Slow play and cheap balls!

Another free Eagle course today at Castle Hills in Lewisville.  The course was not too busy it seemed when I arrived and they were pretty friendly but said I would be playing alone and that I could go on out to the first tee as soon as I wanted.  So I decided not to hit on the range and just went to the first tee where the starter gave me all kinds of advice about playing golf and then sent me on my way.  Again it was a pretty hot day; I put on my Ipod and figured I would just chill out and play.  Well on the 3rd hole a young male golfer caught up with me although I was having to wait on a threesome ahead of me.  He hit into me twice and then approached me on the next tee box.  I told him if he was in a hurry he could just play through but there were folks ahead of me.  Oh well lucky me he decided to play with me.  He ended up being okay but clearly impatient and hit into group ahead of us once!  What an idiot I kept thinking - by that time it was a group of ladies who were VERY VERY slow and they just picked up his golf ball and kept it LOL.

I must say these ladies just slowed down more and more as we went along.  They would be killing time on the tee box and the group ahead of them was no where to be seen.  They looked back often and could see 2 groups waiting behind them but didn't seem to care.  They were taking 4-5 shots just to reach the green and had a need for the whole group to go te each other's balls and offer advice on hitting.  These are the kinds of ladies groups that give women golfers a bad name and make men cuss at us for playing slow.  When the marshall came around, I pointed out that they were not keeping up with the group ahead of them.  He tried to say they were waiting on the group ahead, but I nicely but forcefully clarified that they were not waiting but the rest of us were; that there was no one on the green even when they came to the next tee box.  So off he went to watch them for a hole and sure enough he finally caught on and gave them a nudge to pick up the pace.  He came back and apologized.  We just laughed and I said it was not because they were women golfers they were just SLOW as turtles!  Funny they played much better when they played quicker. 

I've seen men do this more often than not.  They just do not play ready golf -- instead they all go to look for lost balls (and look for way too long) -- if you can't afford to lose the golf ball you are playing with when you cannot find it after just a few minutes then you need to buy cheaper balls!