When Golf Isn't Fun

Filed in archive Golf Wanderings on September 4, 2007

Courtesy: Deer Creek

My wife and I played a rather difficult round of golf last Friday.

It wasn't because our swings were malfunctioning (I'm why teaching pros can take the winters off and spend them in Florida...); it was the traffic on the golf course.

Last Friday, in our neck of the woods in southern Ontario, was another typical summer day: hot and sunny.

It was also, you may recall, the start of the Labor Day weekend. Hence, the traffic on the course.

We played at Deer Creek's South Course in the east end of the Greater Toronto Area, a large, very busy and very profitable golf center boasting 45 holes.

The South Course at Deer Creek is a decent, well maintained layout with an affordable price.

Since Wendy and I teed off around 2:30PM, we opted for a cart. Because of how busy it was, the starter paired us with two young guys.

Behind us, four guys were arguing with the starter about why they couldn't join their other 12 buddies who had already teed off in three foursomes ahead of us. It seems these 16 guys were all part of a pre-wedding round of golf and had decided to play a best-ball mini-tournament.

The four late-comers had missed their tee time by about 20 minutes but felt they had the right to jump the cue and catch up with their friends.

When we teed off, it turned out the two young fellows with us had rarely - if ever - played golf before.

No golf shoes, one glove and only one of them had tees. One went into the bush to the right; the other into the trees to the left.

And so it went. It took us about an hour to play 3 holes. During that time, the impatient foursome behind us kept yelling to each other and to their friends who they could see several fairways away. They were also right up behind us every moment since they were playing best-ball.

On the fourth tee, they told us they wanted to play through and catch up with their buddies. They were nice about it but fairly insistent and there didn't seem any point in keeping them behind us, so away they went. Everyone was grateful.

Long story short, Wendy and I told our two novice playing partners that we were under the gun for time (true) and had to play on ahead. They were nice kids and thanked us for our patience and pointers. I was glad we'd been understanding with them. At least their first round of golf wouldn't likely be their last.

As Wendy and I picked up speed, we caught the noisy foursome on the 10th tee and they allowed us to play through. We eventually played through two more of the foursomes in the best-ball tournament and completed our round as the sun was low in the western sky.

It was a tough situation: you've got two young kids playing their first or maybe second ever round of golf with no idea of how to hit a golf ball; you've got a busy golf course on the Friday of the last long weekend of the summer and you've got a noisy foursome itching to play through to catch up with their friends.

Is there a "right" or "wrong" here? Or was it just the "rub of the green"?

Should a course permit a large group of 16 to play a mini-tournament together on a crowded track with all the shouting and yelling that went on? And should a course with a reasonable degree of difficulty sell two greens fees to a pair of beginners on a very busy day?

Novice golfers need to start somewhere, certainly. And it's absurd for a course to demand a handicap rating before booking a tee time to ensure those paying actually know how to play.

But there has to be a better way.