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Welcome to Outlaw Golf, where Mythbusters meets Jackass.
For our inaugural episode, we wanted to find out the answer to this simple question: Can you be killed by a golf ball? We put that theory to test using a ballistic test dummy.
Watch the whole episode, and leave a comment on the video for a chance to win a L.A.B. putter!
Connor is MyGolfSpy's resident sneakerhead and the authority on all things golf shoe performance. He's tested over 150 different pairs (and counting). When he isn't scrolling Twitter to find his next golf shoe purchase, you can find him at the piano or trying a new dessert place with his wife and daughter. #Lefty
| Driver Callaway ELYTE Mini | Hybrid Cobra KING TEC |
| Irons Titleist T250 | Wedges Titleist Vokey SM10 |
| Putter PING Scottsdale Prime Tyne | Ball Bridgestone TOUR BX |
2 years ago
One of my local courses has the 10th hole running parallel with the driving range. There is no netting so the fairway is scattered with range balls. I tee off on 10 and drive down to my ball which is in the center of the fairway. I’m addressing my ball and ‘Bam!” I get tagged in the back of the calf with a range ball. It stung, but it must have hopped a few times because it didn’t drop me. I step back in to address my ball….and get tagged again IN THE EXACT SAME SPOT. Whomever that hack was, he was consistent….
2 years ago
Never been hit by a golf ball, but I have a funny story about my neighbor growing up. Let me start by saying that he was into things that blew up – literally. So one day he wanted one of my golf balls. He put the golf in a metal pipe – like a piece of sink drain. In the opposite end, he put an M-80 and lit it. The pipe was aimed at another neighbor’s tool shed. The ball exited the pipe at quite a high speed and the 3/4” board of the tool shed didn’t stand a chance. The ball made a perfect hole through wood – a perfect circle that someone with a drill and hole saw bit would have been proud of. We went into the tool shed to retrieve the golf ball and found that it had hit a metal bucket hanging on the wall – leaving a golf ball sized dent in the bottom of the bucket, which is where we found the golf ball.
This was over 50 years ago, so I’m pretty sure the statute of limitations is up. Phew…
Lastly, my neighbor’s dad made him fix the hole in the tool shed’s wall.
2 years ago
I’ve seen it happen. Older gentleman struck in the back of the head – right where the skull and spine meet – by a shot hit by a driver from 35 yds away on the tee of another hole. Ambulance arrived in less than 8 mins. He was pronounced dead at the ER. It’s no joking matter. I’ve been hit twice, once in the lower back (had blood in my pee for a couple of days, bruised kidney) and once in the hand – cracked metacarpal and hammate bones. In both instances I was dumb enough to walk ahead of another player, both of whom were low single digit guys who happened to mishit the shot. Shouldn’t have taken two incidents for me to learn, but I’ll never do that again.
2 years ago
I’ll never lie down in front of a person driving again. Lesson learned.
2 years ago
I have a buddy who happened to take a drive to his temple and lived to talk about it, but he couldn’t go to work for months. Terrible headaches!
2 years ago
You lot are round the twist. Absolutely brilliant. A great way of bringing the possibilities to light and the need for being responsible as well as enjoying the great game.
2 years ago
I only know of one person who has been killed by a golf ball in the UK, which was in Scotland. By coincidence I actually played golf with her nephew shortly afterwards. Sadly, his grandmother was struck in the neck by an errant tee shot from her son-in-law. Her jugular vein was compressed and as a result she died. So, I know golf can be dangerous, as is the case with most sports. Getting hit by a golf ball can cause various injuries of course, but getting killed is thankfully very rare.
2 years ago
Well I witnessed a guy getting killed by his own golf ball. He hit a three wood into a tree 10 ft in front of him and it shot back and hit him between the eyes. He was dead before he hit the ground. Very sad situation for sure and thankfully he wasn’t in my group. I would have hated to have to drag him over the last 3 holes to finish the round.
2 years ago
With that kind of head trauma and an 80% chance of living, Barry is probably going to have to learn how to walk and talk again! Pretty common with brain tumor surgery. My teaching pros name is Barry, no dummy and a great player and coach. Funny thing though, his last name is Schenk. I got thumped in the calf a few years ago and had a dimple mark bruise for a few weeks.
2 years ago
Here’s the thought you get hit like that at the same spot at the school and you survive what kind of life are you gonna have? And then I wonder about the plasticity by age. As to how much recovery you would have.
Have to say I love the video looking forward to your next answer to a question. Your definitely out there!
2 years ago
I was hit about 15 years ago by a 7-iron shot from about 4.5 feet on the right eyebrow. The person who hit that shot was me. My tee shot had come to rest off the fairway in an area of thinly populated trees this time of year with lots of Fall leaves on the ground. I had a clear shot at the green but did not realize my ball was sitting slightly against a big rock in those leaves. Well, that cost me a stroke and I bogeyed the hole holding a bottle of frozen water in a towel on my eye. That was the 17th hole, and I had a good round going. Determined to finish, I bogeyed the 18th too then went by the Pro shop with blood all over me and they thought my group had been in a fight. I told them I would explain later and went on to the urgent care for 4 stitches and next day I had a real shiner. My buddies still laugh about that.
2 years ago
Someone was killed by a golf shot at the club that I used to play in Orlando area.
The ball hit him directly in the temple.
2 years ago
Administered some Advil just watching the video! Ouch!!! Having been hit twice, and on both occasions from quite a distance, I can attest that it is something to be avoided at all cost. Thanks for taking the time to unpack this a little!
2 years ago
I was hit by a drive from an adjoining fairway (about 150 yards). The shot hit me just below the corner of my mouth. It blew through the skin and broke my jaw. If it had hit me in the eye I would have been blind. If it hit me in the forehead or throat I am sure I would have been dead.
2 years ago
Measure how far “Fore!!” carries on a golf course using voices of different frequencies and volumes, especially those of the human voice. Are we wasting our time screaming something that might never be heard? Measure the screams in-line and then perpendicularly to simulate a straight tee shot and a hook/slice (into the next door fairway).
2 years ago
When I was I high school our family went up near Traverse city, MI for vacation. On about the 17th hole, which was parallel to another hole going the other direction, I was standing over my putt when we hear “Fore”.
I see my brother and father cover their head and I instinctively lifted my head to where the yell came from.
What I saw was a ball screaming right toward me, a slice drive from that other hole. In an instant I was hit;
On the fly;
In the mouth, top lip.
My brother said I let out one blood curdelling scream and hit the ground fast than he had ever seen- then silence. He thought I was dead.
But no, first I recalled was my father over me asking if I was ok and I spit the mouth full of blood into his face. He wasn’t happy.
The guy that hit the ball came over and apologized and other players with him went to the pro shop to say what happened.
They got me on the cart and drove me up to tha shop, got the bleeding stopped and a bag of ice and off to
The ER we went.
To the doctors surprise, no teeth knocked out but three stitches inside the lip with instructions not to swim (couldn’t close my mouth) or lower my head for a week on the second day of a two week lake vacation.
So my brother just called me sea cow while he swam in the lake. I did go back to the same
Course to play a week later and my mother came along. Again, someone yelled “fore!” And I covered followed by my
Mother asking if I was going to do that everytime now, then the ball landed with 6’ of us. She didn’t say anything else free that.
2 years ago
My dad was almost killed by a stray golf shot. We were walking off a green that we just finished and we heard a faint “fore”. My dad picked up his pace, but he got hit 3/4” of an inch above his right temple with a golf ball on the fly. He went down and I thought he got killed. I ran over to him and saw he was still alive thank God. I asked him to stay still for a bit, but the tough old dog groggily got up and wanted to finish the round. The guy that hit the ball from a fairway bunker about 150 yards away came flying down with his partner in their cart. They insisted on taking my dad and I to the hospital for X-rays. We took him and thankfully all he got was a big bump, and a helluva black and blue. 3/4” lower and he would not have been so lucky.
2 years ago
Well, thats a no brainer.
2 years ago
Poor Barry. AKA the Buster from the Mythbusters .
He was wondering why the ball was getting bigger. Then it hit him!
Until then, he a lot on his mind, but it’s all up in the air now
2 years ago
In a junior tournament, I hit a slice and the ball is going for a tree with no one in sight so I don’t yell FORE. My partner was hiding behind the tree (roughly 75 yards in front of me and I didn’t know he was there), he peeks out after he heard that I had taken my shot. The ball hits the tree then hits him in the jaw. By the time I got there he was spitting out his teeth and lots of blood. The ambulance took him to the emergency and he had to have reconstructive jaw surgery. I didn’t know him before the tournament and never saw him again after.
Since then I have never gone ahead a guy who was about to hit. I have been to 2 PGA tournament and 1 LPGA in my life and even though they are pros, I won’t go in front where it’s dangerous.
2 years ago
He’s really most sincerely dead!
2 years ago
Many years ago, one of my playing partners was warming up on the range. He was in a hurry and not really paying attention. Hit his driver off the toe and it took me to the ground. Luckily it hit the soft spot behind my knee, hurt a lot and left a Titleist logo on the skin that stayed with me for a while. If that had hit me in the heart or temple area, I would not be writing this reply. He cried with apologies. You could hear me scream all the way to the most distant hole on the course. Yes, a golf ball could kill a person. Right club, right condition, right body part. Why do they yell fore when they hit one out of the fairway? Bewarned and take cover.
2 years ago
Asian person was taking a lesson in the letft rough of the first tee about 125 yards out when I teed off. Unfortunately, i hooked the ball and dropped the lesson taker. (The pro should not have had him there.) Caught him mid body, but did no serious damage. His wife was wilth him and took after me with a golf club, but the pro stopped her before she could reach me. She was not very happy. Thankfully, the pro realized his mistake and calmed the situation down. Best tee shot of the day for me.
2 years ago
At the beginning of October while on a golf trip. I was on the tee box in front of another golfer who just didn’t see me. I was about 10 yards in front of him. As I was bent over teeing up my ball he hit his al with a driver into my right arm just above the elbow. It put a hole in my arm and as it glanced off my arm It took over 20 stitches to close the wound but where the ball hit there wasn’t anything to stitch up. It just left a hole. If that ball would have hit my head I would not be here to tell the story.
2 years ago
On a course I played many times, I met a guy who hit a worm burner into a curb that came straight back hitting his wife in the eye. She died. The hole got shortened to the other side of the roadway.
2 years ago
I have seen a ball leave dimple marks and in a bruise from a drive!!
2 years ago
I believe a golf ball can kill you. I sure as heck do not want to get hit in the head to find out.
2 years ago
Time to start wearing a hard hat.
2 years ago
My brother shanked a wedge and smacked a golfer in the head standing on the next tee about 90 yards away. The guy was bald and was not wearing a hat. It didn’t kill him but it did peel skin from his skull the size of the ball.
2 years ago
80% chance still means one out of 5 doesn’t survive. I know I don’t like those odds.
2 years ago
Got hit while sitting in the cart from a ball coming from the other fairway, just missed the family jewels and left a nice red spot on my upper inner thigh………. Avoided the wife for awhile cause I though she was never gonna believe the mark was from a golf ball.
2 years ago
Ok thanks guys! Been playing and going to tournaments for over 40 years and l’ve never been MORE frightened of getting hit till now. Good God! And that Doctor?? Lol Where did you get him? “Yeah that’ll rub out.” Crazy story. Playing golf trip in Myrtle Beach with a doctor friend. He hit a low left stinger in the back of a woman on opposite fairway. She dropped like a stone. We got got over there and she was complaining because of her back surgery. He then realized HE was the doctor that had worked on her!
2 years ago
Duh-definitely yes. Especially. blow to head causing intracerebral bleed or blow to vulnerable area of chest causing DeMotuCordis fatal arrhythmia, known since the days of William Harvey MD and recently demonstrated with the near death of a football player with blow to the chest seen by millions.
2 years ago
Even if you survived with a direct blow at the top speed, you are not likely playing golf anytime soon. Or driving a car. Point being: even if you were ok, you’d never be the same again. Moral of the story: wait until the fairway is cleared and always yell fore.
2 years ago
Hit on the back of the hand from the group behind. Hurt like hell. funny thing he couldn’t find his golf ball. I might have accidently stepped on it.
2 years ago
Interesting but looks like odds are low that you will even get hit. But if you are stupid enough to stand in front of your playing partner while he is teeing off, then maybe Darwin was right
2 years ago
How informative and scary. I’ve come close but never hit. Thanks for the video, learned a lot.
2 years ago
Here in Utah a father hit his 6 year old daughter in 2019 and she passed away, one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard or read about. She was in the cart when her dad was teeing off, he hit her in the head. They life flighted her, but she didn’t make it. I’ve played that course many times, ever since this accident I make sure my playing partners, especially my kids, are behind me.
2 years ago
Good reminder to step way back and get out of the way. So many times I have been just a bit ahead of a player hitting.
2 years ago
The video gives new meaning to skulling the ball
2 years ago
How about being hit by Caitlin Clarke at 15 ft like those folks that line up on the tee box?
2 years ago
Anyone dumb enough to stand 10ft in front of someone swinging a club deserves what they get! 100 yards down the fairway and you get hit is another thing. Will it kill you, probably not. May hurt like Hell though. Had a friend get hit in the hand by a stray shot. Hand swelled up like a softball. Needless to say his swing suffered the rest of. the round!! When I first started play hit my brother. I swung so hard I missed the face of the club and barely hit on the back of the heel of the club. The ball shot between my legs and clipped my brother in the thigh. Left a welt. We were laughing so hard it didn’t matter and we played on. Enjoyed the video. Keep ‘em coming.
2 years ago
Back when I used to caddie (1960’s), 12th hole Bethpage Black, another caddie was sent out to forecaddie at the dog leg and got nailed by a drive. He was down for the count and had to be hauled off the course. Never found out what happened to him.
2 years ago
This why I believe intentionally hitting into the group in front of yours to “speed” them up or for whatever twisted reason should be treated as a crime, like assault.
And the retaliatory hitting back at the group who just hit into your group isn’t any better.
2 years ago
I’m just a regular dummy, not a ballistic one but I surely don’t want to get hit by a golf ball at that speed. Can’t be lieve you wasted good watermelon on the test. It would still have been edible…..
Congratulations on your video!
2 years ago
They said the outlaws swing was deadly… and Barry learned it was par for the corpse!
2 years ago
Yes it absolutely can.
150mph ball speed off the tee within 30 feet, a direct hit, will definitely kill.
I know somebody who was.
2 years ago
It happened right in front of me on a 209 yard, downhill hole. The fellow took one in the head and was dead on the spot.
2 years ago
I have been hit buy golf ball , i was playing with 3 brothers 1 was left handed , we were 35 yards apart straight across the fairway from each other
i’m staring down fairway for second shot he hits a line drive straight across fairway the ball hits directly on elbow the rush of pain was so extreme my body collapsed and my other brother came flying up to me with cart and caught me with cart , my elbow quadrupelled in 10 seconds, the worst part is that it was 18th hole, i hit a 345 yard drive and had a shot at 580 yard hole in 2 ,i ended finishing hole with 1 arm and 10 strokes , i am a commited nutcase. but inless they carried me off i would finish.
2 years ago
Even a tabletennis ball can Hurt you.
A lady was tumbling and had to sit down for a hour after the ball hit her head on her temple.
2 years ago
So. if you hit someone in the head with a golf ball and they die you have a weak drive because you weren’t able to smash their skull open to allow for swelling.
2 years ago
As a retired Emergency Medicine Physician with 38+ years experience, the answer to the question is YES, a golf ball can kill. Although I have never personally cared for a patient killed by a golf ball, I have seen devastating injuries including loss of eyesight from a golf ball hit by a driver that struck a bystander standing 90 degrees from the teed golf ball. (Lesson here is to keep your you know what always BEHIND a golfer striking a shot).
I appreciate and totally agree with the insight provided by Dr. Mark Moniz who I have know personally and practiced with for many years. The question is not only can you be killed by a golf ball that strikes the head or chest (remember Demar Hamlin? He nearly died on the field from a rare entity called Commotio Cordis, where the chest is struck by an object that catches the heart electrical activity at just the right time to cause sudden death, which unfortunately happens to Little League baseball and soccer players at an alarming rate), but what happens to the brain underneath the injury? Even if you survive the inevitable skull fracture and copious hemorrhage (nothing bleeds like a scalp wound, unless its a large vessel like the aorta), and are fortunate enough to get to a level one trauma center where a Neurosurgeon is waiting to relieve the pressure on the brain from bleeding around your brain, your are certain to have potentially irreversible brain injury resulting from the energy from the blow transmitted to your brain. Now having said that, could you be killed by some A-hole hitting into your group from 200+ yards away? Very unlikely in my opinion. For many years I served as a First Aid Physician at the Kingsmill Championship in Williamsburg, and did see my share of people getting their “bells rung” by stay golf shots from 150-200+ yards away. Other than a scalp wound and a headache, none of them had any immediate or severe long term consequences. Lesson here is that the closer you are to the initial launch of the golf ball the more likely you are to sustain severe damage.
On another front, most of the golf related injuries I saw in my career were due to damage from swinging golf clubs, which can kill. My best story regarding swinging golf clubs occurred in Cincinnati during my Residency training. An enraged wife went after her husband with a Hogan Apex PC 5 iron, striking him on his back and chest (and cracking a rib in the process). She hit him hard enough to leave a perfect impression of Ben Hogan’s signature and the small PC in a circle that was the trademark of that Hogan model. I so wish I had taken a picture of that.
2 years ago
I’ve been hit in the chest, fortunately a ricochet off a tree left a bruise with dimple marks.
2 years ago
What you didn’t consider is the time it takes to finish the round before you get the victim some help. Obviously if it happens in first few holes he is a goner
2 years ago
If baseball players can, and have been killed, by taking a line drive to the chest, then a golf ball to the cranium can kill someone if the ball is travelling fast enough. There have been reported instances of this happening but it’s very rare since most people are able to get medical attention quickly enough after it happens. It’s just a risk that must be taken to play extreme sports such as golf. FORE!!!!
2 years ago
Did you watch the video? Listen to what the doctor says. The chance of survival is because of timely intervention and the fact the ball doesn’t enter the brain. If you don’t get them to the hospital in time they will die. Even if you do they still could but the odds are better for the reasons stated above.
2 years ago
Absolutely; a golf ball can kill somebody.
2 years ago
Spelled Barry or Bury?
2 years ago
Even if you live a hit like the one in the video is going to leave lasting damage for years.
2 years ago
I told you not to walk out in front of me.
2 years ago
Looked BAD, but apparently survivable
2 years ago
Saw it happen at Pebble Beach on 10-Partner almost went over the cliff after being hit!
2 years ago
I would think a golf ball in the temple could kill a person…
2 years ago
Literally back and to the right.
2 years ago
I surely believe a golf ball can kill you. I can’t wait for the MGS test results!!
2 years ago
It may or may not kill you, but a golf ball on the fly can do some damage!
I was in Mrytle Beach playing with my friends. On the third day and first hole a fellow competitor was in the left rough. My cart partner and I were in the middle of the fairway and I was the passenger.
All of a sudden, I felt something hit the bridge of my nose. I looked down on my white shirt and within seconds I was covered in blood. We drove back to the temporary clubhouse, I grabbed a bunch of ice and proceeded to apply pressure and ice it down. About two hours later the bleeding finally stopped, my guys made the turn, and I grabbed the car keys to drive myself to the hospital. They confirmed I broke my nose.
I did what other 30-something golfers might do on an outing: got some Afrin to help control any bleeding, changed my shirt and went out for some beers. By then, by eyes where black and blue and swollen shut. At least it made a good story at the bar!
Our leaders convened that night and declared that because I couldn’t see, I’d get an extra stroke the next day. Really, only one! I can barely see and I get only one stroke. I’d hate to see what it would take to get two!
Gwen
2 years ago
Not actually golfing at the time, but I’ve had a couple of very close calls thanks to a neighboring course (our yard backs directly onto the back stretch of the course). Combination of regular shots in our direction and damaged protective fencing meant we got regular balls flying through the area. As a kid, playing in the street outside the front of the house, a ball landed between my feet from behind me, bouncing up and narrowly skimming through my legs, leaving a bright blue spark from the pavement and basically flash-banged 11 year old me for a good few minutes. Happy with my luck that day but hopefully it isn’t tested again like that 😂