[jeffwarne]

Hit once in a tournament as a junior(player hit it in wrong fairway-no fore)



 once as a junior when playing through a group-kid let us get about 40 yards past and ripped a 4 wood into my elbow (that one was not resolved peacefully)

once (1976?) in the groin by Johnny Miller on #8 of ANGC par 3 event. Didn't say a word, walked over chipped it in and a woman ripped into him that he should've apologized. he turned around and flipped me the ball-one of two Titleist 3's I got from that event (the other from amateur Henry DeLozier who is now a prominent Golf management figure-and was very nice to me at that event)


Once in the groin by a weak toe shank at a direct right angle from a very attractive girl when I first started teaching (was never able to leverage that into anything more than sympathy though )

As a teacher I have learned the art of not get hitting by a club (that only happens once)

[Steve Wilson]

Only once have I been hit.  I had gone ahead to check and see if it was safe for the other player to hit.  He struck a pull that was coming in my general direction and then suddenly took an erratic hop and was coming right at my face.  I threw up my right hand to block it and caught the ball with the last knuckle on my little finger.  And even though the ball was pretty much a spent force,  I can testify, like John Wiggett, that it was sore for some time.  Ball almost directly on bone is painful as there's little flesh to cushion the blow.

To my knowledge, I've never hit anyone.  Although there have been those myriad dead and unconscious bodies I've found my golf balls near.

[Pete Blaisdell]

     I've been hit so many times I lost count.


     When one officiates for 38 years at close to 700 events, it's just a matter of the odds.


     I will tell about the worse case situation.


     1990-New Hampshire Amateur Championship -Beaver Meadow CC (1899).


     Working as a Rover during stroke play qualifying, I was driving my cart (no top or windshield) in the rough between two parallel holes . Windy day. Player teed off and blocked it  heading my way. Never saw it coming. The player yelled fore but I never heard the warning because of the wind. Ball hit me flush in the mouth. Lost one tooth, chipped another and split my top lip wide open. Knocked me out of the cart, cart hit a tree and smashed up the body and suspension. I got fixed up by a dentist but the Club tried to get me to pay for the damage. That didn't happen. The Association told them to stuff it.

[Bill_McBride]

The one I remember most vividly was in a member guest at the Valley Club.  I was walking up the 5th fairway when an errant missile from the parallel, opposite direction 7th hole came sailing over the large trees between the fairways and hit the back of my right hand, which promptly swelled to cantaloupe size.  No "fore" from the slicer, and he wasn't very apologetic at the cocktail party afterward.   Very disappointing, we were leading after the first round.  I wasn't able to play after that.  My partner gave a valiant effort singlehandedly but to no avail, we finished out of the money. 


The other one I remember is a ten yard 90° shank from a novice into my ankle.  That one hurt too!

[Dave Doxey]

I once had my club almost shot out of my hands when it was hit at the top of my backswing.


When I was a teenager, I once hit the same guy twice in one round.  He took it amazingly well...


I saw a playing partner ricochet a fairway wood off of a rock ledge and back into his own groin. We told him that it was evidence that he was making a full turn


In a scramble while sitting in a cart, I had a shanked wood shot travel thru the cart, between my face and the windshield.

[Steve Lang]

   Once... 25 yds right of 150 yd par 3 hole, letting a single play through, took my eye off the ball for a second... hit in upper left chest, would have been fine (but scared) if only 24.5 yds right of hole!

since guy didn't yell fore... and I'm a big target... i kicked his ball another 10 yds or so right of hole...


.. and once by my own hand, a 2 wood ricochet off a rock ledge in Bend, OR, crack crack, unfortunately the second crack was off my cheekbone, ripping open a glob a skin under my eye, Bloody Hell on like the 4th hole... great stiching/suture job by the ER doc..  didn't keep us from playing BT, PD, and the OM opening though it was cat's eye for a while.. 


The Bench at BT #12

[Doug Siebert]

Wow a lot more ricochet and shank hits than I ever would have guessed! Sounds like the odds are best to hit someone if you're hitting near an obstruction and hit yourself, and the odds of being hit are best if you are standing to right of a bad player. Hardly anyone was hit or hit someone because they were out of view behind a screen of trees, so maybe the worries about that are a bit overstated...

[Thomas Dai]

Hit by shots twice. Once as a youngster when a mate shanked one (still have the mark on the side of my knee) and once when spectating at a pro-am. The am's ball hit/grazed me on the shoulder while I was watching from over a par-3. No harm done. No shout though. Am was a world champion boxer so I'm glad it was his golf ball not his fist that hit me!).


Hit once by a club, as a youngster, just above the eye, still have the mark, blood everywhere, when a mate, different one to above, took a surprise practice swing and clonked me.

Hit folks myself twice. Once put a tee shot on a par-3 into the cab of a tractor towing the gang mower when the vehicle suddenly appeared from behind some trees when the ball was already in the air so no real chance to shout, and secondly, hit a green keeper who was sitting against the base of a tree having a quiet knap or maybe a smoke. Never saw him until he jumped up, greenkeeper green uniforms unfortunatley camaflauge pretty well at 200+ yds.

Atb

[A.G._Crockett]

I will say in advance of telling the story that if this is a contest, I win.


2nd hole of a tournament round at a HS coaches convention at Jekyll Island I was hit in head/ear by a ball off a 3 wood from about 30 yds. away.  Flush; ball ricocheted 30 yds. back into the fairway.  (I won't even try to explain how this happened.)


I went face down in the floor of the golf cart in a puddle of blood; the top part of my right ear had been torn off.  (Think Holyfield's ear after Tyson bit him as a visual.)  Never lost consciousness, but it took a few minutes to get vertical again.  All four of us were certified in first aid/head injuries/CPR, etc; knew I wasn't going to die (or get better right away, either) so...


I held a wet towel to my head until it was my turn to hit, and played the remainder of the round.  It never did stop bleeding, but I was wearing a black shirt and a black hat, and I didn't really have a sense of how bad this really was until we finished and I saw myself in a mirror; dried, crusted blood everywhere.  During the round, I was so dizzy that I couldn't hit the ball especially well, but the weird thing was that I have NEVER putted as well before or since; I made EVERYTHING! My friend who hit me, btw, was just ruined; he thought he had killed me, and he couldn't play at all for the rest of the day.


After the round, we went to the ER in Brunswick, where, as it turns out, golf injuries are a fairly low priority on a Friday night.  When I finally got looked at, the ER doc tells me that I'll have to have plastic surgery with a skin graft from my hip because the piece of my ear was gone.  He wraps me in a turban/pressure wrap and sends me on my way.  I play the rest of the weekend with the bloody turban, and become sort of a legend in certain circles of Georgia high school coaches.  This was almost 25 years ago, and I still see people who ask me about it, or kid me about it.


Two final pieces of the story:
First, if you ever have the need for a plastic surgery appt, do NOT call your wife from a buddies golf trip and ask her to make the appt; that call did NOT go well. 
And second, when I finally got to the plastic surgeon, I told him that the ER doc had said I'd need a skin graft off my hip; he studied me carefully, and said, "Nah; that ear was too big anyway!"  I told him that there were a lot of other ways he could have chosen to say that...

[jeffwarne]

Completely forgot-At North Haven in Maine I hit a stone wall flush while trying to hit a full hard duck hook 7 iron through a gap under and around a tree and over the wall . Came back and hit me flush on the ankle-that really hurt. (captured on video so there is that)


Also hit an official's cart who was in the woods and the ball bounced out to the middle of the fairway

[Bob Montle]

I was hit in the temple by a doctor's ball and knocked out.
I'm told I dropped like a brick.
He was sure he had killed me!

His drive was in my fairway, and I was walking down the tree line between our fairways.  He didn't see me although he was only about 35 yds from me. He skulled a 7-iron and caught me with the line drive just one inch from my left eye.

Fortunately, my friend had just handed me his new sunglasses to try out.  The ball hit right on the hinge and completely smashed the glasses.  Although i was knocked out, the glasses saved my life.

He was on #9 and i was on #1. 
We were both shook up, so walked to the clubhouse where he bought me drinks until my foursome finished their nine.

[Bob Montle]

My brother will never let me forget the time my drive hit him.
The drive hit the tee marker in front of ours (painted rocks), bounced back and hit George in his family jewels.

He will also not let me forget the times I hit myself.

The first was when I was a kid, had the ball teed high and took a divot beneath it.
"Where did it go?" i asked.   
Everyone was laughing.
Then it came down and landed on my head!

The second time was this summer in a league event.
I tried to hit a five wood over a 3ft high stump about 15 feet in front of me.
Hit it thin and of course it bounced right back at me and hit me in the chest.

[Jason Topp]

Ray Floyd nailed me with a blocked drive in an exhibition on number 8 at Wakonda.  I think we were leaving at the time.


I was hit in the head sitting to the left of the tee while waiting as a part of a big backup.  I heard the sound and thought someone has slammed a club into a wooden tee marker.  It turned out my head was the wood.  It would never have occurred to me that it was physically possible to be hit sitting in that spot. 


I am pretty sure I have been hit other times but those two stand out in my memory.

[Niall C]

I've dished it out and also taken a few blows, although unfortunately can't claim I've been hit by a famous golfer. I can however claim to have hit one of my mums friends on the back of the head when playing with a cut down mashie niblick when I was only 5. I was so chuffed to have got the ball airborne. Unfortunately my mum didn't quite share the sentiment.


Niall

[Daniel Jones]

A buddy dropped a 2nd ball without realizing I had walked up to mine and bladed a wedge into the back of my leg. I dropped like a sack of potatoes. Thankfully he didn't catch it any higher on the face..


I hit Camillo Villegas's brother, Manuel, at the UF course. The team was gathered to the right of the 18th green as our foursome was finishing up. I fanned my approach, hit the cart path, hit Manuel..

[David Davis]

Nice stories but what are the odds of 3 guys out of this small group being hit by famous pros. That's amazing!


Howard: Mickelson
Tom: Billy Casper
Jeff: Johnny Miller


Since I've actually played golf with all 3 of you I kind of feel famous too. Cool!

[Charlie_Bell]

I was hit in the back by a pro at an LPGA tournament in the early 90's.  I've forgotten her name, but she was a borderline player who struggled to keep her card for long.

I was behind the ropes in the left rough about 180 yards downrange.  After the first player hit one 50-60 yards past me, I turned and headed down the fairway assuming that the others would easily fly past us.  All of a sudden I heard a loud THUD behind me and -- a moment later -- realized that the thud was the sound of something that had struck me in the back!  The woman must have hit a horrible low screaming duck hook, and no one was near me to alert me.  The pain wasn't intense because the ball had struck me below the shoulder blade, and somehow my back/muscles diffused the blow.  It hurt, but I know it hadn't hit my spine or cracked a rib. 

The ball ended up only a few paces away, and it was clear that hitting me had saved her from being deep in the trees.    When she arrived, she said nothing to me except, "Did it hit you?"  She then inspected her lie and proceeded to whack it down the fairway.  It was a par 5, and she was able to salvage a one-putt par with about a 15-foot putt.  I was at greenside, and she walked over and handed me her ball, but I thought it strange she never asked if I was all right or acknowledged that my now-aching back had saved her at least a stroke.

I developed a nice bulls-eye bruise in a few days, but that was all. Whenever I read about how the nervous system works, I remember the strange time lag between hearing the sound of the ball striking me and realizing I'd been struck.

[John McCarthy]

Nice stories but what are the odds of 3 guys out of this small group being hit by famous pros. That's amazing!


Howard: Mickelson
Tom: Billy Casper
Jeff: Johnny Miller


Since I've actually played golf with all 3 of you I kind of feel famous too. Cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrQxcBvnaeQ

This is a video of another member of the board, Jim Nelson, getting nailed by Mickelson at Torrey Pines. 

[Garland Bayley]

Never been hit, never hit anyone.


Close call at club championship last year as opponent hit a tree squarely a few feet in front of him and I had to dodge the ricochet, which proceeded to hit a tree just behind us squarely, and I had to dodge the same ball again.


Playing at Sagebrush the maintenance staff was working behind a flatbed truck parked 75 to 100 yards in front of a tee. My buddy lined a hot drive at them, and my well practice bellowing of fore had them hit the dirt, thereby in all likely hood saving a serious injury.

[Doug Siebert]

I wonder if the propensity to hit someone is increased or decreased by being longer and more wild? That was always my game, so by necessity I became particularly careful to be on the lookout for people in the group ahead who might be in the trees, and waiting perhaps longer than I really need to for them to clear out because I knew what I was capable of when I really got hold of one. Obviously you can still make mistakes, and if you wait for the entire area you could possibly hit to clear out, you might never tee off on holes with two adjacent fairways

One of my dad's friends I used to play with years ago was a very straight hitter. If we weren't paying attention he'd go ahead and hit when we knew part of the group ahead was in the woods. The people he could see were out of his range so I guess he figured he was safe - after he'd hit sometimes the guys would come out of the trees and look at his ball and back at us. He knew I'd be waiting to hit regardless so I'm not sure what the point was, but some guys like to get off the tee quickly. In my case it makes sense since I might have to look for my ball, but he'd miss like one fairway every two rounds and by only a few yards - I'm not sure I can ever remember having to look for his ball!

[JLahrman]

I wonder if the propensity to hit someone is increased or decreased by being longer and more wild? That was always my game, so by necessity I became particularly careful to be on the lookout for people in the group ahead who might be in the trees, and waiting perhaps longer than I really need to for them to clear out because I knew what I was capable of when I really got hold of one. Obviously you can still make mistakes, and if you wait for the entire area you could possibly hit to clear out, you might never tee off on holes with two adjacent fairways

Small sample size, but I'm fairly long and rather wild, and I don't think I've ever hit anyone.

I've been hit once, on the 12th hole of the Scarlet Course at Ohio State. Somebody sliced one off the tee on whatever the hole on the Gray course is that runs parallel. He shouted FORE, so I turned so that my side was facing the tee, and I covered the side of my head with my arm. The ball bounced about three feet short of me, and came up and hit me on the elbow that was covering my ear on the short hop. Barely hurt. Definitely would have if it were on the fly or had hit my head instead of my elbow.

I was playing at the Presidio in San Francisco with GCA'er David Tepper when he got hit. We were in some trees looking for my drive. Somebody on an adjacent hole sliced one into the trees. I don't think we were visible, and we never heard a shout. The ball hit him right in the chest on the fly. Left a mark but it must have missed hitting anything critical. Either that or David has a high pain tolerance, because he played the next 16 holes without mentioning it!

[Bill_Yates]

In 1983 at the Byron Nelson Classic, I was hit in the rear end by a tee shot on a par 3 struck by former President Gerald Ford (who had a reputation for hitting more spectators than greens).

I got his autograph on my program along with the signatures of Byron Nelson, and Jack Nicklaus. Not a bad day after all. 

[Matthew Petersen]

I have never hit anyone, though there have been close calls.


When I was young (10, I think?) I was hit in the head and knocked out by a golf ball. I was doing a junior golf camp thing and we were on the back end of the range. A line of trees protected that area from the sixth fairway, but also probably screened any view of us from players on the tee, who wouldn't otherwise expect people to be in that area. I was talking with an instructor, heard a noise and turned my head. The ball hit me just above the ear, very near the temple. That's all I remember until coming to some time later (I don't know how long). Think it was a one hop drive that hit me pretty square, though at least it wasn't in the soft temple.


I also had two knock out concussions playing basketball at a young age. Hence why I tell everyone golf and basketball are every bit as dangerous as football.

[Pat Burke]

Was hit twice while playing
One in the stomach, one on my thigh.  Had dimpled bruises from both, but I believe due to my
hockey conditioning (high school) at the time, the shots bruised me but didn;t hurt to badly.


I'm not sure how many people I hit while playing on tour, but it was a few.
I had a horrible experience at Hartford.  Double crossed my tee shot on 15.  Tried to hit a hard cut
to the drivable par four, and hit a hard pull.  Ball hit the down slope of a bunker and hit a marshal on the hole
in the head.  Knocked him out.  By the time I got there, paramedics were there, and he was out on his feet.
I was told to finish the hole, which I did, and then went back to the man.  He was coming around, and the paramedics said he
would be ok, but I was very shaken.


The next day, I hit my tee shot miles right (a bit of over compensation no doubt).  As I was walking to my tee shot, I notice
the same guy on the left side waving at me....and pointing to his new helmet...It was hilariously embarrassing, but it was great to see him out there and ok.


It's a sickening feeling to hurt someone.

[Adam Lawrence]

I hit myself once, very close to the left eye. I've told the story on here before, but it cost me a week in hospital. Thankfully no long term damage.


Other good stories. Playing at La Moye in Jersey a couple of years back, one of our group hits a poor drive into some crap. We try to find it, but after a few mins, he says, ok boys, leave it. We walk up the fairway towards our drives, whereupon he finds his ball. He then hits it, hard, low and left, and it comes straight towards me and another playing partner, about three feet in the air and going like a bullet. We have to dive to avoid being hit.


Playing at Princes with a PR guy and two other golf reporters, while the bunker work was being done a few years ago. Par five hole, all hit decent drives, greens crew is building a new bunker in the middle of the fairway. They have a mini-excavator but it's not going at the time. One of my partner hits his second. Three wood. Somehow it goes about 30 degrees left of where he was aiming, straight for the new bunker. Travelling fast. Hits the digger with a terrible clang. Greens crew leap as one into new bunker for shelter. Ball never found.


Oh also, cricket. Watching Yorkshire vs Hampshire at Southampton many years ago with my godfather. Sat just outside the pavilion with beers as visiting members. Ashley Metcalfe of Yorkshire smacks the ball in our direction. Hard, airborne but low. I see the ball late, shove my godfather one way then dive the other. Ball crashes into the seat I was sitting on.

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