Fans pay good money for major championship tickets. In the case of this week’s 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, upwards of $300. That may sound like an arm and a leg, but it doesn’t compare to actually losing an arm and a leg, as one fan nearly learned on Friday.
It all began on the 529-yard par-4 16th on Friday when contender Aaron Rai lost his drive to right, his ball coming to a rest in the deep rough with a large tree blocking his angle to the green. Rai said “YOLO” (or would have if anyone still said “YOLO”), and decided to try flight one low under the branches. Fans gathered to watch the carnage ensue, never imagining for a moment that carnage might include themselves.
Aaron Rai is one of us @PGAChampionship pic.twitter.com/TvUtvhCVWp
— Gretz (@gretz4thewin) May 16, 2025
Oh wow, Aaron Rai nearly just domed somebody up here on 16. Drilled a tree instead and it bounced back into the fairway. Legit scary. pic.twitter.com/X0FHPIvm33
— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterNS) May 16, 2025
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Honestly, this is smooth-brain behavior from these supposed ball-knowers, who lined up five yards to the right of Rai’s clubface, with the line arcing back toward the ball the farther from Rai it got. Unsurprisngly, at the tail end of the thrill-seeking queue, a fan in a blue shirt nearly had his bait and tackle obliterated as Rai’s shanked his shot low and right, striking the tree at waist height about 18 inches from the fan’s belt buckle.
Luckily the ball struck the tree and bounced back toward the fairway instead of the spectators, but watching the video in slow motion, you can see the fan made no attempt to step away from the ball until after it struck the tree and ricocheted back in the other direction. Why? Because it was moving so fast, he couldn’t see it, let alone react to it in time. If Rai had mishit his shot another millimeter or two on the clubface, this man would be squeaking three octaves up on a urologist’s operating table right now.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen but let this be a lesson to us all: If you want to get up close and personal with the golfers at a major, do so you from up-range. Your ability to one day bring your children with you may depend on it.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
