Watching a bad injury or death is a very startling thing! My friend Joe and I almost witnessed such a thing 2 years ago.
Number 5 at our course needs describing. It’s a short par 4 that can make any golfer seek a shrink or a half gallon of vodka.
It’s an innocuous, short par 4, maybe 300 yards. Straight away. But visuals from the tee would make a blind golfer nervous. 2 fairway bunkers that eat slight hooks or long pushes. A huge lake to the right that’s a 175 yard carry. But the immediate horror is a sheer grassy drop of 80 feet on the left.
As you leave the tee box the cart path runs on a hog’s back between the lake on the right (10 feet away) and the Grand Canyon to the left (10 feet away). But immediately after the tee box a dirt path veers to the left and goes straight down to the bottom of the imposing left bank.
The rider in the other cart hooked his drive to left and they exited left down that little dirt track to search for the impossibly lost ball. They gave up the hunt quickly.
My cart partner and I were parked at the top of the grassy bank and expected the safe exit by our pals. But nooooooo, they drove straight up the hill toward us!
90% of their cart weight was on the back wheels and the driver panicked, turning sideways to the hill. The rider was facing straight up the hill and leaned out like a balancer on a catamaran. “She’s goin’ over” he screamed.
Panicking for a second time the driver steered back up the hill! Then he turned the other way parallel to the hill so that the rider was now facing downhill – his legs pointing straight out. A rollover would have snapped off both extremities like popsicle sticks.
The driver then turned straight down the hill accelerating to top speed! At the bottom he turned too quickly and almost flipped it again. I watched my friends almost die 3 times in 1 minute!
Just another relaxing day on the links.
Fairway Follies, Joe Hinson 