Closest Call/ Worst thing you've hit with a golf ball?

[Jonnydanger81]

I've hit the roof of a moving cart before, which wasn't entirely my fault as the cart came onto our fairway after I hit my drive.

My cousin totally skulled an iron off the tee of an opening hole so badly that it went pretty much perpendicular and shot across the practice putting green, barely missing 1/2 a dozen people.

Worst encounter ever was on a short par 4.  Course was crowded and the ranger was on our ass, as they always are at this course with anyone under 40 y/o.  I think the hole plays 288 from the elevated tees, elevated green with bunkers in front which is a common place to land your drive if you go for it.  2 guys hit iron, one guy hit driver into the bunker and I went last but I was going to wait for the guys to get off the green.  The ranger gave me some attitude, telling me to just go, so I did.  Of course I hit the drive of my life, takes a hop right into a guy on the green.  The ranger was screaming at me, telling me I shouldn't have hit if I thought I could reach, blah blah blah.  The next tee is right near the green and I went over to appologize to the guy, it really just bumped into his leg off the hop and we could tell from the tee he wasn't hurt, and I explained how the ranger told me to go and whatnot.  All he did was ask me if I made the putt.  I didn't.

[CoryMartin]

There was a day that we were hitting golf balls at my house in the rain. It wasn't bad but enough to be considered a light rain. Club was wet and grips were crap. I hit a seven wood, had the club slip and hit directly off the toes of the club and nailed by stepdad in the head...

He went down fast and I really thought I had killed him. But he got up and said it was okay, he has a super tough head and it just gave him a headache! I was so worried for the rest of the day.

Also I was hit by my girlfriend who decided to hit the ball when I was in walking back from being getting a ball she topped. Popped me straight in the chest. That hurt....bad.

[dsc123]

Originally Posted by vanpooten

Was trying to punch out from the trees, unwisely trying to split two trunks. The ball ricocheted off one and headed right back at me and hit me in the throat just above the center of my collar bone. Fun times...

This is tough to beat

[zeg]

After botching the 8th hole on my old home course, I decided I wasn't going to bother putting out and I knocked the ball away with my putter in frustration. Apparently it was more intense frustration than I thought, because I launched the ball toward the fence about 15 yards off the green. Unfortunately, it was chain link and the ball must have lined up perfectly because it didn't even slow down going through. As this is happening I'm watching the road and see an SUV coming down. In slow motion, I watch the ball skipping and the SUV closing... and then thunk, the ball hits the rear side window of the SUV.

Fortunately, the window was plexiglass so I'm pretty sure it didn't do any damage. Also fortunately, it was the time of year that I think the driver probably thought the thunk was something dropping out of a tree. I was a good citizen and hung around by the fence for a few minutes in case they came back, but they didn't even stop.

So, happy ending, lesson learned.

[Laws of Woo]

One of the courses I go to weaves itself through out a neighborhood. Houses line multiple fairways as well as parked cars just past a couple greens. One hole in particular, there is a house that is constantly hit with golf balls (you can see numerous dents in the garage door and siding. If you slice your driver, that house is right in the path of the golf ball, and as such, I've hit it a few times when I started playing golf.

I've hit a person from about 190yds, the ball one hopped into the guys gut. Luckily, he was a larger guy and it was a ways off....so no harm done aside from a sore spot.

[anthony]

I shanked a ball once and hit a guy I was playing with. I felt bad and was a little embarrassed as I didn't know the guy that well. First round of this year I mega sliced one into some pine trees and hit the tire of someone's cart. Last weekend I was getting ready to hit my second shot on #17 and some hooked one right at me off of #15's tee. Luckily they yelled "fore!". I don't know why, but my first instinct was to try and catch the ball. I stopped myself though.

[yatzr]

I hit a duck hook that hit a guy in the back once in high school.  I felt bad, but he wasn't hurt, and he got over it pretty fast.

The worst one I've ever seen was during a tournament in high school.  It was on a course that had several straight holes that just alternated east/west, and they were pretty close so slices would often go into the neighboring hole's fairway.  My group had a kid that was pretty big...probably 6'5" and 250lbs.  On one of these holes, as soon as he hit, all of us lost track of it in the sun.  We were kinda scanning the fairway trying to see it come down, when we see a kid in the neighboring fairway lay his bag down and then kinda fall down on the ground.  The ball had gone about 250 yards, taken one bounce, and then hit him squarely in the junk!  He was still sitting there recovering when we got over there.  He asked which one of us hit it, and we all pointed to the big guy.  The kid that got hit seemed like he wanted to get into a fight over it until he saw how big the offender was.  Poor guy struggled, but he finished his round.

[Anjew]

When I was first learning to play the game (I was maybe 10 or 11) I was playing with a group of my friends. I was teeing off, and one of them decides to stand perpendicular to me. I hit the ball solidly off the toe, and it heads straight towards him, hits the water bottle he is holding in his hand, which explodes all over him. Exceedingly lucky to say the least, because if he hadn't been holding the bottle, probably would have hit him straight in the chest.

[MiniBlueDragon]

My own shin last week.

I'd taken my grandfather to my club for him to practice in the nets (he has issues where he feels the need to hit it as hard as possible if he's at a range and therefore swings badly). I was trying to explain to him that the contact with the ground should be in front of the ball but he couldn't grasp the concept. As the area of ground in front of the nets is just patches of wild grass and dirt I put a ball down on the grass, put a twig in line with the ball and told him to pay attention to the grass in front of the ball so that he could see where the divot was and thus where the club hit the ground.

I aimed into the net, hit the ball and felt a searing pain in my shin. It then it dawned on me that I'd dropped down a good 1' out of the nets so when I hit the ball it bounced off the concrete base of the matting and came back directly at me.

Quite lucky I was in the way to be fair as there's a house behind where I was standing.

Other than that no close calls yet.

[xxsoultonesxx]

I hit a vanpool van in a park-n-ride one time. It was pretty loud. hit it on the fly with a pulled bomb of a drive.

[ScT1]

[1puttit]

I've hit a bunch of stuff in my long and illustrious golf career. A couple of memorable ones...

Played a 3 iron off the tee and hit a low screamer that never got more than two feet off the ground. There is a flock of geese in the middle of the fairway about 150 yards out. Caught one square in the head and he went down hard. Honked a couple of times and was dead by the time I got there. Left my ball in the middle of the fairway as the other 20 geese looked pissed and seemed to know I killed their buddy.

Just this week I'm playing with my buddy and a couple of guys the starter paired us with. I pull my drive left into the trees. My only shot is to punch out between two trees. As I'm trying to figure out how to hit the shot the other twosome is sitting in their cart in the middle of the fairway patiently waiting. Even though there is a decent gap between the trees I pull it left and hit the tree right of center. Ball shoots 90 degrees straight right, flies about 20 yards, hits the cart of the other twosome, bounces off the windshield support bar and ends up on the left edge of the fairway.

[Mr3Wiggle]

Originally Posted by 1puttit

I've hit a bunch of stuff in my long and illustrious golf career. A couple of memorable ones...

Played a 3 iron off the tee and hit a low screamer that never got more than two feet off the ground. There is a flock of geese in the middle of the fairway about 150 yards out. Caught one square in the head and he went down hard. Honked a couple of times and was dead by the time I got there. Left my ball in the middle of the fairway as the other 20 geese looked pissed and seemed to know I killed their buddy.

Just this week I'm playing with my buddy and a couple of guys the starter paired us with. I pull my drive left into the trees. My only shot is to punch out between two trees. As I'm trying to figure out how to hit the shot the other twosome is sitting in their cart in the middle of the fairway patiently waiting. Even though there is a decent gap between the trees I pull it left and hit the tree right of center. Ball shoots 90 degrees straight right, flies about 20 yards, hits the cart of the other twosome, bounces off the windshield support bar and ends up on the left edge of the fairway.

Did you charge your playing partners with a 2 stroke penalty for interfering with you ball?

[zipazoid]

My sister. Dropped her like a sack of flour.

[inthehole]

My wife.

I had a 75 yard or so 58* full wedge shot in.    Was focusing on my set up & didn't see her drive the cart up from behind me on the path to my right.     Right about when I initiated my downswing, out of the corner of my eye, I saw her step out of the cart about 25 yards up and to my right.     Momentary lack of concentration - hit a total shank & watched the ball scream about 3 ft over her head.    Took us both a few holes to settle down after that one - she learned a valuable lesson in cart navigation that day.

[Jwat381]

I've never hit anything worth noting, but I've almost been hit and seen a guy get hit.

I was walking from green to the next tee when I all the sudden hear and eventually see a ball fly just about right over my left shoulder. Didn't bother to yell "Fore!" which was nice.

My very first time golfing was with my uncle, and he saw a guy on another fairway who was hunching over as if he'd been hit in the head and in pain. So he took the cart over to offer a ride back to the clubhouse. Turns out the clubhead from his sons club had come off and flew back, hitting him square in the forehead. I guess the gash was pretty deep.

Edit: I completely lied that I've never hit anything worth noting. When I was about 13, my uncle gave my brother some old hand me down clubs as a gift, and we went to the park around the corner from the house we were at to hit some golf balls around. None of us there knew how to play, but I was 13 so I thought I did. We were about to leave and everyone was picking up balls, and I lined up to hit my last one. I aimed way to the right, and somehow managed to hit a screaming low hook (still haven't hit one to this day). I watched, with complete horror, as the golf ball flew, with radar-like precision, straight towards my dads... ahem... groin area. The sound of that errant golf ball hitting my dad in the nuts is a sound I'll never forget. Ever. He dropped the ground in pain, and I dropped my club and walked him in distress and embarrassment. My mum is the only one who knows the exact details, but I know it required at least one doctor visit. I'm surprised he's gone golfing with me in the past year that I've fallen in love with the game.

I did not mention this in my original response because it's something I like to try and forget about. I love my old man a whole helluva lot, and the thought of hitting him in the most sensitive of spots makes my stomach churn...

[The_Pharaoh]

Hitting a low screaming 7 iron through the trees back on to the fairway, I managed to nail my playing partner in the gut. He'd driven up to his ball in the cart and turned round right as I yelled, "FORE!". Funny that. He had one of the largest beer bellies you are ever likely to see and spent the best part of the rest of the week telling everyone at the club he had abdominal muscles of steel!

[mdl]

First tee at one of my regular courses.  Hit an ugly pull-hook stinger, hooked left through the trees into the parking lot, getting off the playing area before the giant fence put up to save the cars from errant shots, and smashed the window a new looking Mercedes.

Also, I've told this story here before, but here goes.  Playing a round at the same course with my little brother, 6'6" ex college baseball player with massive power and too stubborn to learn a golf swing instead of a baseball swing or to tone things down and just use his hand-eye to hit decent shots that don't go his max distance.  He absolutely smashes a driver about 45˚ left (he's a lefty, so a push).  A par 3 green is uphill in that direction.  A woman is sitting next to the green on the cart path in her cart, ball threads through the front cart posts, ricochets off her chest and shatters her wrist.