Turn up, keep up
Be ready to tee off at the appointed time. If you are late, you are likely to delay your fellow players and back up everyone on the course following you, and have the next group already right up behind you when you start your round. On the course, make sure you're ready when it's your turn to play. Check whether your group is happy to play 'ready golf'. Golfers want to be on the course for a good time not a long time.
Help others locate their shots
An easy way to make yourself popular is to have spotted where someone’s ball has gone when they themselves did not. No one likes hunting for golf balls, let alone losing them. In similar vein, do help others hunt for their ball whenever possible.
Be of good humour
We all play shots at times that vex us. Golf can be immensely frustrating. But don’t inflict your bad mood on others. No-one wants to play with a grump, or someone whose conversation is always ranting and railing about their own bad play. Don’t ruin someone else’s day just because you are ruining your own.
Compliment others' good play
If you're signing up to play a competition with a bunch of people you don't know, look to join up with those who've got handicaps similar to your own. This makes it more likely you will have a compatible and companionable game. They will relate to, and understand, your game; and you theirs.
Early in my golfing life I was playing a round with golfers way above my then-ability. On one hole I ended well right of a long thin green with bunkers running along both sides. From my angle, therefore, I had little green to work with. Coming off a bare lie, my chip ended about eight feet from the pin. I was as delighted as I was surprised. All my playing partners saw it: not a murmur from any of them, not even a simple ‘well on’. This was the pattern of the rest of the round – they occasionally praised one another’s shots, but nothing I did elicited anything from them. It made it quite a lonely experience for me.
If you are in group of wildly differing abilities, try to put yourself in your partners’ shoes. Everyone likes to see their good play recognised, so try to work out when the other player will have considered they have made a good shot. If in doubt ‘that’s your best one yet’ is a good, perennial fail safe!
Be aware of where the others are
This means you will not accidentally start talking during someone’s swing, or getting in the way of their intended shot – and this may be not the direct line to the flag – or in their eyeline, or treading on their line on the green. It also means you know when it your turn to play.
