‘Everyone ducked but me’
Wayward drive draws blood as fan fails to heed ‘fore’ cry Scott presents signed glove as apology to dazed victim
A spectator described his “real shock” after being bloodied and floored by a wayward drive from Adam Scott at the Open yesterday.
Christopher Ineson expressed his embarrassment at being the only one in his group to fail to duck amid shouts of “fore” as the ball rocketed his way.
The Liverpool chef and brewery owner, 34, was sent sprawling and was left so dazed that he did not recognise Scott as the 2013 Masters winner came over to apologise.
“It was a drive off the 18th, full toss, it didn’t bounce,” he said, while nursing his sore head. “I heard the shout of fore and everyone ducked. I saw my mate duck and then it hit me right on the back of the head.”
His friend Rob Tuffnell, who was alongside him, said: “It sounded like a golf ball hitting mud or Playdoh.” Another friend said: “It could only happen to Chris.”
Scott looked concerned and immediately walked over to establish whether the spectator was OK. He then handed him a signed glove, with the message “Sorry mate”. Ineson said he was planning to have the glove framed.
Ineson, who is hoping for a busy weekend of beer sales for his local Black Lodge Brewing business, had posted online: “This is what happens when you take a day off work!”
“It was a real shock,” he said, while pointing to a three-centimetre gash in the back of his head. “This was supposed to be our day. We both love the golf but my mate is more of a golfer than I am, although I go to the range.
“We had followed [Tommy] Fleetwood the whole way round. Then, coming to the 18th, we were deciding who to follow next, maybe Rory [Mcilroy], and the next thing I knew I was lying on the ground. Obviously, the first thing you do is try to stand back up but I had about three hands on my head, and they were saying, ‘Just stay there’.”
Ineson is understood to have been one of three spectators attended to by medical staff yesterday. “I saw the medics and I had to lie down on a buggy and be driven across the course, which is incredibly embarrassing,” he said. “There’s no concussion. It’s very sore, but you would have to be incredibly unlucky to be seriously injured.”
Of his meeting with Australian Scott, he added: “I didn’t know who he was. I just saw a tall man ask if I was OK and just hand me the glove. It was a nice touch.”
Scott had endured a tough twodrive sequence, with the first going out of bounds on the right and second soaring over a fence on the left.
He finished with a one-over-par 72 and Jordan Spieth also ran into difficulty in his first round, with two bad holes as a career-first shank spooked the former champion before he recovered to post a 69.