News Story: Golf ball darn near kilt him!

[MACKAY]

MADISON NATIVE and 1969 Memorial High School graduate Andy Willett has one of the more unusual stories to tell in the June issue of Golf Digest, dubbed the "feel issue" by the magazine.

Spanish star Sergio Garcia talks about how good touch with a golf club comes from instinct and practice. Teaching legend Bob Toski encourages keeping grip pressure constant for good feel in putting.

Willett's contribution, as I said, is a little different. He talks about what it feels like to get hit in the face by a golf ball driven over 250 yards. Willett today is a certified public accountant in Delavan. But last summer events conspired to have him walking the stunning links of Whistling Straits, near Kohler, wearing a kilt and carrying bagpipes, a week before the PGA Championship. Willett was in the employ of CBS Television, which found him through his bagpipe teacher, Doug Stewart of Elkhorn.

Because Whistling Straits resembles one of the great links courses of Scotland or Ireland, the network decided that having a bagpiper strolling the links would add some atmosphere to the opening sequences of its telecasts.

Unfortunately for Willett, he was strolling the 13th fairway - which can't be seen from the back tee on that hole - when he met his fate.

"A ball hit me right above the eye," Willett tells Golf Digest. "It didn't knock me out. It didn't even knock me to the ground. But within seconds there was blood streaming down my face. It was like getting hit by a thick tree branch."

I actually spoke to Willett last August, shortly after he got beaned. It's not included with the Golf Digest piece, but he said that CBS showed considerable class after the incident, putting him up at the American Club and getting him tickets for the tournament the following week. He wound up getting five stitches at a local hospital and a story to tell for a lifetime.

"I guess it was worth it." Willett says. "If you remember CBS' opening to the tournament, right after they showed Tiger, they showed a bagpiper playing. That was me."...
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Brian Mackay

[Enzayer]

You know, for some strange reason, I think that maybe that wasn't as much of an accident as we should believe. Some people just don't appreciate traditional bagpipe music.

[chasem]

haha it's really hard to hit someone at range with a golf ball! :P

Umm, not that I've ever tried or anything...

[GMan]

OK which one of you guys saw me playing golf?

Loved the story

[Freedomlover]

...from the opener, that he might have gotten a wicked bounce. A head pop is nothing compared to that.

[Jimmy Carbomb]

Tough price to pay for a cameo and some free tickets!

We'll see how the hit affects his judgement. If he plays the pipes in pants from now on, we'll have to wonder.

He's lucky that the ball hit him and not one of those expensive drones!

[bear]

Most importantly, how was the lie of the ball?