Posted on 08/30/2007 6:54:25 PM PDT by SmithL
The California Supreme Court inscribed into law today something any weekend golfer knows - that hooks and slices are part of the game, and that anyone who stands in range of an errant shot is taking a chance of being hit.
Applying a principle that was first established in a 1992 case about touch football, the court ruled 6-1 that golfers, like athletes in contact sports, accept the normal risks of the game and can't sue for injuries caused by another player's mere carelessness or negligence.
But the justices also said a golfer who knows that someone is in the danger zone but doesn't look down the fairway before teeing up might be reckless, not merely negligent, and thus subject to a damage suit by the victim.
"Golfers have a limited duty of care to other players, breached only if they intentionally injure them or engage in conduct that is so reckless as to be totally outside the range of the ordinary activity involved in the sport," Justice Carol Corrigan wrote in the majority opinion.
Whether a golfer was reckless or merely negligent, Corrigan said, may depend on such factors as the golfer's skill level; what steps the golfer took to determine whether anyone was in range; what objects might have interfered with the view; and the distance and angle between the golfer and the person who was hit.
Lawyers on both sides found something to applaud.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Or in most cases, ineptitude.
Maybe golfers should yell “heads up!” before teeing off instead of fore.
They asked me my handicap, and I said it was usually the windmill.
Sandy: I want you to kill every gopher on the golf course!
Carl Spackler: Correct me if I’m wrong Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers, they’re gonna lock me up and throw away the key...
Sandy: Not golfers, you great fool! Gophers! The *little* *brown*, *furry* *rodents* -!
Carl Spackler: We can do that; we don’t even have to have a reason. All right, let’s do the same thing, but with gophers.
Back in the 60’s an errant tee shot took out my dad’s front windshield as he was driving down the road. The golfer ran out to the road, apologized and paid for a replacement.
It was bad for the trees, dontcha know...
I always say my swing.
No, it is “DUCK DUMMY”.
“It’s not my fault.”
The lousy golfers defense.
I love it!
What is the difference between a lousy golfer and a lousy skydiver?
Answer: A lousy golfer goes WHAP! “Oh crap!”. A lousy skydiver goes “Oh crap!” WHAP! ...
;^)
I'm thinking Neener Hijack here.
One time...at band camp..
I don’t get out to the links much, but one time I was out this foursome behind us got too eager to tee off. The last of our foursome was just taking his second shot, a solid five-iron to the green, when their first guy’s tee shot dropped out of the sky less than ten feet away.
My golfin’ buddy made his shot to the green, then changed clubs, dropped two fresh balls out of his pocket, and cleared the tee with ‘return fire’ from his “Big Bertha”.
We had a very quiet round, after that, and, “No,” they did NOT ask to play through.
I DID learn, early on, that it’s not always the guys down range of the tee who are in greatest danger. One course I’ve played has a tee very close to an adjacent road. They put in a chain link fence with 4” diameter posts alongside the tee to shield the road, and it extended some 25 feet beyond the position of the ladies’ tee, about 20 feet off to the side. Well, one of the guys I was with, on this particular day, toed the ball off of his driver stright “BING!!!” into that last fence pole, and it came hissing right back through where we were standing by the bench off to the side of the tee. Nobody said a word; we all just looked at each other. Finally one of the guys looked over to the guy on the tee and asked, “So, you’re takin’ a Mulligan?”
I love the ones that don’t yell that before they just play through. I have met up with some really rude ones. I always let people play through; but this one guy really made me mad. So I challenged him to a game and mopped the floor with him and I am not even good.
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