I’ve been on quite a few golf courses, and I’ve never heard anyone shout “Fore!”. I have had a golf ball fly past me in a dangerous manner before. But maybe the protagonist who launched the ball in my directlion was too ashamed to admit that it was he/she who aimed it. Or maybe they’re just not very polite.

Are you supposed to shout “fore” to warn people they are about to die? And if you did shout it - what’s the likelyhood that they would look up in time, see where the ball was coming from and be able to react in time to dodge it?

In my experience, golf balls fly pretty fast, and they’re small - and most golfers are old. My bet would be that shouting “fore” from 300 yards away would be unlikely to have much effect.

Why are you supposed to shout the word “fore” anyway? What does it mean? Wouldn’t it be more effective to shout “Watch out!”, “Ball ahoy!” or “Get the f**k out the way, you old codger!”?

Actually, I’ve just thought of an invention. Maybe I should patent it before I tell you. Just remember you heard it here first, yeah? Why not make all the balls emit a strange sound as they fly towards you? Obviously the sound would have to be pretty unique. And they’d have to find a way to make sound travel faster than the speed of the ball, preferably in the exact direction of the ball, so that golfers in the immediate flightpath only would get the blast of noise and have time to react. Cool idea, eh?

In fact, that opens up a whole new market for golf balls with ‘ringtones’. When you go and choose your balls, instead of just going by the brand, like Calloway etc, you also check what sound it makes as it whistles though the air. You could be identified by the sound your balls make. Obviously ball sounds are a fashion statement as well, so you’d have to change your balls pretty regularly to ensure that you still appear trendy to all your golfing buddies.