The Ugly: The Tour Championship ended last weekend in the PGA. Golf is not a contact sport and prides itself in the closeness of the fans to the action. Anthony Kim is a rising professional golf star but last Saturday was not a memorable day for Kim. He almost missed his tee time and was wild with his drives all day. David Whitfield of Atlanta is a golf fan and thought he had found the perfect place to watch the tournament on the ninth hole fairway. As Kim teed off, he and Whitfield’s lives were about to meet in a most ugly way.
Kim’s first shot hit Whitfield squarely in the head. The ball left a deep impression in his skull and blood was seeping through the towel wrapped around his head. Kim said afterward, “I thought that I had killed him.” Whitfield was taken to the hospital and would survive to watch golf another day.
We don’t usually think of golf as a dangerous sport but watch a professional tournament closely and see the narrow alleys, surrounded by people, through which the pros must hit their very hard and potentially deadly golf balls. An ugly accident did not prove fatal this time, but when will the law of average catch up with someone?
The Bonus: The following story did not really fit in with any of my categories. Foolish or the insane maybe but not good, bad, or ugly. I do know that you should not try this at home. Many people have swum across the English Channel but only Yves Rossy has crossed the channel strapped to a single wing jet. Yes he was wearing a helmet. On September 26, Rossy jumped out of an airplane at 8000 feet somewhere over France and while in freefall opened his wing and turned on his jet engines. He then traveled at 125 miles an hour across the 22 mile English Channel. It took him all of 25 minutes. Before parachuting to the ground at the end of his journey he performed a loop. Rossy is now known as Jet Man. The only reason he is not my ugly story of the week is because he landed safely. That having been said, it was kind of cool!
Article comments