rather than take the tee time 12 minutes later. I think it's a bit odd.
Nah. I don’t like golfing at all.
 
Live in a college town so we have a lot of college students that belong to the course on reduced rates, mostly former HS golfers. Several times this year I had the tee time before/after a couple of college guys. We were all walking so just decided to walk the course together. It was good time. Picked up some golf tips from those guys, we all had somebody to keep eyes on our tee shots, and got to meet some new people. Pretty common in a college town that cycles through people every couple of years to talk with people you don't know at social settings like bars or golf courses.

Then there are times when the course is slow and I am wanting to work on a few things and just want to play alone so I can play two balls into a hole, take an extra chip, etc. If a group catches up to me I'll let them play through.

If my wife (no pic) and I were out playing and somebody we didn't know wanted to tag along I would probably tell them to just play though because we play slow and don't want to hold him up.
 
This guy is lacking in common golf etiquette,.. You don't join any existing group without first asking those golfers,.. I don't care what the club house says.
It depends if it's the clubhouse that says "you can join up with those guys on the first tee" or if it's the starter who says "I have you paired with the rogers' today..."

When the starter pairs you, there isn't any 'hey guys, ok if I join?'

If it's an empty course, different story, then you can opt out, but they probably wouldn't pair you anyway.
 
Wife and I joined a country club (no pics). She loves golf and was on a state championship team in high school but stopped playing for years due to work. Post pandemic, she wanted to join to get the kids involved. I'm a terrible golfer and shoot 60 on nine holes but I play fast so I can maintain proper play pace. I kind of like golf, but don't have the love to really work at my game. Nor do I care to put the time in. It's about the 25th thing on my list I would prefer to do with my free time.

Fast forward, my wife's commitment was to slow down at work and take some time for herself. She wants to spend time golfing. I sort of looked at as a way we could spend a few hours together and she would be happy. Anyway we have a 350 tee time. There is no one behind us. The country club allows you to schedule in empty spots to maximize member access. Some dude, total stranger, schedules with us rather than take the tee time 12 minutes later. I think it's a bit odd.
What dod you do? I'd have told the guy to go in front upon arrival, which may be what he was hoping by scheduling with you instead of behind anyway.
 
I'd honestly think it was just an accident. Our app allows randoms to join your group too. I've inadvertantly added myself to other groups before. It's pretty hard to not realize you just did that and change it, but if there's open times around you I assume the guy touched the wrong time on his phone.
 
Hate it, end up with some dufus that thinks they are on the PGA most times. Some dude shooting a 90 and they are measuring each putt like it's to win the masters.
 
Hate it, end up with some dufus that thinks they are on the PGA most times. Some dude shooting a 90 and they are measuring each putt like it's to win the masters.
Ok, in defense of this I have two things.

1. Measure twice, cut once. - taking a little more time to size up a shot can actually save time because your not hacking all over the course or putting from fringe to fringe.

2. 3 Putting - I'm okay with measuring up the putt by walking the backside of the hole and trying to get a read on the green, once, and maybe twice depending on the miss. You start walking off a 3 putt while in a group and that is a bit much. I'm fine with doing this because the guy is probably legit trying to become a better golfer and there is nothing wrong with that. Maybe the guy wants to actually someday break 90. Speed whacking isn't going to help in that goal.

just be reasonable.
 
It depends if it's the clubhouse that says "you can join up with those guys on the first tee" or if it's the starter who says "I have you paired with the rogers' today..."

When the starter pairs you, there isn't any 'hey guys, ok if I join?'

If it's an empty course, different story, then you can opt out, but they probably wouldn't pair you anyway.

Starter?,.. sorry to hear that your life is so controlled.
 
If I’m put with someone else from the beginning, it’s all good. I’ve had some great rounds of golf with complete strangers. The most interesting was when I was paired with a 3rd generation insurance magnate who was also the #1 ranked doubles tennis player in the world for about 18 months. Most of that I didn’t know until I got done with my round and one of the assistant pros told me.

But I have had several rounds where I hit a logjam and a group invited me in, and it was a massive mindfúck. The worst was at Riverside, I was behind a twosome on a pretty busy Saturday and was playing nice and slow so they wouldn’t feel pressed. And I was grooving it. I stuck an iron to a foot on 15 for an easy birdie to get me to +2. Walk up the hill to my cart and this group is STILL waiting on the tee. Two older gentlemen, one of them says “This group ahead of us is either fücking in the woods or looking for every lost ball. And I ain’t seen any women.” So they invite me to finish with them. Proceeded to finish with three doubles to shoot 80. And I had never broken 80 there. I wasn’t mad, because they were a lot of fun, but I didn’t have the heart to be like, “Sorry, on pace to have my best round here ever, you guys go ahead.” But, it was all good, since two weeks later I shot a 78 there.
 
Starter?,.. sorry to hear that your life is so controlled.
I am a Starter/Ranger at a Premier Golf Course. And yes we will pair a single with a 3 some. Speeds things up. We start daily 175-240 Golfers in a day teeing off every 9 minutes. Need to keep the pace of play. We are really busy. Guys get pissed if they try to tee off to soon and I stop them. (Kindly). They have to understand the timing. I always thought I was a bad golfer. Until Last year when I started as a starter/ranger. I quickly found out I am not as bad as I think I am.
 
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