Safety on the course extremely important

When a non-enemy is wrongly shot at due to misidentification or poor marksmanship, it is referred to a “friendly fire.”

There have been a few victims of friendly fire on the Kenyan golf scene.

Speaking to a few of the victims, I have learnt that friendly fire isn’t exactly friendly!

The injuries range from dimpled swellings on the arm or leg to bad gashes on heads.

The causes of these injuries range from shanks, hooks, or even bad luck.

At times, it’s just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

All the same, it is important to shout “fore” (or “ball” if like me you learnt the game from a caddie) if you happen to hit a ball towards the wrong target.

It is not uncommon though to find golfers very incensed when they feel that their lives were deliberately put in danger. Some have indignantly refused to accept apologies from the golfers who mishit their shots.

Here are two examples that I have witnessed in the recent past:

“Good golfer” from Golf Park:

One Saturday afternoon, a golfer arrived on the first tee at Golf Park and found several people waiting to tee off.

He took a quick glance at hole number four and saw a three ball happily walking towards the fairway.

He also noticed that the group on hole number three were nowhere near their tee shots.

This golfer thought that it was a grand idea to start at the fourth tee.

Since there was no starter on this particular day to guide him, he quickly ran and teed up on the fourth tee.

Before he could line up his shot, two golfers on the 13th tee called him to stop.

They had been waiting patiently for the three-ball ahead of them to get out of range.

Golf Park being a nine-hole course, the 13th tee is few yards behind the fourth.

This golfer had not seen the two who were on the 13th tee.

He waited for them to tee off and as they were walking toward the fairway, he took his tee shot right above their heads.

He was then completely baffled at their angry reaction.

His tee shot was perfect and it did not come close to the two golfers walking on the fairway. It was way above their heads.

“I am a good golfer”, he tried to reassure the two. “I knew I could hit it above your heads without endangering you.”

He was very puzzled at the “over-reaction” of one of the golfers who threw his ball into the water hazard nearby.

He tried to apologise but the two golfers would hear none of it.

Vet Lab’s “One-shot-wonder”

On the par-five 14th hole of Vet Lab, a golfer had a 300-yard shot to the green.

His ball had a very decent lie on the fairway and he decided to take his three-wood.

Since there were some golfers on the green, his intention was to get to within 100 yards of the green.

He hit a crisp shot and was very pleased with himself expecting that he would be left with a fifty yards shot into the green. Joy turned to horror when the golfer realised that the shot was going to reach the green.

He had never hit a 300-yard tee shot with his driver, and had not expected that his three-wood would be anywhere near the green.

The ball bounced a few yards from the green and rolled close to the ball of a lady who was lining up her putt.

The lady was so annoyed by this shot that she did not acknowledge the golfer’s profuse apologies.

Safety on the golf courses cannot be over-emphasised.

To avoid injuries, we need to take the necessary precautions.

Accidents do happen and they should be forgiven if they are mishits.

What many will find hard to forgive are deliberate shots towards them.

I have not had the misfortune to be struck by a golf ball and would not like to find out how it feels.

Let’s take care while out on the golf course to not make our fellow golfers victims of friendly fire.

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The author is a KGU Executive