Ouch!! My Wallet?

[Jimmy The Pins]

Situation: Say for example I shank my ball to the right from the tee box. My ball is headed directly for a guy in another fairway, even though I call 4, it hits him directley in the head and knocks him out. Question: Am I laible and can he sue me?

 

[JB]

You can sue anybody...But whether they would win is another story. Most of the time, yes you are liable I believe.

 

[MO_Hacker]

I would be interested to hear if you are liable or not. Like was stated in another thread, it should be like a spectator at a baseball game, protect yourself.

Do we have any lawyers on the board?

Hey Jimmy I just noticed your avatar, very nice.

 

[Harry Longshanks]

There was an article somewhere this week about this very issue. I can't remember where I saw it (Golf, CNN, TGC??), but a guy hit into the green and knocked someone (a lawyer) out. The lawyer sued.

The article (and I have no idea if this is correct or not) said that the general rule is that playing golf is like going to a baseball game - the risk of being hit is inherent. But the lawyer was saying that this case was different because the other guy didn't wait for the green to clear (dude said he thought it was) and he didn't yell fore.

Some Googling might turn up that article.

EDIT: Found it:

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10466936

 

[JB]

It was on the front of Yahoo new too.

 

[Gummi Bear]

At several golf courses around here, there are signs saying that you are liable for injury to yourself or other players.

Whether this holds water or not, I don't know.

There's a man who wrote a book on golf law cases, they interviewed him on the Golf Smarter Podcast a little while back. Can't remember his name, I'll try to remember to check and see.