Golfer sued after ball ‘spotter’ blinded by shot A CHAMPION golfer is being sued by a ball “spotter” who was hit in the eye and blinded by one of his shots.
David McMahon, 70, said he had just warned a pair of straying spectators at a tournament of the possibility of being struck when he was felled by Gavin Dear’s ball.
He told a court that Mr Dear ought to have been able to see him as he played the shot, and denied that he had walked out from behind a golf buggy into the flight of the ball.
Mr McMahon, a retired bus driver, of Leven, Fife, is seeking up to £50,000 damages at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
Mr Dear, of Scone, Perthshire, denies any negligence and insists that Mr McMahon failed to take reasonable care for his own safety and was solely to blame for the accident.
In 2008, Mr Dear was a member of the three-man Scotland team which lifted the Eisenhower Trophy at the World Amateur Team Championships in Australia.
The following year he was in the Great Britain and Ireland team which lost to the United States in the Walker Cup, and he was named Scottish Golfer of the Year.
The incident with Mr McMahon occurred in April 2009 at the Leven Links course, during the Scottish Amateur Champion of Champions competition.
Mr McMahon, a keen golfer, said he volunteered as a ball spotter at the 11th hole, watching for shots going into gorse bushes. He was standing beside his golf cart near a 4ft-high mound. Mr Dear was playing the adjacent 6th hole.
“A young girl and boy strayed off a path to the top of the mound. I went up and told them to stand back...I explained the danger of standing there. They turned round and walked off. The young girl said, ‘Thanks very much.’ I started my way back down to the buggy and had taken two or three steps and a ball hit me in the eye. After that, I don’t know...” said Mr McMahon.
He was told that Mr Dear’s position in the case was that after hitting his shot and while the ball was in the air, Mr McMahon had walked out from behind the cart and straight into the path of the ball.
“No,” he replied.
The court was told that Mr McMahon had been taken to hospital and had surgery on his right eye but lost the sight in it.
The hearing is expected to last for several days.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-n ... -1-2799095
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