[sherrferris]

If I'm near someone who is playing a shot on another hole, I will usually stop and wait for them to play. But most people do not like the idea of having an audience, so 95% of the time, they'll see me do that and say something like, "That's OK, just keep goin'" and I give them a nod and move away quickly.

As far as the overall picture goes, there are lots of people on a golf course and not all of them are aware of their surroundings, or care about such things as courtesy, just as I'd encounter anywhere else in the world. From time to time, I get annoyed by the noise that others make, but over the years I've learned to anticipate such things and I try to "see it coming" whenever I can and either speed up or slow down a bit so that our audio paths don't cross.

As far as respect is concerned, you get what you give. "Demanding" respect is a dicey situation because most of the things that people do on a golf course are not meant to be disrespectful and I doubt that most even realize that what they do or say affects someone else at all. So, the idea of getting in someone's grill about such things is something that needs to be addressed on a situational basis and only if it's excessive. For me to actually drive or walk to a tee or green or another fairway to confront someone over such things would have to be the result of one helluva distracting thing.

Besides, when I'm on a golf course, I get so into what I'm doing that most of the time I wouldn't notice a missile attack anyway, so something like one guy yelling to another usually falls on deaf ears. Not to mention the fact that if I'm obsessing over what other people are doing then that means I'm not concentrating on what I'm doing and when it comes to golf, that's never a good thing and it usually means I'm losing my focus.



-JP