The Court of Sessions in Edinburgh is currently hearing a claim for being hit in the eye by a golf ball, in which the claimant is alleging he was partially blinded due to the negligence of a golfer.
The claim was made by 70 year-old David McMahon of Leven in Fife, who was acting as a ball watcher during the Scottish Amateur Champion of Champions competition in April 2009 when a golf ball hit by Gavin Dear (28) of Scone in Perthshire struck him in the face. Mr McMahon suffered a traumatic rupture of the right eyeball resulting in blindness to the eye.
Mr McMahon gave evidence to Lord Jones at the Court of Sessions that he had been relocating a couple of spectators who had strayed from the path and was returning to his golf buggy when the accident happened.
Mr McMahon claims that no warning shout had been given and that Mr Dear should have been aware that he was in line between the rough from where the shot was played and the green of the sixth hole on the Leven Links course. It is alleged that, had the gofer taken reasonable care, Mr McMahon would not have been hit in the eye by the golf ball.
Gavin Dear denied the claim for being hit in the eye by a golf ball, stating in evidence that neither he nor the two men who accompanied him on the round of golf saw Mr McMahon or the alleged spectators.
Although he admitted to seeing a golf buggy, he proceeded to play his approach shot due to the absence of any activity in its vicinity. Mr Dear maintained that he acted at all times with reasonable care and that it was only after the ball was struck that Mr McMahon emerged without warning from behind the golf buggy.
The hearing before Lord Jones continues.