04/26/24
December 30, 2010
Court: Golfers Not Obligated to Yell 'Fore!': Golfers are not obligated to yell fore when they hit an errant shot that might strike someone, the New York State Court of Appeals has ruled. Dr. Anoop Kapoor struck playing partner Dr. Azad Anand in the left eye with a first hole tee shot, causing a detached retina and a permanent loss of vision. "[B]eing hit without warning by a 'shanked' shot while one searches for one's own ball -- reflects a commonly appreciated risk of golf," the judges ruled. But this ruling does not mean golfers are out of the woods -- the sport is a "perfect litigation machine," according to the New York Times.
Isn't it a breach of golfing etiquette to start chasing your ball while your playing partner has yet to tee off?
posted by rcade at 10:13 AM on December 30, 2010
And that etiquette may just have some reasoning behind it. Not that the guy deserves to be blinded for being rude, but any idiot knows that, unless your playing partner is tour-ready, you don't get in front of a shot, even peripherally.
posted by tahoemoj at 11:20 AM on December 30, 2010
Shouting can cause problems sometimes. A couple of times this season I came very close to hitting people on the course and chose not to shout. On both occasions, I missed them by very little (like 4 or 5 yards from a couple of hundred yards away), and on both occasions, they felt the need to hurl some abuse at me because of it. I tried to explain that if I'd shouted, they would have instinctually moved, and my reading of the situation in that split second was that if they'd moved, they'd have moved right into the path of the errant ball. One of them got it and accepted that; the other one didn't and started talking shit about lawyers (although neither of them actually got hit).
Granted, I probably know what I'm doing better than most, and I've been doing it so long (hitting errant shots) that I can make judgement calls like that with a fair degree of confidence, so it's probably not something everyone should do, but sometimes it is worth NOT shouting. My memory's not that reliable, but the few times I've seen people hit or been hit myself, there has been lots of shouting going on and everyone's aware of what's about to happen, but that hasn't prevented it! On one memorable occasion, the potential victim seemed to subconsciously pick up the exact curve of the slice that had winged near him and it was like watching a heat seeking missile home in on its target.
I've also stopped adopting the supposedly safest position when shouted at (hands on head, crouching) and started looking up to try and catch sight of the ball in the air. The one time I got hit on the head (by a golf ball), it hit me right between my hands. It knocked me out for half a minute and I needed a couple of stitches, but I was able to play in the tournament the following day; if the ball had hit my hands, it would have broken a finger, or two, and I'd have been out of golfing action for several weeks at least.
The what?
Oh, the topic?
Yeah, dude who got hit was a dork for wandering off, and for suing his "friend" come to think of it.
posted by JJ at 08:17 PM on December 30, 2010
Yeah, anyone that has played the sport more than a few times gets the basic idea of not getting ahead of your playing partners. Not that the guy "deserved' to be blinded in one eye, but he did put himself in harm's way.
As to yelling fore, beyond JJ's points, quite often it's rather pointless. It either happens way too quick, or the other group can't hear you. The only times I've ever hit someone, they were in "my" fairway, and I either had no idea they were there, or they walked right into my shot. People that cross into other players' fairways without looking are fools that deserve to be hit.
posted by dviking at 11:53 PM on December 30, 2010
Not what you'd call a sparkling golfer to begin with, once the late Gerald Ford became president and gained some executive immunity, he began cranking errant shots all over the place and issued a few notable beanings.
Either that or he was hitting people all along but didn't draw much prior notice because he was just a Congressman.