Golfers Beware!

There are times that the game of golf can be dangerous.  A golf ball struck by an average golfer can exceed 100 miles per hour coming off the face of the golf club.  Golf balls routinely travel several hundred yards and are still moving briskly at that point.   In short, a golf ball is like a small missile, and sometimes unguided.

In August of this year the Pennsylvania Superior Court considered a case of a golfer struck in the face and seriously injured by a golf ball hit by a playing companion.  The golfer who was struck had driven his golf cart ahead of his playing partners to determine whether the golfers in front of them had cleared the fairway.  While returning to the tee in his cart he was struck in the face by a ball hit by one of his companions.  (It is ironic that injury was caused in a circumstance where the golfers were actually trying to prevent injury to other golfers by checking the fairway ahead of them!)

The Superior Court ruled that the injured golfer was entitled to have a jury decide whether the player who struck the ball owed a “duty of care” to the injured golfer.  Prior cases involving injury caused by flying golf balls had generally found either that the golfer striking the ball owed no duty of care to others, or that anyone struck by a golf ball on a golf course “assumed the risk” of being hit by an errant shot.  Only in cases of grossly negligent or reckless conduct was liability imposed.  This recent Superior Court decision reflects an apparent change in the Court’s approach to these cases, and it now appears willing to impose liability for ordinary negligence.
 
Kevin Palmer

Don’t be surprised if you start seeing golfers wearing highly stylized helmets in the very near future.

 

Posted in Litigation / Personal Injury