6 Ways You're Unintentionally Annoying Your Playing Partners

Back view of a fourball walking away from the camera chatting — (Image credit: Future)

Nobody goes into a round of golf looking to be an annoying playing partner – unless they're displaying shocking etiquette and purposefully trying to put someone off – but sometimes our actions unintentionally have a negative impact on others.

The next time you play, make sure you're not falling into any of these common traps...

Taking the flag out without asking

These days, players can opt to keep the flag in while putting as no longer does hitting the flag from a shot played from the green incur a penalty. But some players still automatically go up and take the flag out before people putt, without asking, when it isn’t even their putt next.

Marking using a poker chip

The idea of marking a ball is that another ball can roll over it and not get its path badly impeded, although it is always best to mark a ball such that it is not on anyone’s intended line.

So what is it with these poker chip markers, which stand proud on the putting surface and would most certainly badly impede the ball if struck?

Unsolicited advice

You may think you are being helpful, but are you? For example, someone hits their putt too hard and says to you as you settle down to play your shot: “Careful, it is a deceptively quick putt”.

But is it? Have they just hit the ball too hard and are simply looking for an excuse for their poor play? Is this green indeed somehow quicker than the others played so far? Or is that particular slope somehow steeper and trickier than it looks?

All this unsolicited advice often does is make your putt harder to play, as you now have all these uninvited thoughts running round in your head. Also, unless it is from someone on your side, it is against the rules.

Shadows

Especially on the green, be aware of where your shadow is falling. You may be well away from the golfer playing, but is your shadow falling on the line of the putt?

Moaning

We all play bad shots and we all have frustrating experiences on the golf course. You may be having a bad round and this is making you miserable. But don’t make it a miserable experience for everyone else in your group. Don’t create an awkward atmosphere. Don’t make it all about you.

Forgetting to watch other players’ shots

It can easily be done – you are worrying about your next shot, checking your scorecard to see if you get a shot on that hole, looking at the course plan on your GPS... or you have simply lost track of who is playing from where.

But it is irritating when someone playing a shot loses track of where it has gone, they ask around and everyone says: “Sorry, didn’t see it.”

Contributing Writer Roderick is the author of the critically acclaimed comic golf novels, Summer At Tangents, which was one of Country Life magazine's Books of The Year for 2024 and nominated for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, and Crime Wave At Tangents. Golf courses and travel are Roderick’s particular interests. He writes travel articles and general features for the magazine and website and compiles the magazine's crossword. He is a member of Trevose and has played golf in around two dozen countries. Cricket is his other main sporting love. He is also the author of five non-fiction books, four of which are still in print: The Novel Life of PG Wodehouse; The Don: Beyond Boundaries; Wally Hammond: Gentleman & Player and England’s Greatest Post-War All Rounder.