I’ve been playing golf for over 15 years and have never been struck by a ball. It seems like getting hit would happen more often but for some reason it’s a rarity. My closest encounter was almost beheading myself when I attempted a punch shot through two trees 5 feet in front of me. My shot rifled against the tree and ricocheted right back at me and missed my head by 6 inches. Today was 1 inch.

I hit a nice drive up the fairway and had a long 250 yard shot on a par 5 that would get me close in 2. I chose my 4 iron and addressed the ball. As I made my swing downward I could feel my club face wasn’t square and opened up dramatically. The club hit the ball and created a screamer that was heading dead right. Lance, our playing partner, was ahead looking for his ball and had turned back and was driving his cart directly towards the ball. I screamed out, “Lance!” with terror in my voice because the ball was flying right for him. The ball connects directly with the cart’s windshield which has the picture you see to the right. Amazingly the ball misses Lance and bounces off the cart. After looking at the mark made on the windshield, I was 1 inch away from killing a human being.

I was pretty rattled and Lance was just laughing which I couldn’t understand because he was moments away from being killed. Obviously this wasn’t intentional but I would have felt horrible. I couldn’t shake that feeling for the next few holes and I was unbelievably relieved when he wasn’t even mad at me for the shot. This post is a word of warning to anyone who plays golf, always be behind the ball when someone is hitting. No where is safe.