Yesterday, in Part I of this two part post about golf etiquette, I covered pace of play and basic care for the course. Today, I want to focus more on safety and consideration for fellow players and course employees.

Safety

Safety on a golf course is too often overlooked. It seems like such a harmless game. However, there is the chance for serious injury if we aren’t careful. Here are some tips to help everyone stay safe.

• We all hit bad shots, but when one gets away from us, it is imperative that we yell “Fore!” to alert other golfers that an errant shot may be coming their way. This includes times when it might seem like no one is in danger. Golf courses may seem wide open, but it’s easy for people to be obscured from view in wooded areas, low spots, behind mounds, or in other areas. When a golf ball leaves the face of a driver, it may be traveling upwards of 150 miles per hour and even when it lands is still moving at a decent speed. Getting hit by a ball can put someone in serious danger, and even when it’s not life threatening, it really hurts.
• When you hear someone yelling”Fore!”, DO NOT look up toward the direction of the yelling. Do your best to turn away and cover your face and head.
• Under no circumstance is it acceptable to hit into another group on purpose if they haven’t waved you up.
• Accidents happen and at times players hit shots of a lifetime, so if it happens and you find yourself hitting into another group unintentionally, simple apologize for the mishap and move on.
• Motoring around in golf carts can be fun, but be aware that sharp turns can easily roll the thing over and cause a world of hurt, even at reasonable speeds. As I mentioned yesterday, I worked at a course in my younger, not-so-smart days. I’ve rolled carts, thrown passengers from carts (unintentionally) and have been thrown from carts myself. I’ve been airborne in a golf cart. It’s hard to look back and not chuckle, but please keep your safety and the safety of others in mind when using carts because serious injury or death can really occur.
• If you typically play earlier in the day, chances are you’ve had to watch out for maintenance workers who are trying to get their work done. Keep in mind that they are trying to work as fast as they can and may be playing close attention to what they are doing and not see that you’re waiting to hit. Under no circumstance should you hit in the direction of a maintenance person who may not be aware of your presence. Often times, they’ll go off to the side and wait, but sometimes as players, we just need to wait for them to finish what they’re doing. A good example is a worker mowing greens. There is no time when it is acceptable to hit up to a green that is being mowed, unless the maintenance worker waves your group up. Most times, the workers will work backward as to not make the same group wait more than one time during a round. Keep in mind that the workers are there to make the experience better for the players, but they can’t do everything they need to while the course is empty, except maybe in the case of very exclusive clubs with huge maintenance budgets.
• If you choose to drink alcohol while playing, please do it responsibly. When players drink too much, especially during outings, there seems to be a much higher number of close-calls in the area of safety, and I’m betting there are more injuries as well. I know I’m going to get beat down for this, but my opinion is that alcohol should be left to the 19th hole. Unfortunately, too many players can’t just have a beer or two and save the rest for after the round and dangerous situations arise as a result.

Consideration for Fellow Players

Golf is a tough game. We all know that. Each day, there are a lot of people sharing the same acreage trying to have fun and shoot a good score. Sometimes groups cross paths and each player should be respectful of other players to make sure everyone has a good time.

• Keep the noise at a reasonable level to not distract players nearby. If you’re teeing off and I’m on the adjacent green cheering my long birdie putt during your back swing, you’re going to be upset about the $4 Pro V1 you just jacked into the woods. I feel the same way when I’m on the other end.
• While someone in your group is playing their shot, remain still and quiet.
• Leave the cell phone in the car, or at least muted if you must bring it on the course.
• Do not walk on a player’s line of putt on the green.
• Try to avoid casting your shadow on someone’s ball while they’re playing their shot.
• If you approach another group (on an adjacent hole for instance) and a player is preparing to hit a shot, stop your cart while he/she is hitting as to not be a distraction.
• When your ball ends up on an adjacent hole (it happens to everyone sooner or later), be courteous to players on that hole and avoid barreling out of the tree line in your cart while they’re hitting. Allow the players on that hole to either finish making their tee shots or their approaches before you go out there with your cart. If possible, grab a few clubs and leave your cart with your partner, to be less of a disturbance.
• It used to be considered proper etiquette to wave up the group behind on par three holes when your group gets to the green. Then your group would putt out as they were on their way to the green, and they’d do the same thing for the group behind them. I’m not sure what happened to that one. Does anyone out there still do that? I’d like to hear from you on this one.

Consideration for Course Employees

Since I’ve been both a maintenance worker and a player, I have a perspective that comes from both sides of the coin. One point that I’d like to drive home that many people don’t consider is that for every bit of damage you cause on the course, someone has to fix it.

In my years as a player and as a maintenance worker, I’ve seen players (with my own eyes):

• Run down stakes with their carts
• Drive over ropes into sensitive areas
• Ignore signs
• Disable the engine governors on their carts and blow up the engines, break steering rods, and do other damage
• Drive their carts into areas where they become stuck or otherwise disabled (like into ponds)
• Take divots out of greens out of anger or amusement
• Fail to repair ball marks
• Fail to replace divots
• Drive carts on greens and tees
• Play “bumper cars” with their carts
• Leave litter all over the place

These are the run of the mill things that come immediately to mind. I’m sure I can come up with more.

What I beg you to realize is that when you do these things, the maintenance staff either has to let other maintenance tasks go to fix these issues, or they have to work overtime to address them. You might think, “So what? They get paid.” That’s true, but when a worker has to spend half his day fixing ball marks on greens, that’s half a day’s worth of other improvements that have to fall by the wayside because the course budget is limited. In the case where the budget is a non-issue, I can tell you from experience that the last thing I want to do after running a weed whacker for eight hours is go around and put back up the ropes and stakes you ran over for amusement.

And this ignores the monetary cost involved in these kinds of situations. Golf courses are in business to make money (usually, but not always) and something has to give when these unnecessary costs pile up.

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That about covers it. This isn’t an exhaustive list of etiquette. Entire books have been written on the subject. I’ve tried to cover some basics and some of the egregious violations that seem all too common. I’ve also listed a few of my pet peeves. Thanks for letting me get those off my chest. Feel free to drop other etiquette suggestions into the comments.

Keep these things in mind and we’ll all have a little more fun out there.

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