[excivaamome]

I don't know that something like this falls under the heading of etiquette, or just common sense.

Here's a scenario that's similar to waltzing into another fairway:

We're playing on our own fairway and a group in an adjacent fairway are searching for their tee shots. Invariably, one of their "scouts" will wander near our fairway and when he finds his friend's ball, he'll scream out at the top of his lungs (usually in the middle of someone's backswing), "Hey Joey! It's ova' heeeyaa!"

I know to watch for these cretins, and I try to time things out so that this doesn't happen to me, but I see many other people victimized in this way.

That along with wandering into another fairway as well as many other intrusive behaviors is just "me-ism", selfishness, or just plain old inconsiderate behavior and that is something that's part and parcel of who a person is and has little to do with not understanding golf etiquette. I mean, think about it: you're playing a game with a few hundred other people and I'm sure you "get" the idea that each hole is a separate "field".
So to simply wander into one of those fields without pausing to consider that others (just as you yourself have been doing) might be playing on one of those fields is just an example of a person who couldn't care less that he's sharing the planet with other people.

If this person was some wide-eyed eight-year-old who didn't understand anything about social interaction, that's fine - he's learning. But for an adult to just walk around and not pay any attention to what's going on around him demonstrates a person who's in his own world.

I can understand someone who doesn't know the game not realizing things like putting lines or fixing ballmarks are part of etiquette, but walking aimlessly around the course and playing along as if he were the only one there has more to do with who a person is than what they may or may not know about the finer points of a game.


-JP