Tiger Woods withdrawing from The Players Championship because of his knee injury wasn't the only significant golf injury in my golf world this week. I am in a golf league one night a week. The second hole was a long Par 5 with water along the entire right side of the fairway. Just in case my on-again, off-again slice showed up I teed up and adjusted my aim about 30 degrees to the left of the center of the fairway. As often happens when I try to compensate for my slice, I drove it straight as an arrow into the rough on the left of the fairway, but I managed to carry the large bunker. One of the other hacks I was playing with wasn't so lucky and ended up in the bunker. As I passed the bunker and began searching for my ball in the rough, I ended up out in front of the person who was then addressing his ball in the bunker. Since me and my cart-mate were well to the left of the right handed person hitting out of the bunker and about 20 yards in front of him we decided that putting the cart between us and the shooter would offer sufficient protection – big mistake. We were both standing behind the windshield-less cart when the 5 wood shot came hooking out of the bunker and straight toward us. We both hit the deck and I heard what I thought was the ball hitting the roof of the cart. When I stood back up, my cart-mate didn't. I went over to him as he was lying on his back, I asked him if he was alright and he said that he had gotten hit in the back of the head with the golf ball. I realized that the sound I had heard was the ball hitting him in the head, not hitting the cart. He was conscious and able to count how many fingers I was holding up. He said he thought he was alright but as he sat up I saw the blood soaking through the back of his hat and running down the back of his neck. I have seen people get hit with a golf ball before out on the course, but I never have seen anything this bad.
A few stitches were needed, but he was lucky to not have gotten a concussion or even killed. His new Titleist hat was ruined with a blood stain and he has a lump the size of a Titleist on the back of his noggin. It was a horrible decision to put ourselves in front of someone who was shooting. As the person who was driving the cart I feel especially responsible. Normally, I celebrate the joys of being a hack golfer, but us hacks have to be especially careful due to our poor ability to hit the ball where we actually want it to go. When you hit the links the next time-and every time for that matter- be sure to realize that even us hacks can get the ball or club moving at a speed that is potentially lethal. Use a little caution out there and everything should be OK. Well that is if you call shooting all those triple and quadruple bogeys OK. Be Safe and Have Fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment