Have you ever hit anybody golfing?

[Big C]

Yes I have. I hit a guy square on the jaw from 180 yards on the fly. It was a combination of bad decision making (took an aggressive line playing a "cut" 5 iron) combined with poor execution (I hit a straight pull instead). I yelled fore as soon as it left my club. The foursome in front of me who were standing on the next tee box all ducked and covered with the exception of one guy, who turned to see where the call was coming from. Of course he was the also the one guy for whom my ball was tracking. From 180 yards away, I saw him drop to the ground like a bag of cement. The other guys in my group looked at each other and said "he's messing with us, right?" He wasn't.

The good news was, the guy was able to get up under his own power and shake it off, although I could tell he was a bit dazed. The bad news was, my victim was a long standing member of the exclusive country club that I had been invited to play by a business associate (also a member). Although I maintain a good relationship with my member, I have never been invited back, lol.

[fr0sty]

Two stories:

In high school I took a line-drive to the chest from a freshman teammate. We were playing adjacent holes, both in our right rough. I was about 50ft away and not far enough off line and he pushed a 3wood right at me. It left a welt, but not too bad (kid was barely 5ft) and didn't exactly crush it.

A few years back I was playing with several foursomes down in Florida. The group in front had just cleared the green on a par-3 and was waiting on the next tee (directly behind the previous green. I completely overshoot green and hit one of the fellows in the back while he was ducking for cover in his cart. It was a glancing blow and thankfully no real damage was done (save to my ego).

[colin007]

I have no idea since my back was facing him.  The kids like to do Happy Gilmore swings and end up hitting balls all over the place.  It's a horribly managed range but it's close to the house.  I once saw a kid turn around and hit a shot right at his mother who was sitting on a bench texting on her phone.  He hit her in the face and there was blood all over, range was closed until she left in an ambulance.

wait....he purposefully aimed at and hit his mother?  im sorry, but i think a kid like that should be sterilized.

[inthehole]

Had one close call ... I was on the tee box & was waiting a while for this couple in front of us to move their cart.    After futzing around for a while, they hit their approach shots & I saw their cart take off for the green.

Or so I thought.

I tee off and out of the corner of my eye see their cart right about where it was after they hit their approach shots !!   SHIT.    I knew my ball was heading their way & hollered my FORE (which is scary loud) ... and the ball proceeded to hit the roof of their cart & bounce about 25 ft in the air.    I apologized on the next hole - but seemed the woman topped her shot & they weren't driving to the green ... only driving about 15 ft to set up for the next shot.

Lesson learned ... be patient - it's not worth hitting anybody...

[Ferguson]

Not so believable.   Come on, fess up.  What was your group doing prior to the incident for the front group to react as they did?    Maybe, your buddies were consistently hitting into them?

Nothing to fess up, friend. It was the second hole. All was good in the world. They were exiting the green and he was 265 yards out. How often does a weekend player nut a 3-wood that carries over 250? Watching that guy struggling to find anything he could to throw at my friend is etched in my memory as one of the funniest things ever. When he finally took that first ball out and threw it right at him, we all ducked like it was some kind of weapon. The guy’s leg was a little red but nothing serious. Thinking about it now, it was hysterical. VICE VERSA TO YOU!

[phan52]

Never hit anybody but I was hit once when caddying, right on the forearm on the fly from another fairway. Lumped up good and eventually turned purple but luckily it didn't break anything. Hurt like hell. Guy never yelled fore.

A good story though is when one of our playing partners hit my brother. My bro is a very sociable animal and engages other players on the course all the time. He was walking at least 100 yards in front of us and was calling over and chatting with the group on the adjacent fairway. One of our playing partners had a dicey lie in a fairway bunker and he hit it thin, a pulled, screaming line drive right at my brother. Fortunately it bounced first but it hit him square on the back of his head. Our playing partner was beside himself, thinking he killed him but he wasn't hurt, just a little stunned. I felt bad for the guy who hit him as he was inconsolable, but when we got up near the green I told my brother that it was really his fault because he was walking so far in front of us and not paying attention. He went ballistic on me, shouting about how he was the one who got hit, how could it be HIS fault? There were two balls in a greenside bunker next to each other and the guy who hit my brother asked which one was his. My brother said, "The one with the blood on it", and that broke the ice.

It was still his fault.

[mtthwdrn]

I've been hit twice, both times while I was working on a course as course maintaince. First time was the funnier of the two, I was parked under some trees waiting for a foursome to tee off. The first three landed on the fairway about ten yards in front of me. The last guy must have hit a superb banana slice and directly into the trees around me. Those trees were fortyish feet tall and he put his drive into the very top of them. I heard the ball bouncing from branch to branch then it dropped directly onto the top of my head. The guy next to me said that it bounced a full three feet of my head and it ended up in a favorable lie. I was holding my head and trying to walk that off when the member pulled up in his cart. Poor guy didn't even know we were there. He went back to the club and got me an ice pack. Second one was off the same tee, I couldn't move my equipment any further away and this guy got pissed and as I'm getting off the machine he hits his tee shot. It got me in the solidly in the ribs. That bruise lasted a long time. I haven't hit anyone though. If the possibility is there then I'll wait.

[dfreuter415]

Here is a 29 second video of a moron getting hit by a golf ball. Is it real? I don't know, but if it isn't there are some pretty good special effects!

[newtogolf]

wait....he purposefully aimed at and hit his mother?  im sorry, but i think a kid like that should be sterilized.

Yes, he turned around so he was facing his mother not the range and swung away, she was about 8' away from her.  I'd guess he was around 10 years old and a very bad golfer so I doubt he thought he could aim and actually hit her but he did.

[Ernest Jones]

[QUOTE name="colin007" url="/t/81029/have-you-ever-hit-anybody-golfing/0_30#post_1121068"]   wait....he purposefully aimed at and hit his mother?  im sorry, but i think a kid like that should be sterilized. [/QUOTE] Yes, he turned around so he was facing his mother not the range and swung away, she was about 8' away from her.  I'd guess he was around 10 years old and a very bad golfer so I doubt he thought he could aim and actually hit her but he did.

Great key 5 work.

[RH31]

I hit a guy in the forehead.

I was teeing off on a par5 with a slight dogleg left. There was a willow tree that blocked the edge view of a large fairway bunker that guarded the inside turn of the hole i was playing. We were playing the blues tees that day so I assume the guy I hit did not see us teeing off and proceeded to try and play his ball from this bunker as he was playing the next hole that ran parallel. Anyway, I hit drive really hard but it starts straight and then starts hooking. Everyone in my group kind of crouches down to try and see where my drive is going to end up when we see a pair of legs in the bunker....FORE....

The guy looked up and it caught him right between the eyes. He was still down in the bunker when we got to him. We tried to tell the guy we could not see him from the tee, bought his group drinks, etc., he was pretty pissed about it.

[bkuehn1952]

...One of my buddies (our group’s long hitter) went for a par-5 in two, we were back about 265 but he nailed it and he yelled fore right after he made contact. The entire group ahead of us, just walking of the green heard FORE and reacted like it was air raid. They threw all of their clubs in the air and hit the deck covering up their heads. It bounced on the front fringe and then nailed one of the guys on the fatty part of this right thigh – nothing serious. These guys stayed near the green as we approached. We sensed trouble. When we got to the green, all of them came running over yelling at us. We were apologizing and trying to deflate the situation. During the argument the guy who was hit in the thigh took two golf balls ball from his pocket and threw at my buddy. Hitting him once on the arm and once on the chest. Of course, we were seconds away from brawl when a third group came over from another hole and helped to break it up...

Can we all agree that if one is capable of flying a shot to the front  of a green, hitting while the other group is in the vicinity is wrong and not funny?  Can we also agree that unless one is the person hit by a golf ball on a one hop, that judging the hit as "nothing serious" is really the other person's call?  Finally, if I had been so foolish as to hit into the group, I would have immediately trotted up to them, made my profuse apologies and taken whatever tongue lashing I deserved.  Trying to turn this bad conduct by your friend into a "funny" story is not appropriate.

[Fairway_CY]

Luckily, I have not hit anybody, nor have I been hit (yet).  I'm very cautious on the course because, well... if I died on the course by being hit... my wife would bring me back to life to kill me again.

Seriously though... I have only seen one person get hit.  My buddy and I were on a course back in the summer between our junior and senior year in high school.  The course was sort of crowded in the sense that there wasn't much separating holes.

We were on the tee of a long par 3 (about 230 yards) and my buddy decided to hit his 3 wood off the tee.  The previous hole runs parallel to this one, and just as he was at the top of his backswing, an older guy from the previous hole steps out from behind a stand of trees to find his ball.  I tried to say something, but it just managed to distract my friend who then hit a low screaming slice right into this guys chest.

It knocked him off his feet and took the breath from his lungs.  We sprinted up to him and he was pounding his fist into the ground.  He managed to catch his breath by the time his playing partners arrived.  They were, of course, pissed at us... but he quickly told them it was his fault.  He hadn't even bothered to look to see if someone was on the tee before walking out from behind the trees.

It was a scary scenario.  We were young and petrified we were going to be kicked off the course, or worse.  Luckily, the guy was fine, save for a giant ball mark bruise on his chest.  A foot or so higher and it could have been a much different result.

The closest I've come to being hit was actually when I was on an executive course with my son.  We had just arrived to a tee and I was putting my tee in the ground when a ball whizzed by my ear from another fairway, it smashed into a small rock wall behind me and ricocheted into our cart.  Not a word was said from anywhere.  A minute or so later, a guy came towards the tee asking if we'd seen his ball.  I glared at him and let him know he had almost hit me and he replied with... "so, is it over here?".  Dunce!

I've heard some horror stories from people who have hit others.  I hope, with everything in me, that I never have to go through that.

CY

[djfajt71]

I've never been hit, or hit anyone.  But, my buddy and I were teeing off on the first hole at one of our local courses outside of Pittsburgh.  This was about 25 years ago and I was a banana slicer at that time.  I set up on the extreme right side of the teebox and aimed about 45 degrees left.  Well the ball came off my club, hit the tee marker, flew backwards about 75 yards and hit my buddy's windshield.  There was a nice crack in it!  I won most of the skins that day, but I had to pay for the windshield!

[tlester3672]

I hit someone for the first time last year.  My normal draw off the tee had turned into a hook for most of the day and I was getting tired of it.  I told my playing partner that I guaranteed this ball was not going to hook.  I proceeded to slice the ball over into another fairway.  When I got to my ball, I looked at the next shot that I was facing.  I was having a hard time deciding which club to use as I am not normally playing this hole from that fairway.  I had a very large tree about 50-60 yards in front of me.  I have a low to mid ball flight.  I selected my eight iron and got ready to fire away when I noticed movement in my peripheral vision to my right.  A cart pulled up to the top of the hill at the seniors tee box.  This was probably around 150 yards away.  I assumed it was a couple of seniors getting ready to tee off.  They stayed in their cart, as I was in their fairway, so I let it rip.  I absolutely murdered that eight iron.  Hit it as well as I could ever imagine hitting one.  Only problem has that one limb at the very top of that tree that jumped in the way.  I saw it hit the limb and lost sight of it.  Next thing I notice is movement to my right again.  I see the ball, rolling past where the cart I noticed earlier was sitting.  Then I noticed that one of the people was out of the cart and jumping around holding his leg.  I drove over and found that it wasn't some seniors waiting to tee of but some guys I knew my age who had already teed of and was waiting for me to clear the fairway.  The guy jumping around was known to be a jokester, so I called his bluff.  I said there was no way I could have hit him.  He kept saying that I did, but had his hand covering his knee.  After a bunch of "no, I didn'ts" and "yes, you dids" he pulled his hand away and there was an black knot about the size of an apple on his kneecap.  If I hit another 100 billion balls, there is no way I could replicate that shot.  It had taken a 45 degree turn from it's original path and hit this guy in the kneecap who was leaning back in his seat to the point his knee was just barely outside the cart.  Now every time he sees me on the course, he is looking for cover.

[HastyElephant]

I was around 8 or 9 as well, when I was on the range with my friend who was less experienced in golf than myself. He was hitting my clubs and I was eagerly watching him from the club side and just slightly in front of him. He proceeded to hit a shank that landed right between the eyes. It knocked me to the ground and I was quite dizzy for a minute or two. I had a lump on my forehead that turned every color in the book from yellow to black for the next two weeks. Lesson learned about standing "slightly in front" of people while they are hitting.

[fr0sty]

One other story. I was maybe eight and I was teaching my brother who would have been six how to golf. I set him up to swing (standing behind him) and took a step back to let him try. He came round and caught me square in the forehead on the follow through. Got seven stitches out of that. Good times.

[Rick Martin]

Today I was practicing on the range at my local course.  I was working on short wedges shots, which I tend to mishit.  I took one shot and it shanked off the hosel and it went flying right.  I never really saw the ball but knew it wasnt good.  As I looked over to the right I saw a women get hit square in the head.  I knew it was my shot. She went straight down to the ground...

I went over to see her and she was covered in blood but was sitting up and talking.  She kept saying she was ok and to not worry about it.  Her friend was with her, luckily, and they put a bandage around her head and drove off to the hospital.  I asked if there was anything I could do and they said no but i still feel awful about it.

Has anybody else had any other experiences like this?

did you give her your watch and sign your glove and give it to her?