Golfblogger

Yesterday, I experienced an golfing ethics problem.

Here is the course setup- My party was playing a short part 4, which is a fairly significant slope up to the green.  Probably a 20-30 foot rise over the 260 yards.  On the left side of the fairway, is a row of houses, on the right side is a cart path, a slight treeline (which rarely stops balls)- and then the 2nd leg of a double dogleg par5 which comes down that slope during the second shot (or if you can draw correctly, a booming drive will come down that hill.  Because of the houses, players on my hole will frequently deposit shots near or on the other fairway, and because of the 80-degree dogleg on the Par 5, a long drive will sometimes come on the fairway we were playing.

Anyhow, my two playing partners both put balls in the fairway.  I hit the longest drive, but a power fade which ended up 120 yards from my green but on the other fairway-- no problem.

As I started my walk toward my ball, my partners who were riding, went ahead in the cart.  They stopped at a ball which could have been mine, and shouted back to me what was I hitting-- and it wasn’t what I hit-- my ball was 40 yards further uphill and further into the other fairway.  At the time I arrived at my ball, the carts appeared from over the hill of the oncoming foursome playing the par 5.  I hit my ball toward the green (I would end with a par).  And as I left the scene it was obvious they were looking for a ball.  I caught up to my partner who had asked me about that ball and asked him if he picked up.  I never would have thought that he would, he was familiar with the course, and it was a busy day, and with the ball not being hidden- it was clear that it could easily be a ball from the other hole (the nature of the dogleg and the hill, you will rarely see players or carts until they start coming down the hill after shots.  To my shock, he had picked up the ball.  He honestly had thought it was not in play--- so I told him he needed to go put it back in place and apologize, and he was too embarassed to do so.  I was pretty disappointed in him, I know he is very self-conscious about his game and such- but still- he is a grown man and it was the right thing to do to correct the error. 

The fact is this may have been an awesome drive, which could have easily resulted in an eagle.  I am not that good, but on a couple different occasions, with the right conditions I had been able to draw a drive and then had it roll to near that spot, it would be about a 240 yard drive, with a 40-50 yard roll, with 140 or so left to the pin. 

Well, I left it up to him to do the right thing, and he failed.  I feel like I failed now too- knowing his embarassment, I am a member of the club and I should have gone and returned the ball myself.  He won’t make the mistake again I am sure, but still I don’t know what to feel about him in this and I am not happy with myself.

I would appreciate thoughts on this.

I never let golf get in the way of my relationships with other people. I don’t think he was trying to cheat you (I assume that this was not a money game) so let it go.