one of my local trails goes through a golf course, its a steady away fireroad style climb.
one tee is to the right of the track and on a bend with the green/fairway to the left. so golfers would be hitting diagonally across the bridleway.
yes all sports and walks of life have utter bell ends in them, as i met another yesterday,
he gave some abuse as he'd placed his ball down and intended to continue playing as we rode on alongside and past.
he said cant you wait, playing golf * * ***** **
we had been far enough away for the player just before him to take his shot.
As we peddled up we could easily have taken a sliced ball in the face, so far easier and safer for us to carry on and delay him.
i continued past and just muttered, its a bridleway right of way , nob head etc
anyone got an opinion on this. its a well used cycle and horse and dog walker route.
the vast majority of golfers are well mannered and say hello. although i've had other groups continue playing behind and further up at a different tee. balls going overhead.
Selfish people be selfish....
Perhaps worth a word with the club if signage not very good for both sides
I play golf and wouldn't have a second thought about waiting for as long as it took to clear the path. Last thing I want as a golfer is to see a ball that I just hit going anywhere near anybody else!
This guy is obviously a dick.
The only thing to bare in mind is that if you see a golfer hunched over his ball on a tee and about to swing, he may not be aware of you. You do tend to focus on the ball rather than anything else and if a cyclist appears during that process there's not a great hope of stopping the swing!
In your case, that didn't happen so I re-iterate the dick bit! In any case, playing partners should keep an eye out and warntheir mates. Dicks everywhere but particular hatred of golfers on here! Personally, I play golf to relax not pick arguments with other users of the space.
Theres only one thing you can do......
Bakewell golf course has a bell you can ring as you cross the fairway - never heard a moan from golfers at all. Be nice, say hi as they say.
Just suggest that you can all wait here and watch him screw up, or can pass and not see you screw up - which do you prefer ?
Honestly he would have felt added pressure and therefore more likely to mess up his shot if you waited, so unless the guy was super confident it would have been better for him to let you pass.
he’d placed his ball down
I would have waited or asked if he was fine with me passing, nothing wrong with asking him the question.
I play golf to relax not pick arguments with other users of the space.
If you want to do that you can take up fishing.
To the OP, plenty of idiots in the world. Some play golf. If you were riding towards him then it would be hard to judge where to stop and wherever you stop you'd be a distraction so best to ride on until you pass him. If coming from behind then I'd wait out of politeness and my own safety.
he gave some abuse as he’d placed his ball down and intended to continue playing as we rode on alongside and past.
I'd have waited or asked if we could pass. Often use to have to do it near me as there's 2 tees cross in a short section, regularly do when walking the pooch. A simple raise of the hand if they're a little way off to acknowledge you've seen them and you'll get a wave through or a hand up usually meaning they will take the shot.
We always let the golfers play through at Beau Desert. When you've had golf balls land in front of you or ricochet off trees you realise not everyone is an ace.
By the same token we've been waved through and had many a chat about MTBing and golfing.
If the situation had been reversed and the op had instead been at a trail centre and found some walkers exercising their Right of Way across a trail would the attitude be the same?
You knew you were on a golf course. You should be prepared to wait for golfers to play.
No golfer I’ve ever met would hit into that situation but there’s an expectation that anyone on a course should be curteous enough to wait if someone is playing unless invited to proceed
Wait until he's hit his shot in the hope that he messes it up and then (if you know anything about the game) say something pertinent to 'help' him.
"In this wind and with that flag position it might have been better to chase that one up with a choked-down seven iron".
I am with PP on this one. Stop and let him take his shot. Certainly in scotand under our access laws this would seem to be the case and its what I always do. common courtesy
so it seems a common sense approach works 99% off the time :0)
ps. its yorkshire that bridleway was their long before the golf course in 1891
I'm unerringly accurate with a driver when I have something to aim at, a mountain biker 250 yards out sounds perfect. I shouted 4 😉
Bakewell golf course has a bell you can ring
What happens if the cyclist rings their bell too?
I normally use it as an excuse for a rest, we have what sounds like a very similar track on Dewsbury Golf Course .... often they will signal for you to go through anyway.
We were once walking on a PRoW that ended up going through the grounds of a public school. As we approached we could see that there was some sort of archery competition going on so stopped thinking they would finish their round or whatever and then stop for us to safely pass. The footpath was obviously not used often as there was worn-in a path on the ground, just the sign pointing directly at the archers. After 5 minutes they still hadn't stopped so we waved our arms in case somehow nobody had seen us, after another 5 minutes we decided to walk around the field keeping as far as possible from the archers. Finally, they stopped shooting and waited, as we passed some snooty woman admonished us like little children for putting ourselves in danger! I'm pretty sure they were not used to people using the public right of way and just thought we'd turn back if they ignored us.
This has been discussed on here before, but a while ago.
The public right of way has priority - the golfer hitting his ball is crossing the right of way, in the same way as a pedestrian crossing the road, and should wait for it to be clear. The risk of hurting someone is too high otherwise.
I think I would be waiting. The purpose of the land is for golf with a public right of way across it. I don't think it unreasonable that the bit of land used for golf should prioritise golf with the crossed used when it is clear of golfing. This would be especially so if the bridleway is well used - in theory the golfist could perpetually waiting for the the next walker or horse or rider. In a similar way if I was on a public right of way across a farm I'd expect to stand and wait if the farmer was herding sheep across it at the time i got there. Common sense on both sides obviously makes both leisure pursuits more pleasurable.
monrobiker - you are 100% wrong for the situation in Scotland. Alowing the golfer to take their shot unhindered is a part of responsible access
You can only exercise access rights to cross over a golf course and in doing so, you must keep off golf greens at all times and not interfere with any golf games or damage the playing surface. Golf courses are intensively used and managed, and there can be hazards such as where golfers are playing 'blind' shots. In exercising access rights:
allow players to play their shot before crossing a fairway
be still when close to a player about to play
follow paths where they exist, and
keep your dog on a short leadTo avoid damaging the playing surface, cyclists and horse-riders need to keep to paths at all times and not on any other part of a golf course. When fertilisers or pesticides have been used, the duration of any hazard depends on the material used but should not normally extend more than a few days. Golf course managers can ask you to avoid using particular routes at these times. Following such advice can greatly help to minimise risks to safety.
https://www.outdooraccess-scotland.scot/practical-guide-all/golf-courses
Should have stopped and given him some commentary:
a prize goes to robinL :0)
it was the one on the right after the junction facing uphill oliver wood on the left, or down to right to haggwood and up towards whitley , as you round the bend.
The course in question will probably have a club rule about giving priority to passersby off that tee.
Dewsbury, you say?
Indeed it does...
Thought it sounded like that 🙂 - You don't get any problems with Golfer's on Yellowbrick Road ( Whitley Woods ) ..... why not go up there next time 😉
Used to regularly ride through Sunningdale and stopped when golfers were on the tee. More often than not, they waved me through - never had a problem, but there again, not many seemed to play the course.
thanks @martinhutch good googling skills.
@RobinL i'd already been up the YB road an hour earlier, never twice in a ride..
and thats reminded me, 3 pikeys carrying rifles in lady wood walking up the jumpline.
nearly had a heart attack, is it even legal to carry air rifles etc on council owned land
~Scottish access is often held up on here as an example that should be used UK wide. What many folk fail to understand is that a) your right of access is a qualified right - qualified by " don't be a dick" and b) with rights come responsibilities
Certainly in Scotland the golfer has right of way and IMO this is 100% correct. Pausing for a few moments to let them take their shot cost you nothing. Making them fluff their shot spoils their game
So if you consider the scots access laws to be a model then the way is clear. Don't be a dick, let the golfer play his shot
Riding through a golf course I normally give way to the golfers. The land is owned by the gold club and the golfers have paid to be there and the public are allowed to use the public rights of way so as I see it they take the priority.
But at the same time sounds like the golfer in the OP's case could have quite easily waited a little bit longer before taking his shot and the world would still have been all fine. Bit like when a car driver just HAS to overtake and can't wait the 3 seconds for that gap in traffic to make everything just that bit more comfortable for everyone.
Unless this happens on a regular basis, just chalk it up to bad luck and forget about it ....
This clearly isn't scotland, as there's talk of a bridleway. Therefore...
If the situation had been reversed and the op had instead been at a trail centre and found some walkers exercising their Right of Way across a trail would the attitude be the same?
If there was a bridleway in England, or indeed a marked walkers path or shared trail in Scotland, within reason (i.e. no picnics blocking he entire trail) I can't see that anyone would argue the rider should do anything other than give way to walkers. Perhaps not wait, but certainly not, say, send it over a jump above them that's a bit sketchy and they may not clear. Which is a bit tenuous but about as close to the golf analogy as I can think.
I read the OP and thought of Dewsbury GC straight away. Have had a proper bellend tee off over us riding before. Could hear his mate giving him a right earful about it as we rode away, it was a very unpleasant experience
I use a tarmac drive that runs through a (Scottish) golf course on my commute, and I stop if I see anyone lining up for their shot. I think that's common sense and I don't want to interfere with their game. Having said that, too many of them are miserable buggers that try to run me off the drive with their cars or tell me it's private property. I've had to involve the police on one occasion. Doesn't encourage me to take up golf...
