When I’m at the golf course or practice facility, I always try to do the right thing in terms of etiquette. I expect it from myself and am hopeful my fellow golfers reciprocate. But an event from last Sunday’s round is sticking in my craw and I’d like some additional perspective if what I did was right or wrong.
I teed off as part of a threesome and we were following a foursome that was playing slow but steadily. At the turn, one player in our group dropped out which slightly exacerbated our wait time on nearly every shot. At the 12th tee, we got caught by a twosome. Normally this would be a perfect situation to join up and create a foursome to improve the spacing and pace of play, and I actually told my playing partner that we should ask these guys to join us. But as the first player rolled up I noticed he was playing music, and pretty loud. I made a snap decision to leave these guys on the tee and we pushed out into the fairway.
If I was the guy rolling up, I would probably have considered my behavior rather rude and a breach of etiquette. In this instance, I just didn’t want anything to do with having to endure his music for the last seven holes or confront him about it. My angst had been peaked the previous weekend at the same course. I was on the 11th tee, which sits fairly close to #8 green. A group had parked their carts to putt and had their music going while we were trying to tee off. I was hearing Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” and couldn’t get my mind on my business and snap hooked my drive. (Strange choice of music, but that’s for another post.)
As I see it, I had three options:
- Do what I did
- Ask the twosome to join us and say nothing about the music
- Ask the twosome to join us but confront the player about his music
I’ve written before and we’ve discussed the issue of music on the golf course, and readers know that I am strongly opposed. What would you have done? Did I breach golf etiquette for not asking the twosome to join?
I don’t know why this is bugging me so much but it is. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
All About Golf 
I agree music is an issue that is becoming annoying on golf courses. And it seems those that play music often do NOT realize how loud it is for others on the course. It’s a shame. Anyway. I think it was fine that you just played on (sometimes we just don’t know how someone else might react to a request). If you felt comfortable, I suppose you might have said something like “you are welcome to join us but we prefer not to have music while we play so if you join us, you’ll need to turn off the tunes.” My guess is that they would have passed on joining you.
Thanks Catherine. I’m not sure why music has become so intrusive as of late but I suspect it is related to folk’s device addictions. The more you are connected, the more you need to be connected, and the more you are in need of constant stimulation. Something like that. Really is a shame.
Appreciate you weighing in!
Brian