What Was Your Most Embarassing Golf Shot?

Mine was teeing off close to the first tee fence [showing off] then hitting the fence and rebounding 60 yards behind the tee.
I think there was only 15 people watching.

I once toed a shot off our 10th tee which rattled through the car park and through a window by the gents entrance...I couldn't see any damage except for the window... I told the pro and told him to direct anyone who complained about damage to me... never heard a thing

I've also massively blocked a few straight over the clubhouse, which normally land between the practice green and the 18th (but can land on said greens), a huge call of fore is required, then the whole patio gets to watch as you attempt to recover the situation...

Teeing of on our 18th, my tee shot found the middle of the 1st fairway, about 120yards from the 18th green, I then shanked my pitching wedge, straight right and into the corridor between the Pro shop and the men's changing room, one of our members threw my ball back to me as it was out of bounds(very red face, put ball into pocket and walked off)

Playing in a Pro-Am on the National course at the Belfry. Shanked a bunker shot which struck our Pro just above his left eye.

We had to let two groups behind us through while he mopped up the blood. Now that was excruciatingly embarassing...

Having handsomely won a comp the day before I was basking in the glory waiting ti tee off at the first with about 50 people watching (having taken all the congrats etc etc)

Then I proceeded to hit a 4-wood about 20 yds straight left into a bush. There was then an embarrassed hush followed by my hysterical laughter.

I once saw a Captain so paralised by nerves that he missed his 'Drive In'.
He got the same reaction as GWR.

Shanked a driver across the front of the clubhouse. Ball bounced along the balcony and landed on the tee on the other side.
Highly embarrassing at any time but as it was my first shot of my round with the club captain whilst applying for membership even more so....
Mind you I have to say that shot was only one of many I could have chosen from.

Mine was yesterday at vale Royal in the mixed open. Wasn't having a great day but managed to cream my drive on the SI 2 467 yard par 4. Knew I had no chance of reaching this monster in 2 as its steeply up hill from the tee and a 2nd that needs to carry a ravine. My drive managed to get over the hill leaving me a monster 2nd. I hit a great approach which was 10 yards short of the green and i was well pleased. My playing partners were struggling and after waiting for them to join me, I decided on playing a little chip shot to the pin at the rear of the green, but thinned it straight out of bounds. Should have picked up at least 3-points but with red face walked off with nothing for the team.

Diggers wrote:Shanked a driver across the front of the clubhouse. Ball bounced along the balcony and landed on the tee on the other side.
Highly embarrassing at any time but as it was my first shot of my round with the club captain whilst applying for membership even more so....
Mind you I have to say that shot was only one of many I could have chosen from.

How did no manage to shank a driver, was it one of those horible off set things?

Once I wtinessed a middle aged, rough looking, large framed, heavily made up 'lady' (you get the picture?) wearing what I would consider innapropriate golf attire, take an almighty swipe that, if it had connected, would have launched the ball about 400 yards, finely clip the ball which went about 2 yards, then proceed to say in the deepest voice you could imagine "Oh, FFS, it's gunna be one of those days again!!!"

It was a horrible off set thing Mac, as is my current driver. Actually saying I shanked it is probably being kind to me by suggesting that it was some unexplainable quirk of my swing for just that shot......as opposed to me just being a shocking golfer.

Diggers wrote:It was a horrible off set thing Mac, as is my current driver. Actually saying I shanked it is probably being kind to me by suggesting that it was some unexplainable quirk of my swing for just that shot......as opposed to me just being a shocking golfer.

Bloddy hell, talk about being a bit harsh on yourself. We have all had a bad shot so there is no need to totally trash your swing. An offset driver would probably be enough to make even the great McIlroy shank it.

No, I am really just a pretty awful golfer.

Diggers

Remember the average handicap is around 16, and that will be mostly players who play at least semi regularly. If all players who played no matter how often had a handicap the average would be at least 36.

So I would like to bet you are in the top 50% of goflers world wide.

When i was about 22 i once took the you may be gripping the club to tightly a bit to literally and let go off my 7 iron at the driving range, wouldnt have been so bad but the guy who drives the ball collecting tractor, picked my club up, then drove all the way up to my bay and handed it to me with everyone watching.

On the course my most embarrassing shot would have to be when arriving at the par 3, 7th hole tee. there was a guy looking in the trees for his drive from the 8th, he then stopped and waited for me to tee of, about 50 yards in front and 30 yards to right (well out the way). That is until i shanked my tee shot right at him, nothing worse than the short walk and apologies as he has a contorted face from trying to hide the laughter

I played a course on the south coast a few years ago with a work colleague. He told me to tee off on the par 5 8th while he relieved himself in the bushes. So I teed off and smacked a beauty 300 yards downhill and downwind, right down the fairway.

He emerged from the bushes, and then proceeded to hit it in exactly the opposite direction.

I'd smacked it down the 18th fairway, 180 degrees away from the correct fairway. So I had to trudge off in entirely the wrong direction, and hit a three wood back in the right direction. I was playing my third shot still 100 yards from behind the tee.

I really did just laugh out loud at this George

I also laughed at George's misfortune, sorry.

As a relatively new member playing in a Sunday competition I once topped a drive off the first tee which hit one of the kerb type markers on the road in front and rebounded and landed by the practice putting green. It's been pretty much blanked from the memory but I believe I "nonchalantly" declared it unplayable and re-loaded.

Memory also tells me I birdied the hole with the re-load but I reckon that's just an embellishment.

I also remember an occasion as a lad playing the first at Hounslow Heath when my pal hit the womens tee marker infront and it rebounded over our heads onto the practice putting green. Anyone who knows Hounslow Heath would not be appalled that he claimed it had hit a low flying plane!!

George~ you are in pole position with that one.
Would have been even better with more folk watching

Don't worry, plenty of people were present to witness my embarrassment. People on the two adjacent fairways were trying to work out which hole I was playing.

When we went into the bar later, I was presented with an Ordnance Survey map of the area by the club secretary.

i hit my nextdoor neighbour in the head once, he didn't come out with much more than a slight bruise.

wish my head had that much resistance to white spheres.

George
I remember playing parallel long par 4's and this guy appeared from nowhere in the middle of 'my' fairway taking practice swings and waiting for the green to clear.
He kept waving his arms and we could not work out what he was up to.
The penny suddenly dropped that he was a left hander who had hit his tee shot on the parallel hole miles to the right and wanted to play over our heads to the green..

George1507 wrote:I played a course on the south coast a few years ago with a work colleague. He told me to tee off on the par 5 8th while he relieved himself in the bushes. So I teed off and smacked a beauty 300 yards downhill and downwind, right down the fairway.

He emerged from the bushes, and then proceeded to hit it in exactly the opposite direction.

I'd smacked it down the 18th fairway, 180 degrees away from the correct fairway. So I had to trudge off in entirely the wrong direction, and hit a three wood back in the right direction. I was playing my third shot still 100 yards from behind the tee.

I witnessed something very similar to this. A group of us was playing Bowood down in Cornwall. My mate stood on the tee of a par 5 and thinned his drive into the concrete block that gives all the hole info on the ladies tee. It flew back behind us and rolled about 250 yards back down the hill of the previous par 4. He also had a 3 wood just to get back to the tee!

Possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen on a golf course.

I've had two "want the earth to swallow me up" shots in my life. Actually, i've had hundreds, but these two stand out more than most.

Firstly, in my earlier years before i played golf regularly, i went for a round with my brother at our local course. The first tee isn't too far from the clubhouse and is overlooked by the bar area. On the day in question, there we quite a few people sat up on the balcony. Almost shaking with fear, i thinned my drive straight into the ladies tee marker and it rebounded pretty much straight back at me. My brother and I took some rather swift evasive action and the ball came to rest about 20 yards behind the tee box. I think it helped the watching crowds that i laughed, as that gave them license to do so as well.

The second came just last year. Playing the 18th at Earth, a very tough hole at the best of times, i found myself putting for birdie from around 8ft. However, with the green running at 10.5+, and with a good score in the bag, i decided to lag the putt and take par...you know, give myself 30% chance of making that birdie putt but 100% chance of making par. However, i must have got a little tense on the putt and jabbed at it. It ran past the hole by about 6ft, then started trickling down the very fast green. It picked up pace and ran off the green and came to rest inches from the edge of the creek, now probably 25-30 ft from the pin. I then (as a right hander) had absolutely no stance whatsoever so i had to play a left handed wedge, with one result...yep, shanked into the creek. If memory serves me right (and trust me, i've tried hard to banish this one), i took 10.

Putting for birdie from 8ft and making cinqtuplet bogey. Not one of my finer goling moments.

theeldestboy wrote:
Putting for birdie from 8ft and making cinqtuplet bogey. Not one of my finer goling moments.

That reminds of something similar. I mentioned this on the old 606 board, so apologies if you've heard it before.

It's a Medal and I'm playing well. I reach the par 3 17th. I find the green with my tee-shot and walk off with a 7. I missed out on winning the Medal by two shots.

My opening drive just yesterday. A big queue waiting to get on the course, so I quickly took out the driver and thought I'd try out one of my new long tees. They don't agree with me.

I got so far under it that the ball when straight up in the air above me and landed in almost the exact spot where my tee (which I connected with quite well seemingly) was. I decided to never use those tees again at that moment...

sodhat wrote:My opening drive just yesterday. A big queue waiting to get on the course, so I quickly took out the driver and thought I'd try out one of my new long tees. They don't agree with me.

I got so far under it that the ball when straight up in the air above me and landed in almost the exact spot where my tee (which I connected with quite well seemingly) was. I decided to never use those tees again at that moment...

So have you earned yourself one of those nice paint-chips right on top of the driver? I've skyed the odd drive, and everytime i look down at my driver, there's a big dent on the top to remind me of it!

theeldestboy wrote:

sodhat wrote:My opening drive just yesterday. A big queue waiting to get on the course, so I quickly took out the driver and thought I'd try out one of my new long tees. They don't agree with me.

I got so far under it that the ball when straight up in the air above me and landed in almost the exact spot where my tee (which I connected with quite well seemingly) was. I decided to never use those tees again at that moment...

So have you earned yourself one of those nice paint-chips right on top of the driver? I've skyed the odd drive, and everytime i look down at my driver, there's a big dent on the top to remind me of it!

I have indeed, although it isn't the first and won't be the last! It was certainly the strangest though, I've never gotten THAT far under it before (and my driving is appaling)!

I do remember once teeing off on a par 3 about 9 inches from the tee marker and about 9 inches behind it (trying to find a nice place to hit from)

Yes you guessed - "toed" it off at 45 degrees and it hit the teebox to fly back about 40 yards

sodhat wrote:

theeldestboy wrote:

sodhat wrote:My opening drive just yesterday. A big queue waiting to get on the course, so I quickly took out the driver and thought I'd try out one of my new long tees. They don't agree with me.

I got so far under it that the ball when straight up in the air above me and landed in almost the exact spot where my tee (which I connected with quite well seemingly) was. I decided to never use those tees again at that moment...

So have you earned yourself one of those nice paint-chips right on top of the driver? I've skyed the odd drive, and everytime i look down at my driver, there's a big dent on the top to remind me of it!

I have indeed, although it isn't the first and won't be the last! It was certainly the strangest though, I've never gotten THAT far under it before (and my driving is appaling)!

On a serious note, a coach did actually explain to my why that happens. It's to do with having too much hip-sway. Basically, on your downswing, you're shifting your hips left (for a right hander). Doing this moves the bottom-most point of your swing arc to the left, meaning the ball is now on the "down" part of the down swing. So as you swing down and get to the ball, the top of the club is still partly facing forward (and so exposed to the ball), and in some instances this is what connects with the ball and sends it straight upwards. Hope that makes sense?

It does, thank you eldestboy. I'm always reading these forums because it really does help me understand the techniques and some of the more common mistakes I'm making...being a pretty high handicapper it's invaluable to learn!

My problem is consistency of swing -- sometimes I do exactly what you said there, but other times I get an excellent swing through...and other times I send the ball ridiculously right! Still, gives me more reason to get the practice rounds in..

Consistency is the bane of all amateurs mate. A repeatable swing is very difficult to acheive, even for the pros who hit hundreds of balls a day. Everytime a pro comes up short, or long, or goes left or right, the've failed to repeat their practiced and known swing. But at least they have a "set swing". I don't know what my swing really is...there are too many moving parts involved, and i don't have the time nor coaches to tell me. Controlling it all consistently, or even once, is nigh-on impossible. So i just try, give it a go - and sometimes get it right. And that's enough to keep me coming back!

Most embarrassing shot? This could have been yesterday. 4-wood (for safety...hahaha) which I then proceeded to top, off the heel (what the Hell happened there??) into a gorse clump roughly 30 yards ahead and left! Needless to say I was not a happy bunny.

Obviously hit loads of awful shots in my time but can't recall any particularly embarrassing ones. I do remember one boys trip down to Cornwall, 16 of us and as organiser, I was first to tee off on the first day.

Short par 4, 15 guys watching and heckling. Topped my drive about 100 yards into the semi rough. In a fit of bravado, I bet everyone 50p that I'd make my par. I didn't. I was asked to pay up in the bar that evening and in an even bigger fit of bravado, I offered double or quits that I'd get my par on the first hole next day. Bet readily accepted by the 15 guys.

Next day at Bude, short par 4 to start, good drive down the middle followed by pitching wedge to 12 inches. Tapped in for birdie, big sigh of relief for saving myself £15.

Nope, the barstewards made me pay up, a birdie isn't a par they said!!

drive4show wrote:Nope, the barstewards made me pay up, a birdie isn't a par they said!!

Ha ha, very true! 15 quid for a birdie though...i'd pay that any day!

sodhat wrote:

theeldestboy wrote:

sodhat wrote:My opening drive just yesterday. A big queue waiting to get on the course, so I quickly took out the driver and thought I'd try out one of my new long tees. They don't agree with me.

I got so far under it that the ball when straight up in the air above me and landed in almost the exact spot where my tee (which I connected with quite well seemingly) was. I decided to never use those tees again at that moment...

So have you earned yourself one of those nice paint-chips right on top of the driver? I've skyed the odd drive, and everytime i look down at my driver, there's a big dent on the top to remind me of it!

I have indeed, although it isn't the first and won't be the last! It was certainly the strangest though, I've never gotten THAT far under it before (and my driving is appaling)!

Blimey. I thought my speciality shot was indeed quite special - it's basically a 70 yard flop shot off the tee with a driver, but I haven't yet figured out a good use for it.

At North Berwick, I think it's about the 16th, there is a wall running right across the fairway, about 30 yards in front of the tee. It's probably about 5 feet high so shouldn't be an issue. I of course struck one of those drives that feel really sweet but come off the club a little low (this was in the days before 460cc drivers, huge tees and high launch angles), on any other hole it would have been 250 yards down the middle, but instead it caught the top stone of the wall, went into orbit and landed a good 150 yards behind me, back down the fairway of the adjoining hole on the way out. I then had to make the long walk back past the group behind me on the previous hole, and the group coming up playing the hole on the front nine.

Ray
That is the hole with the split green. I once played in a competition with a Pro who pitched from one side to the other, taking a rather large divot in the process.
There were a few members watching with fairly purple faces.
Mind you he did replace his divot.

Doon the Water wrote:Ray
That is the hole with the split green. I once played in a competition with a Pro who pitched from one side to the other, taking a rather large divot in the process.
There were a few members watching with fairly purple faces.
Mind you he did replace his divot.

Yes that's right, the green is like something from a skateboard park. I remember my playing partner trying to putt from one side to the other, then spending 5 mins in the valley putting up the slope to watch the ball run back down. Should have tried the wedge!