Do Starters Hate You? Golf and Being Late

I'm not going to lie to you; I try to arrive at the course with as little time to spare before my tee-time as possible. I have to admit, this approach has gotten me into trouble in the past.

To make matters worse, I play different courses all the time, so I'm never quite sure how the course employees are going to react. I once arrived 10 minutes before my time and was grilled by the pro-shop attendant that I should be waiting on the tee 10 minutes before my time instead of just walking in to pay my greens fees!

There's also been numerous times when I've called the pro-shop from the road to let them know I was going to miss my time. In most cases, the courses accommodate my belated arrival by letting a few groups go ahead of me. But other times I'm not so fortunate - forced to wait (at least on one occasion) for more than three hours till the morning times had all gone off.

Stinky Golfer Chris (a self-proclaimed king of tardiness) makes me look like an early bird. Many times Chris will come strolling down the cart path to the first tee (much to the chagrin of the annoyed starter) just as the group ahead of us is about to hit their second shots in the fairway. I think I'll start bringing extra cash to pay for Chris so he can bypass the pro-shop altogether (don't worry, I'll make sure he pays me back; unless of course, he wins the Nassau bet).

This all being said, I rarely have time to putt on the practice green (much less hit balls on the range). Sometimes my greens fees include a bucket of range balls. On these rare occasions, I'll try and get to the course with enough time to take advantage of this freebee - but I probably shouldn't even bother; it never seems to help me anyway.

The putting green evokes similar apathy. If I show up with more than 10 or 15 minutes to spare, I will reluctantly pull out a few balls, extract my putter from my bag and wander over to it unwillingly. I'm apathetic because I know this will inevitably screw up my putting (after playing for over 20 years, my putting stoke mostly works from memory - any tinkering usually results in only short-lived success).

Anyway, I've been around the game long enough to realize golf and being late don't mix. Yet, my foursome continues to push the patience of starters and pro-shop guys everywhere. Are we bastards? Probably. But for the most part, we arrive with enough leeway to tee-off at our assigned time (stress and anticipation of when Stinky Golfer Chris will arrive aside). Is that bad?

So let's have it - tell us when you arrive at the course:

When Do You Arrive at the Golf Course?

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