A bad golf shot can cause more than just a bad score.
A doctor from Ponte Vedra Beach has settled a lawsuit against the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club and one of its members after being hit in the head by a golf ball in November 2020.
According to the lawsuit, the doctor was walking along San Juan Drive near the well-known North Florida club when a golfer was preparing to take his shot on the seventh hole.
Instead of landing on the fairway, the ball flew off course and into the street, hitting the doctor in the head. The golfer, who owns a citrus oil company, had no idea his shot would cause such harm.
“It felt like a gunshot,” the doctor said in the lawsuit.
“I put my hands on my head. I was wearing a hat, so I took it off, and then I felt something wet. When I looked at my hand, it was covered in blood,” she recalled.
She claimed in the lawsuit that she suffered both short-term and long-term injuries.
“I wake up with headaches every single day. That never happened before the accident,” she said during a long deposition.
She also said her injury makes it hard for her to walk long distances.
A Long Legal Battle
The Ponte Vedra Inn & Club did not publicly name the doctor or the golfer.
During the case, a lawyer for the club questioned how serious her injuries really were. He pointed out that doctors who treated her right after the incident only found a cut on her head. He also challenged how much money she lost because of the injury.
The doctor first sued both the golfer and the club in February 2021. The legal fight lasted almost four years before finally ending this week with a private settlement.
Her case argued that the club should have taken better safety measures to protect people walking near the golf course. Both sides hired experts to support their claims, leading to years of legal back-and-forth and thousands of pages of court documents.
The case nearly went to trial several times, but in the end, both sides agreed to settle.
A spokesperson for the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club declined to comment on the case.