Volume 12, Issue 07
The PEACEKEEPER
Page 11
From the JAG’s Desk
GOLF continued from pg. 5
tee shot, especially by the last golfer to tee o? in a group. That’s because everyone reasonably expects each golfer to hit only one tee shot, and the rest of the group starts driv? ing or walking down the fairway or otherwise does not stand in a protected area. The mulligan swinger is o en already irritated and, without looking, hurriedly tees another ball and whacks away. When he hits one of his playing partners, nasty inju? ries have ensued, as have successful lawsuits. “You really have to be careful on the golf course be? cause you’d be amazed at all the ways the law can come into play,” said Dalton B. Floyd, a South Carolina lawyer who has represented many golf courses, clubs and golfers. Floyd teaches a class in golf law at the Charleston School of Law. “We take the law students out on the golf course and go over some things,” Floyd said. For example, did you know that a club is responsible for making sure the yardage markers embedded in the fairway or marked on a cart path are reasonably accurate? One golfer hit another golfer standing on a green because an inaccurate yardage marker indicated he was farther away than he actually was. The golfer sued the club for mis? leading him and causing injury, for which he was ini ally held liable. When the yardage marker was proved to be in? correct, the club was then held responsible. Floyd also instructs golf course owners to scrupulously check all their cart paths, bridges and other walkways for irregulari es or dangerous condi ons. “Slip?and?fall cases are more common than anything,” Floyd said. “The club can be found negligent.” Golf courses can also be sued for design ?aws that lead to the beaning of golfers — imagine a tee on the ?rst hole that too easily endangers golfers on the adjacent second hole. The remedy might be to plant a line of trees. Then again, if those trees obscure the view of some nearby homeowner who always loved the view of the second hole from his pa o, that could prompt another suit. Of course, if another house on the golf course is being peppered by an inordinate number of wayward golf shots — some houses are hit 100 mes a month — the golf course could be compelled by a court to put up some more trees or a screen to protect that house. So, it can become complicated. And I haven’t even talked about what happens when a private club expels a member for o?ensive behavior and the member sues. That can get uglier than a triple bogey. There are so many places to go in this discussion and myths to debunk. Let’s take that me?honored tradi on of yelling “fore” if you think someone might be hit by your shot. Surely, that absolves you of liability if something goes wrong, right? “Yelling ‘fore’ is not a legal defense,” Lang said. “It might avoid someone ge ng hit and it might be ac ng reasonably, but if you shouldn’t have hit your shot in the ?rst place because someone was in your intended ?ight, you’re s ll in trouble.” O.K., so we’ve already got enough people who are afraid to take up golf because of all the rules and such; I don’t want to scare others o? the course because they’re afraid of li ga on, too. The fact is that the golf tribe gets along pre y well during the nearly 500 million rounds played annually in America. But here are two other sensible considera ons while you’re out there:
?? Keep your golf cart on the path whenever you can, avoid steep hills — going up
See GOLF continued on pg. 7