Top 10 maddest golf injuries: Scottie Scheffler's freak accident and more
12/30/2024 02:00 PM
It was perhaps an entirely appropriate end to a remarkable 2024 for the World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
A year that had seen him secure top spot in the world rankings with no less than nine wins, including the Masters in April, also saw him arrested and jailed ahead of his first round at the PGA Championship.
It was a chaotic moment and so was news that the 28-year-old had cut his hand on broken glass while preparing Christmas dinner. The injury will force him to withdraw from 2025's opening event, the Sentry.
But Scheffler's mishap is not alone in being utterly bizarre.
Golf is full of bewildering stories of golfers’ very strange failures to make the first tee. Here, in reverse order, is the top 10.
10. Akshay Bhatia's dislocated elbow
It's one thing to injure yourself ahead of competition, another to do so when celebrating a big win.
At this year's Texas Open Bhatia landed a second PGA Tour title and with it secured a start in the following week's Masters.
He also ruined his chances on debut at Augusta National with an over-enthusiastic fist pump.
9. Ian Woosnam's pulled muscle
Bhatia hurt his arm earning a Masters start but Welshman Woosnam pulled a muscle when he celebrated winning his green jacket in 1991.
"I nearly burst my arm," he said.
8. Retief Goosen hit by lightning
The South African was just 15 when struck by lightning on the course in South Africa.
He swallowed his tongue and was only saved by fellow golfers.
The tattered clothes he was wearing that day are on display at the World Golf Hall of Fame.
7. Thomas Levet's broken leg
Frenchman Levet was keen to celebrate his victory in the 2011 Open de France so joined his manager in a leap into the lake surrounding the 18th green.
Alas it was not as deep as he had hoped and Levet fractured his leg.
6. Brett Ogle's broken knee
We often read about golfers choking down the stretch on Sunday but Aussie Ogle managed to kneecap himself on the back nine in the 1990 Australian Open.
While playing the 17th he hit a shot into a tree, it rebounded back into his leg, he slumped to the grass, spectators applied a beer can cold compress, and he had to limp to the clubhouse in agony.
He completed the round and the tournament but he didn't play again for half a year.
5. Greg Norman's chainsaw accident
The Aussie was well known for finding remarkable ways of not winning Major championships but his ability to locate banana skins was almost catastrophic in 2014 when he took to a tree at his Florida property with a chainsaw.
A branch fell, knocked his arm and the saw almost carved its way through an artery.
He escaped with minor surgery when it could have been so much worse.
4. Mel Reid's snake bite
Englishwoman Mel Reid liked a drink at Solheim Cup parties but maybe not the potent lager-cider cocktail known as snakebite.
That's because in 2012 she was bitten by a snake while competing in the LET's Sanya Open.
She needed an injection and 20 pills to complete her round.
3. Christiaan Bezuidenhout drinking poison
Bezuidenhout was only two years old when he took a sip from a can of Coca Cola.
Unbeknown to the toddler it contained rat poison which nearly killed him.
The South African survived but went on to suffer anxiety and to this day he has a stammer but Bezuidenhout has rebounded to become a world top 50 golfer.
2. Sam Torrance's sleep walking
In the 1993 Ryder Cup the Scotsman contrived to sleep walk into a plant pot ahead of the Sunday singles.
He injured both his chest and his toe but that wasn't even the oddest element of the story.
No, that was when Torrance explained that he had thought a Yukka plant was an intruder.
1. Rory McIlroy's ruptured ligament
It might not be the most unusual but McIlroy's ankle injury, the consequence of a 5-a-side football match before the 2015 Open, has had very long-lasting consequences.
The year before he had won the third and fourth Majors of his career. The 2015 Open was played on his favourite layout, the Old Course, and because of his withdrawal he missed out on the chance to ride that wave of success.
He hasn't won another Major since.
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