CHECK THIS OUT…

I’m playing a casual round of golf at my home course, Dragon Ridge Country Club. On , the 5^th Hole, a 170 yard par-3, I airmail my tee shot off the back of the green. The ball trickles on to the cart path and is slowly rolling to a stop. A guy in the group ahead of us notices the ball, runs from his cart, picks up the ball and proudly shows it to his playing partners (hell yes, it was a brand new ball!)

On the next hole, as fate would have it, they wave us to play through. After putting out for my par, I ask the group; “So, which one of you guys has my brand new Callaway?” After a few questions and a certain amount of denial on their part, the dude who picked it up fetched it out of his golf bag. He apologized but that didn’t change the penalty I incurred for a lost ball.

It has been suggested by G-Man, my radio co-host, that the Golf Nuts modify the Rules of Golf. Here is his suggestion:

“How about that crazed guy in the foursome ahead of us yesterday who picked up your ball? I saw him chasing it as it rolled on the cart path and he was laughing like a mad man. He kept shouting, “Look Tony, It has two or three dots on it ".

Strange people play this strange sport eh my brother?

Fellow golfers should at least wait for a ball to stop before STEALING it. It's a show of respect towards the golfer who struck it. "G" Rule 17 A states that a ball should always be finished with it's initial roll before vigilante duffers pick it clean from the course and deposit it in their golf bag.”