Never Forget Our Beginnings

[fixyurdivot]

First off this is my 5000 post here on MGS. Being part of this forum has been such an absolute blast!  So many great members, friends really, and so much very helpful advice.  I now know and have played with a handful of you and sure hope I get the chance to add many more of you to that list. 

So I've been saving this post/thread for this occasion.  About 3 weeks ago, I played a round with a father and son (Luke) who was celebrating his 14th B-day.  Neither played that well, and Luke was clearly a bit nervous.  His Dad had decided that they would play a best ball format up to the green as he was concerned about slowing play.  The course was pretty full, but not overly so and I encouraged them to take their time and not be too concerned about pace.  Things were moving along well enough until the par 3 hole #4 where groups started stacking up.  The group waiting on the tee gave the group on the green an earful about picking up pace.  I looked ahead and did note the group on #5 had just finished teeing off - but no big gap.  The group on the green also had a younger player that was not striking the ball well.  The guy who gave them grief started going off about people coming out here that have no business playing courses like this.  "Courses like this"?  Dude, what?  It's a nice public course, better than average perhaps but nothing crazy hard, excessively long, and arguably one whose layout is well suited for errant shots.  

I could immediately see Luke seize up.  He didn't even want to hit from the tee fearing the group now waiting behind us was going to get upset.  I walked back to them and said; we have a young new player here and might be a wee bit slow.  Are you guys OK with that or would you like to play through.  I also explained what the Dip$h** ahead of us just did and that the kid (celebrating his B-day btw) is now nervous as hell.  They said no issue at all.  You guys take your time and they all wished Luke a Happy B-day.  They also rooted from behind and at subsequent tee boxes.  Luke and Dad had a blast and at #18 his Dad thanked me for helping.

Never forget our own beginnings and struggles with this game.  A unintended outburst may very well change the course of a future player continuing with the game.  I walked off to my car hoping Luke would.

[sirchunksalot]

4 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

First off this is my 5000 post here on MGS. Being part of this forum has been such an absolute blast!  So many great members, friends really, and so much very helpful advice.  I now know and have played with a handful of you and sure hope I get the chance to add many more of you to that list. 

So I've been saving this post/thread for this occasion.  About 3 weeks ago, I played a round with a father and son (Luke) who was celebrating his 14th B-day.  Neither played that well, and Luke was clearly a bit nervous.  His Dad had decided that they would play a best ball format up to the green as he was concerned about slowing play.  The course was pretty full, but not overly so and I encouraged them to take their time and not be too concerned about pace.  Things were moving along well enough until the par 3 hole #4 where groups started stacking up.  The group waiting on the tee gave the group on the green an earful about picking up pace.  I looked ahead and did note the group on #5 had just finished teeing off - but no big gap.  The group on the green also had a younger player that was not striking the ball well.  The guy who gave them grief started going off about people coming out here that have no business playing courses like this.  "Courses like this"?  Dude, what?  It's a nice public course, better than average perhaps but nothing crazy hard, excessively long, and arguably one whose layout is well suited for errant shots.  

I could immediately see Luke seize up.  He didn't even want to hit from the tee fearing the group now waiting behind us was going to get upset.  I walked back to them and said; we have a young new player here and might be a wee bit slow.  Are you guys OK with that or would you like to play through.  I also explained what the Dip$h** ahead of us just did and that the kid (celebrating his B-day btw) is now nervous as hell.  They said no issue at all.  You guys take your time and they all wished Luke a Happy B-day.  They also rooted from behind and at subsequent tee boxes.  Luke and Dad had a blast and at #18 his Dad thanked me for helping.

Never forget our own beginnings and struggles with this game.  A unintended outburst may very well change the course of a future player continuing with the game.  I walked off to my car hoping Luke would.

Congratulations on the big milestone! I enjoy interacting with you and your posts are always a pleasure to read. 

Thank you for sharing that story. It always baffles me as to why people get so upset over slow play, especially when there's someone who may be new to the game in front of them. Just politely ask to play through. I know it can throw off rhythm to wait, but sometimes you run into multiple log jams and it can't be helped. I try to remember in those situations I'm out there to have fun and enjoy being outside doing something I enjoy. I really hope hearing those guys didn't discourage Luke from pursuing more rounds and he had fun the rest of the way. 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Great milestone and always enjoy your awesome input throughout the site.

For people to get that impatient is crazy to me. I tend to get a little nervous if I’m playing slowly with my group but only because it can be tough to gauge when to let someone play through. If it’s several slow holes nothing you can do but if no ones in front pass through. You did the right thing and I hope some day when my son and I are out playing for his Birthday people realize it’s a young golfer just trying to enjoy the fame.

sit back crack a beer (or whatever drink you choose) and enjoy the game, slow or not.

[tony@CIC]

48 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

First off this is my 5000 post here on MGS. Being part of this forum has been such an absolute blast!  So many great members, friends really, and so much very helpful advice.  I now know and have played with a handful of you and sure hope I get the chance to add many more of you to that list. 

So I've been saving this post/thread for this occasion.  About 3 weeks ago, I played a round with a father and son (Luke) who was celebrating his 14th B-day.  Neither played that well, and Luke was clearly a bit nervous.  His Dad had decided that they would play a best ball format up to the green as he was concerned about slowing play.  The course was pretty full, but not overly so and I encouraged them to take their time and not be too concerned about pace.  Things were moving along well enough until the par 3 hole #4 where groups started stacking up.  The group waiting on the tee gave the group on the green an earful about picking up pace.  I looked ahead and did note the group on #5 had just finished teeing off - but no big gap.  The group on the green also had a younger player that was not striking the ball well.  The guy who gave them grief started going off about people coming out here that have no business playing courses like this.  "Courses like this"?  Dude, what?  It's a nice public course, better than average perhaps but nothing crazy hard, excessively long, and arguably one whose layout is well suited for errant shots.  

I could immediately see Luke seize up.  He didn't even want to hit from the tee fearing the group now waiting behind us was going to get upset.  I walked back to them and said; we have a young new player here and might be a wee bit slow.  Are you guys OK with that or would you like to play through.  I also explained what the Dip$h** ahead of us just did and that the kid (celebrating his B-day btw) is now nervous as hell.  They said no issue at all.  You guys take your time and they all wished Luke a Happy B-day.  They also rooted from behind and at subsequent tee boxes.  Luke and Dad had a blast and at #18 his Dad thanked me for helping.

Never forget our own beginnings and struggles with this game.  A unintended outburst may very well change the course of a future player continuing with the game.  I walked off to my car hoping Luke would.

Bill, congrats on hitting this milestone and taking on the Tour event threads. Great read and looking forward to your next 5K!

[Rickp]

Congratulations on 5K


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[tchat07]

Wow another big time milestone! Congrats!

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[Kenny B]

Nice job Bill!  Well done!

Congratulations on #5000.  It's always fun to read your posts, and especially so since we have played together.  Now, on to 10000!!!

[fozcycle]

Congrats fixyourdivot, I have enjoyed reading your golfing thoughts these past few years. I hope you will have many more.


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[Thin2win]

5000, most of them good. Although I take extreme exception to post #124 and I think that you lost your way in posts 2067-2082.

I opened my PayPal for the first time in a year today and found $48 from you, so today you get high marks! 

[dlow206]

Congrats on 5000 posts

[Nolan220]

Congrats on 5k ! .. awesome story

[aerospace_ray]

Impressive. Congrats!

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[fixyurdivot]

11 hours ago, Thin2win said:

5000, most of them good. Although I take extreme exception to post #124 and I think that you lost your way in posts 2067-2082.

I opened my PayPal for the first time in a year today and found $48 from you, so today you get high marks! 

That's odd, I thought we had settled on $50 for the V2?  Oh... now I remember, it was my purse from the winning putt on #18 at The Links GC .

[revkev]

Great posts all 5,000 of them. Here’s to 5,000 more!


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[00sportsman]

Congratulations on the milestone. Keep ‘em coming.


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[Golfspy_CG2]

Congratulations on 5K

That was definitely a post worthy of such a milestone.  I love that story! 

[Shankster]

Go Blue.  

Glad to have you are these parts kind sir.