johnnydoom
Funny story, and completely true.
A few years back, near the end of the 2016 season, one of our assistant professionals (Big Andrew) was on the verge of relocating to Florida to accept a position at Bay Hill. We'd played a lot of golf together over the past few years... great guy, former Marine, and a muscle-bound freak. One of those guys who can take his shirt off at the pool and all of the ladies take notice... and he's a great golfer, hits it a mile. 6-3, 200 lbs of just absolute stud muscle.
Well... we had a beat-the-pros tournament in the fall, where he and our stick-shoved-up-his-ass head professional (who not many members cared for, including yours truly) were the two pros playing together that morning against the field. Since this was Big Andrew's last opportunity to play with me and a mutual friend of ours - he personally paired me and my buddy to play with him and the head pro that morning. Best-Ball of Partners, only one ball counted.
On the 14th hole, a tough, narrow, long par5 - the prudent play is to aim near the cart path to the right, since there are woods/scruff and lost balls to the left. The fairway can't be much wider than 20 paces... It's a tight driving hole. And usually plays dead into the prevailing wind.
On my tee shot - I aimed just inside the cart path to the right, but my ball ended up hitting the path (which is usually fine). My ball bounded left into the first cut of the right rough, just off the fairway.
I hit a decent second shot, which again calls for aiming toward the cart path on the right, since there's a water hazard in play on the left for the second-shot layup. And the contours tend to funnel everything to the left, so again - the cart path is a reasonable target. And once again - I hit the cart path. I hit a 3/4 wedge to within 20 feet of the pin on my third shot. Everyone else hits. We get on the green, I mark my ball. My ball is seriously damaged, as in I can literally see the core of the golf ball. The cart path took quite a chunk out of my ball, as it landed right on the left edge of the macadam. I look it over, show it to Big Andrew. Explain to him that it's seriously damaged, I pull back the shredded surlyn cover flap left, there's a deep gash - exposing the core of the ball. He agrees. So I go about replacing the ball with a new one on the putting green.
The stick-up-his-ass head pro walks over to me, asks why I replaced my ball. Now keep in mind - they're killing us in our match against them. They're already like 4-5 strokes ahead of us, with only 4 holes left to play. We're not catching them. They both hit it well and they both hit it a long way. But the stick-up-his-ass head pro asks me to see the ball. I showed it to him. This was his reply: "That ball isn't damaged enough to replace it, not per the rules." I just laughed and said, "You can't be fucking serious. I can see the core of the golf ball!" But he insisted. "I'm just saying - that ball wouldn't meet the criteria of a damaged golf ball per the USGA rules."
I said, "Well... if I can see the core of the ball, which I can, what criteria does it need to meet to be considered damaged?" He said, "I'm just saying. The USGA wouldn't allow you to replace it in its current state."
I'm telling you - the cover of the ball was cut so badly that there was a flap that you could easily peel back and see the inside core of the golf ball. Yet the stick-up-his-ass head pro disagreed that it was damaged.
"You can replace it if you want, I don't care," he said. "I'm just telling you that under the rules of golf - you wouldn't be permitted to replace it."
I replied, "Well obviously you do care. Otherwise you wouldn't have walked from the other side of the green to inspect it... that's fine. I'll putt with it. I narrowly missed my birdie putt, tapped in for par, then chucked it into the nearby pond.
He was fired three months later. And upon learning that he was gonna be let go - he sent out text messages to most of the membership begging them to lobby for his reinstatement. Myself included.
I responded by saying, "I'm very sorry to hear this, but I can't help you. I wish you and your family the best."
So anytime a "damaged ball" discussion comes up - I think of that day.
Forgive me for getting off topic with a novel of a post. Only to say - we know when a ball is or isn't damaged. And we also know the difference between a good head professional whose goal is to promote the game and the goodwill between members and the pro staff, and those who just don't give a shit.
He didn't give a shit. And he's now currently employed at a public course today that most likely pays him half of what he was earning as the head pro at his former private club. All because he felt he was above the members who ultimately helped pay his salary.