A GOLFER has won £10,000 damages after he was hit by a ball from another player's wayward tee shot.
John Ure was on the fairway at another hole at Bellshill Golf Club, in Lanarkshire, when he sustained a head injury following the errant drive.
Mr Ure, 46, of Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, raised an action seeking compensation against Stewart Muir following the incident on March 9 2013.
Following a hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, a judge has ruled in his favour and accepted liability had been established.
Lord Brailsford said that in the circumstances the risk of an errant shot creating a danger to a person in Mr Ure's position was "reasonably foreseeable".
One of Mr Muir's playing party had already struck a drive which prompted a warning cry of "fore" before he teed off.
The judge said this should have alerted him that the group Mr Ure was playing in was in range of an errant drive.
"His shot was, on his own admission, a bad one," said the judge.
The court heard that a study had shown that 92 per cent of golf shots fell within a 30 degree cone of the intended line but the shot played by Mr Muir fell into the eight per cent outside that group.
A golf expert who gave evidence said he considered there was "a materiel risk" of a bad or poorly struck shot from the 9th tee impinging on the 10th fairway.
Mr Muir told the court that he would not have played it if he considered there was a risk.
He described the shot as "a slice" and said: "You just wouldn't surmise your ball going that far right."
Mr Muir, a warehouse worker, of Blantyre, said he had been a member at the Bellshill club since 2005.
He was playing the ninth hole with two others taking part in a sweep at the club.
He told the court that another player in his group had already played "an errant shot" towards Mr Ure's group on the 10th fairway, prompting a shout of "fore".
He said the second player to tee off in his party hit his ball "straight down the middle".
Mr Muir said he would normally hit a drive about 200 yards and was aiming to hit the middle of the fairway.
But when he struck his shot he noticed "the ball was going out of control". He said he shouted "fore" and put an arm up. One of his playing partners also made a warning call.
He said two players on the 10th took cover, but Mr Ure did not and the ball struck him.
Mr Muir, 45, was asked if he had thought about the people on the 10th fairway before he took his shot.
He replied: "I wouldn't have thought of any problem arising......I wouldn't have surmised anything that far right that would create a problem."
"It never came into my mind as any sort of risk. If it came into my mind as a risk I would not have played the shot," he said.
"I was conscious there were people over there but they were not in my line," he said.
In the action it was said that Mr Ure suffered a head injury and was knocked to the ground. It was said he felt nauseous and was physically ill later that day and went to hospital.
It was said that he suffered intermittent severe headaches and nausea and lost enthusiasm for playing the game.
Mr Ure's counsel Geoff Clarke QC told the court that damages in the action had been agreed at £10,000 if liability was established.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article