Conference 7.286::golf

Welll, lesseee....

...a member of our group overshot a green (forgot which) at Candia
   Woods, bouncing the ball off a stone fence and onto the green.

...I hit a "grounder" tee-shot on <the_par_3_near_the_pond> at Green Meadow.
   The ball rolled over the bridge and stopped in the fringe.

...you've heard of birdies? Well, I got a deer last summer. My wife and I were playing
   the Fazio course at the Sylvan Treetops resort in northern Michigan. I was
   taking my second shot on a par 5 with my 3-wood. After I hit, I looked up
   and saw 2 deer crossing the fairway -- sure enough, my ball nailed one of
   them in the rump. Thee deer kept going, but my ball bounced into the woods :-(

...A course I used to play in upstate NY (Northway Heights in Ballston Lake) has
   railroad tracks running parallel to one of the fairways. A guy we were golfing
   with hit a nasty hook, which bounced off a _moving_ boxcar, landing on the 
   fairway.

Steve

Wierdest?

How about hitting my approach shot to the green with a wedge from the 
left rough on the sixth at Stow Acres South and the ball landing behind 
me without hitting anything else after it left the club face!?!?!?!?

The first one who can figure out what happened wins a (honorary!) prize 
(and no John or Pete, you are disqualified for being there). And no, 
there was no 50 mph wind.

Tavo

    Did the ball stick with the divet on your club and when you 
    finished your swing it fell?
    

RE .2

>>>me without hitting anything else after it left the club face!?!?!?!

This is a little misleading, however true.

	John

On the par 3 6th at Holden Hills, I slam dunked one that crushed the side of the
hole going in, rattled the hell out of the pin, then bounced out and didn't even
stay on the green.  I made a bogey.

<<<<RE .2

<<<<>>>me without hitting anything else after it left the club face!?!?!?!

<<<<This is a little misleading, however true.

<<<<        John

Well, if I said more I would have given it away!

Re: .2
Did you hit the ball twice with your club face?
I've done that a couple times coming out sand traps.

-steve

    I was in a greenside bunker that was about 4 feet lower than the green. 
    I hit the ball too hard and it came out high, got caught up in the flag
    and dropped right into the hole.
    
    Todd

    
                                  
    I may have told this story in another topic but
    if so, I'll tell it again anyway.
    
    We left our bags partway down the left side of the 
    18th fairway at Heather Hill GC as we walked back 
    the to teeing area.  My drive was a low screamer
    off the heel portion of my driver.  The ball hit
    my bag which was about 50yds away and disappeared.
    
    After looking all around the area of where our bags 
    were and not finding my ball I noticed a neat little
    6 inch slit in my bag right over the zippered compartment
    where I kept my spare golf balls.  I unzippered the 
    compartment and there sat the ball with all of it's buddies.
    
     

mmm... I thought it was going to take longer for someone to figure it 
out, but as you said it happens relatively often.

The second hit was when the ball was about 3-4 feet from the ground 
shooting the ball up and back.

Tavo

    
    Hi,
    
    	I was on a par 5... 2nd hole at Monoosnock CC.  After popping
    	up my drive about 100 yards, I tried to pummel a 3 wood
    	somewhere up the fairway to have a chance of reaching the
    	green in three.
    	Up ahead along the left side about 150 yards away is a fence 
    	that marks out of bounds, protecting a neighbors pool.
    	I slammed the 3 wood and it started out straight up the fairway,
    	then it started to hook severly toward the pool. I was bummin.
    	Then as I started to look away (to get another ball) the ball
    	started to slice severly back into play! It landed safely in
    	the rough some 200 yards away.
    
    	My playing partner and I just looked at each other in shock.
    	We guessed that ball must have cracked or split for it to
    	react like that... but when we got to the ball, it was perfectly
    	fine! After seeing the ball in OK shape , the only thing
    	we could think of that might have caused it was if it had a glob 
    	of mud on it that eventually fell off during flight? 
    	But I don't really buy that explanation. I honestly haven't 
    	a clue how it happened.  
    
    
    	wierd stuff,
    
    		Walta
    

    Last year on the 3rd hole at Richter Park. This is a par 3, 150 yards,
    mostly over water. Miss hit my tee shot, skipped on the water 3 times,
    hit a large rock on the other side, bounced up and onto the green.....
    and I made the bird.......
    
    Jerry

When a kid in Ct. I was playing a practice round for the state jr. tournament.
I was playing with a VERY long hitter that was hitting the ball 40 yards longer
on every tee shot. We came up on a 420 yard par 4 .. I hit a hard high shot
to the right ... it hit the paved road that ran the length of the hole. It
bounced and bounced ... and finally stopped even with the green.

Unfortunately, the ball was on the other side of the road .. which is out
of bounds.

:^)

	While my wife and I were on vacation in Scotland I had a chance
	play the Old Course and St.Andrews in a 30+ MPH wind. On the 17th
	tee (the road hole) with a left to right wind, I hit a big slice
	high up on the slate roofing of the Old Course Hotel. While we were
	walking off the tee (after hitting a provisional), a woman walking
	the path along the edge of the course informed me that the ball had
	bounced off the building back into the center of the fairway.

Tom

    On the 4th hole at George Wright (150 yd Par 3) I watched someone in
    the group in front of me hit his tee shot onto a cart path to the right
    of the green.  The ball took a huge bounce left INTO the hole!  How's
    that for an ace.
    
    Dan

    A few years ago I had just finished a very forgettable front nine. My
    mood was sour as I teed up my shot on the 10th hole. During the swing I
    came in under the ball. I caught the ball *just* enough to pop it straight 
    up in the air about 5 inches and have the ball land right next to the tee.
    
    My friends burst out laughing after I stood there in disbelief. It was
    really funny, but only after the fact... 8^)
    
    
    Tim
                                 

a couple more ... I didn't see this one, but the 3rd hole at Manchester
CC (in Bedford, NH) is about a 210 yard long par 3. Sometimes not enough
attention is given to those teeing off when they have been waved to hit
up to the green, since many can't reach the green. And even when they
do, the ball is usually rolling. Well, a few years back a ball actually
hit someone on the green in the head! And ... it went in the hole! The
guy that was hit was somehow not hurt.


I started playing in the late 60's when solid balls were just starting
to come out. Let's say that it took a few years before they got it right.
On one par 5 I killed a 3 wood ... only to look up and see the ball split
in two about 50 yards off my club!

A happy ending to hitting a bird in flight ... I was playing Stowe Acres
in Mass years ago. On the last hole, I killed a drive .. it hit a bird
about 100 or so yards off the tee. All I saw was a puff of feathers, the
bird dropped about 20 feet ... and flew away! When I walked out, there
was a pile of feathers in the fairway with my ball about 50 yards past.

Then there was the little old lady that lived a few houses away from me
where I grew up .. she was reading her newspaper in her living room when
a ball crashed thru her window and bounced around the room a bit. She did
appreciate that I replaced the window :^).

    re; .13
    
    Sounds like what the pros use to do at the TPC in Cromwell when it
    first opened....seems there was a cart path on the left side of 18 and 
    some of the pros would aim for it to get MAXIMUM distance. If I am not
    mistaken they removed the cart path a couple of years later...this was
    prior to the major re-design of the course ...
    
    Jerry

.17 reminded me of one of my more interesting tee shots.

I was at a convention in CA which, to my surprise, provided attendees with the
benefit of a free round of golf and "anything you needed at the pro shop to
play".  Seemed a bit odd, but...

Well, since most of us were not prepared for this opportunity (didn't know that
golf was even an option), we needed golfs, balls, tees, and rented clubs.

No mind you, I wasn't then, nor am I now, someone who can "crush" a drive,
but about the 8th or 9th hole, I impressed even myself!  Stood up to the tee
as usual, took the "mighty swing", and heard a weird sound.  Looking up I saw
the ball sort of dribbling down the fairway; not unusual (...but it was 
straight (...but that's not the really strange part...)).

What was a bit odd to see, was the club head of the rental driver sailing
down the fairway, *much* further than the ball (...I do believe it has a slight
draw on it, too!).

From what I've heard since is that this was not an unusual situation...but it
was for me.

---

Others:

-  When I was *much* younger, I was playing with someone who also hit a drive
   into a large rock protruding from a steep fairway at the Stoughton C.C.
   The ball came flying back over our heads about 20' in the air, flew over
   the fence in back of us, over the road on the other side of the fence,
   never to be heard from again.

-  Just last week, hit a drive at the 8th at Sky Meadow in N.H.  Unfortunately,
   it faded into the large pond that runs up the side of the fairway.  
   Luckily, it hit a rock protruding just above the very high water line.
   Unbelievably, it bounced *far* forward (usually, it would just bounce more to
   the right, for a bit forward...into the water), avoided some trees, and
   rolled over a knoll, to within 20 yds of the green.  I couldn't have hit it
   that far on a hard fairway!  (The end of the story is a bit fuzzy: my wife
   maintains that I birdied the hole...I think that I just pared it...)

    At Bradford CC I pushed an iron far to the right of the green. There
    is a bit of a hill with some rocks to the right. Ball hit a rock,
    shot high into the air, landed on the green about a foot from the
    cup. Easy birdie!!!

    I get up to the first tee and hammer a drive right down the middle of
    the fairway about 250 yrds............weird.
    

	What's so weird, Pete, that it only went 250 yds!

    
    	Hole #5 at Sterling CC, MA.  Hit a 9 iron hopefully over the
    	water to a pin close to the edge.  The ball hit the top of
    	the red hazard stake at the far edge of the pond, bounced straight
    	up in the air and coming down hit the top of the same stake
    	again and then bounced into the water.  My opponent felt I should
    	have a double hazard penalty for hitting the same hazard twice !
    
    	regards,
    
    	walt

    8th hole, Lakeside Course at Juniper Hill CC. Playing about 147, I hit
    an 8 iron and pulled it left. Couldn't see it come down but heard it
    hit the cart path.
    
    When I got down to the area to look I asked Carl (grouds crew :^) if
    they had seen my ball. Yeah, it bounced onto the 17th green. So I go
    look and cant find it anywhere. Look in the cup and there it is.
    
    I aced the wrong hole!  
    
    Don

    
    	Which hole? Maybe the 5th , certainly not the 8th ...

    On Lakeside (read new course) it is very possible to hit a ball from
    the 8th tee to the 17th green. The greens for 8 and 17 are only about
    10 or 20 yards apart. I've even made the edge of the 10th hole from the
    8th tee before! On Riverside (read old course) the 8th is a long par 4
    that doglegs to the left.
    
    Tim (who lives within walking distance of Juniper)

    Yup, (the new course) Lakeside it is possible cause I did!  :^)
    
    I have witnesses and Carl the groundskeeper  :^) :^)
    
    Talk about mixed feelings, a hole in one but a terrible shot!
    
    Don

    
    Hi,
    
    Must tell you about a shot at Panshanger GC next to the 'old' Welwyn
    Office.
    
    A former colleague 'Alfie' Pollard hit the best Tee Shot i've ever seen
    in front of an on-looking gallery of about 30 golfers.
    
    The gallery were dutifully waiting their turn lining up at the first
    Tee when Alfie went through his pre-shot routine. (A long draw on his
    fag and a big belch usually.)
    
    A massive heave and the fastest downswing you are ever likely to see
    and the ball squirts off out of the neck across the gallery (Who had to
    dive for cover) one or two bounces off the clubhouse and BINGO the ball
    lands in the cold drink 'COKE' machine tray.
    
    He didn't have to pay 50p to get his ball back and finished with a 9.
    
    Bloody funny
    
    Slice

    RE: .26
    >On Lakeside (read new course) it is very possible to hit a ball from
    >the 8th tee to the 17th green. The greens for 8 and 17 are only about
    >10 or 20 yards apart. I've even made the edge of the 10th hole from
    >the 8th tee before! On Riverside (read old course) the 8th is a long
    >par 4 that doglegs to the left.
    
    Tim, do you mean the 9th green on Riverside? I dont see how you could
    reach the 10th from the 8th tee...
    
    Unless you are He-Man or used a potato gun !     :^)
    
    Don

    Don,
    
    from the 8th tee on lakeside, I have hooked a seven iron badly enough
    that I found the ball on the edge of the 10th hole. It might have had a
    cart path bounce too, but by that time it was well out of sight.
    Somehow it cleared the 17th green.
    
    Needless to it was a *ugly* shot! 8^)                    
    
    Now I won't go into how I found the fairway for the 17th hole from the 
    10th hole... 

    Tim,   OK I got it now. I was confusing the two courses.
    
    RE: Cart Path Bounce. I hear you. Or I should say I heard it! When I
    got my Ace off the 8th tee onto the 17th green. Definitely got a piece
    of the the cart path. Thats how the ground crew knew to look around,
    they heard the bounce and saw my ball rolling on the 17th green. When I
    got there he directed me to look beyound the green. Low and behold, it
    holed!  Geesh...
    
    Don

    A joker I was playing last week made a bags of his 2nd shot on the 11th
    a Bearna, and it went into the lake. Before I could start to turn away
    and smile to myself it bounced off a flat rock onto the fairway. He
    pitched his next shot into the bunker though :-)
    
    Kevin

	Last Saturday on the seventh green at Groton CC my friend was on
his second shot in the 8th fairway, sliced his drive, about 80 yards from the
green. We were standing between him and the green next to the 8th tee near our
cart. He hits his shot and we think we are going to get hit, then we realize
it's going to hit the cart, then it disapeared into my bag that was attached to
the cart. First time I have ever seen someone 'bag' a hole in two! 

    A couple years ago a friend and I were playing at Southampton CC near
    the old DEC plant in Westfield.  We're on the 9th tee with the tee box
    set up on the left side.  My friend tees it up, takes a mighty swing at
    the ball.  It's launched out and to the left, hits a tree about 20
    yards ahead, dead nuts, and back into a 55 gallon trash can behind
    about 10 yards.  Canned it, so to speak.
    
    Larry