Golfers being aggressive to ramblers (1 Viewer)

Jon

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I just got back from my daily walk. This message I sent to the local golf club really explains what happened.

I would like to make a complaint about one of your members. I have a photo of him so you can identify who it is.

I am rambler.

He told me to **** off. I said it was a common and he said its owned by the golf club. He claimed I had no right to be there. I said don't you know the history of how this place was bought. He said he did. Obviously he is trying to mislead members of the public.

He started off by asking what I am doing. I think he was trying to say I was following him. I just did my normal rambling route. They were playing slowly and I caught them up. I kept 30 to 40 yards behind them to the side of the fairway so I wouldn't interrupt their play.

The disgraceful behaviour by some golfers is giving your club a bad name. A month or so ago, I had a golf suddenly step in front of me telling me to walk on the designated routes. He has no right to demand that and to become aggressive to a rambler.

After posting about this on facebook, there was a lady who also said a golfer was really rude to her.

I will be maximising the publicity of this because it keeps happening and something has to be done about golfers at your clubhouse being rude and aggressive to members of the public.

Just a little background. The golf course is also a common. Part of the agreement for the golf club to buy the land was that it has to remain a common.

Is there anything you can do about this sort of behaviour? Telling members to f off as they do their daily walk is hardly civil.

Jon
 

pbaldy

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Presumably the golfers know about the common, so bottom line there's no reason to be rude. From a golfer's perspective, there are a couple of possibilities: courtesy and safety. In golf, it is a courtesy for people in the vicinity of a golfer making a shot to be quiet and still. Ramblers (haven't heard the term in this context before, but it fits!) may not know that and be walking at the wrong time/place and disturb a golfer. Some golfers are more sensitive to this type of thing than others.

Second is safety, and the reason most courses here don't allow non-golfers on the course. Much as I'd like to say I'm in complete control of my ball, the sad fact is I'm not. If you're somewhere in the "cone of vulnerability" when I'm ready to hit a shot, it's going to worry me. Fear can translate to anger as anybody with kids knows. ;)

Since a golfer there should know you have a right to be there, they should politely ask that you be still if someone is about to hit a shot, or wait for you to clear the area if you're ahead of them and in danger.
 

Jon

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I understand all about the courtesy aspect. That is why I kept stopping at some distance from the golfers, so I did not interfere with their game. I was stationary, at 45 degrees behind this guy and about 30 to 40 yards away. That is courteous to me. This also means I was in no danger either.

Part of the problem is that the golf club is trying to obsfuscate things. The land was bought on the basis that it was to remain a common for the locals. Then there was something called the CRoW act 2000, where the golf club said that applied. They put up signs telling people to use the public pathways etc. But 3 different government bodies told them that this act does not apply. But they refused to take down the signs or the website they put up saying about what the rules of the common are. Essentially, the golf club is lying to the locals because it did not like the outcome of what they were told, even though the golf course was bought on that basis.

The clubs fake news link: https://www.crowboroughcommon.org/legal_documents

The opposing view: http://crowboroughcommon.blogspot.com/

Another link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...-widgetkit-gallery+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

From my perspective, the golf club is perhaps perpetuating the mistaken view that the CRoW act applies, even though, from what I have read, it doesn't. I think it is easy for the golfer to just say I have no right to be there, but then has a bit of a harder time when he realises I know the acts and history in detail. So then they squirt off and complain using a different angle.
 

Minty

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I'm a golfer and we have a bridleway / public footpath that runs across and up the side of part of the course, I'm a member of.

We have applied for change of use to remove the access, (simply as it is a little dangerous) but we have actually improved the signage and the direction signs as well as guiding some of the more "lost" walkers who use it. Part of the agreement to get change of use is to provide notification for a period of time(many months/years!) of the changes we have requested.

They sound like am arrogant lot who have no respect for the law of the land.
 

pbaldy

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Certainly sounds like you went above and beyond to be courteous, so they're just schmucks.

We have irrigation ditches here that have long had walking paths along them, open to the public. Some people who live along them try to prevent people from using the paths, despite the legal access the public has. I get it, you have people looking in your windows, but the ditches and the public's right to use them existed before your house was built. It's like people who buy a house near an airport and then complain about the noise. :rolleyes:
 

Jon

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@Minty Some of the golfers are really nice and say, "Good morning" etc. I originally walked past this miserable git after he hit a shot way off target, even though he was next to the green, about 2 foot away. I smiled at him as I walked past and he looked at me with hatred written all over his face. I only walked past him after he took his wayward shot. Then I carried on walking on my usual route, which was in the opposite direction to where they were going next. He was about 80 years old and in a golfing buggy, and so was playing so slowly. I ended up catching them up again as I looped back. When I started looping back, I must have been 500 yards away. I was hardly following him!

Anyway, I did point out what a disgrace he was and how bad his attitude was. Ramblers and golfers have to coexist. Both have equal rights on the common. Part of the problem is, they perhaps feel they have a misguided sense of entitlement because they paid to be a member of the golf club whereas I just exercised my public right to access. But that is illusionary. He has as much right to tell me where to walk in the centre of town. i.e. none!
 

Jon

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@pbaldy Where I live, I go through a gate at the back of the garden and you are straight onto the golf course. Those hooked golf balls have no right to come flying into the garden!
 

pbaldy

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Those hooked golf balls have no right to come flying into the garden!

In software terms, that's not a bug, it's a feature! You can sell them back to the golfers. :p
 
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Isaac

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I lived in a place on a golf course a couple years ago. In addition to the several balls that hit the window (which I didn't get upset about....just part of what I had 'signed up for' so to speak), balls would often go outside the fence. Often I was in the living room listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival and would see the balls and run out and pick them up and toss them back over the fence. I was actually a little bit surprised at how often I wouldn't even get a "thanks" as the golfer grabbed my returned ball.
Golfers.. LOL
 
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pbaldy

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Wow, I can't imagine not saying thank you if I saw you toss my ball back over the fence. Or maybe they were pretending they didn't see you do it so they could claim they found their ball in bounds and not get a penalty. ;)
 

Jon

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Just had a long one hour conversation with a local guy on the phone who deals with Crowborough Common issues. He says there is an uneasy truce between the golfers and the ramblers. He has a sign in his garden that states what the locals rights are for the common.

The golf club hates it, but they bought the land from the Earl at a bargain price because they promised to keep it as common land in perpetuity. But they want to break their promises.
 

pbaldy

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Maybe if the golfers "accidentally" hit a few ramblers. That may dissuade them from exercising their right to walk on the golf course. :devilish:

Kidding of course. A deal is a deal, if you don't like it don't play golf there.
 

The_Doc_Man

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I have the perfect solution. Have a black gentleman or lady ramble through the area and surreptitiously record the encounter. Then send it to the local news crew. Within days that club will either change its tune or replace all of its windows because of the riot.
 

AccessBlaster

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What exactly is a rambler in terms of golf. I've been to the driving range but that's about it.
 

pbaldy

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No relation to golf. A rambler is someone out for a walk, in this case on a golf course.
 

Uncle Gizmo

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A distortion of the Quote :- "Golf is a good walk spoiled." Occurred to me:-

"Golfer spoiled a good walk"
 
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Jon

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The golf course bought the Common at a bargain price from the Earl because of the agreement to keep it as a Common in perpetuity. But then they complain about it afterwards, trying to get the rules changed. They want X, their golfers and the club pretend X is a reality, but the rules say Y. Fake news at the local level.

They are an archaeic snobby institution that used to have rules such as: no ladies allowed in the bar, two memberships, one called the artisans for the working people, and another for the lawyers, doctors etc. But apparently the younger generation is less interested in golf, because they have so many other options. Consequently, demand for golf is on the wain and many clubs have had to close. That is what I have been told anyway.

Edit: I just had an idea. I am about 3/4's Welsh. I could claim it was a racially aggravated incident.
 

Uncle Gizmo

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If you walked across the golf course with some friends you could have an entirely sinister outcome:-
But then they complain about it afterwards, trying to get the rules changed.

It's usually about money. I'm wondering if there long-term plan is to remove common rights so that it becomes private land. That opens the door to the possibility of selling part, or even all of the land for development... You might want to look into the legal structure of the golf course and find out who would benefit from such a windfall. Even if that's not true, it would make a very nice "Fake News" story of your own, to counter theirs!
 

Uncle Gizmo

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Next time you're out walking across the golf course, take some fake planning application posters, you know the bright orange ones and stick them up!

Fake Planning Notices In Brighton Are Our New Favourite Thing (PICTURES)

Brighton Is Covered In Fake But Amusing Planning Applications

I'm disappointed, these would be much better if they use the correct orange paper!
 
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