Watch where you drive

An Australian golfer has been ordered to pay $2.6-million (nearly R12-million) in compensation after hitting another golfer on the head with a ball during a charity golf day.

In a recent judgment in the Supreme Court in Townsville it was ruled that the golfer, Mark Shanahan, was in a position where he ought to have been able to see the plaintiff, Glenn Ollier, before he teed off.

Justice Kerry Cullinane, according to a report in ‘The Sunday Mail’, found the golf club where the golf day took place was not responsible for the incident and ordered Shanahan to pay $2.6-million compensation.

In the incident Ollier was hit on the back of the head by an errant shot hit by Shanahan and left with brain damage so severe he needs constant supervision while awake.

During the hearing the court heard that two of Shanahan’s playing partners had already driven off and neither had seen any players ahead.

In his grounds for appeal Shanahan will argue that the judge failed to take into account the risk of a ball struck by an inexperienced player not travelling in the intended direction or distance.

The appeal will claim the judge erred in finding that Ollier, the golfer struck by the ball, was in a position on the fairway where he should have been seen because there was no evidence establishing the line of sight from Shanahan’s position on the tee to where Ollier was struck.

The appeal claims the judge also should have found that the reason why Shanahan and the two other more experienced players did not see Ollier was because he was standing in shadow or dappled light.

Shanahan was not a regular golfer and said he had played perhaps only once a year prior to the Magnetic Island game that he attended in his capacity as a manager for the airline he worked for.

The upshot, though, is that one errant shot could destroy the lives of two men – once again reminding the rest of us that that a golf ball, travelling at speed, is a lethal missile and that we should exercise extreme care when there is the possibility of other players being within range.