One of your golf bio questions on Golfstinks.com (yes, you have your own golf bio when you become a member) is “what’s your most interesting golf experience.” Well, we’ve been getting some pretty good stories from the members thus far and wanted to open this up to our blog community too.
Let me break the ice by telling my very true tale…
It was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend 2001. A few friends of mine (one of which would later be known as Stinky Golfer Chris) were on a puddle jumper going from Charlotte to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The plan was as follows: Land. Play 18-holes. Eat. Sleep. Play 36-holes. Eat. Sleep. Play 9-holes. Fly back to Connecticut so we could get a good night’s sleep before work on Monday (as you could see, there really wasn’t much time to spare).
So we landed. We played 18-holes at Shipyard Golf Club and since not many people were out on the course that day, we actually finished our round earlier than expected. With daylight to spare, we headed back to the oceanfront condo (Stinky Golfer Chris’ rich uncle let us crash at his summer place) to do a little boogie-boarding before dinner.
So there we were – our foursome splashing and playing in the surf like 6-year-olds – when a wave knocked me off my boogie-board and I fell backwards into the water. I was close to the beach and the water was only about three feet deep. My right hand found the sandy bottom and then it happened – a sharp stabbing pain between my thumb and index finger.
At first, I had no idea what hit me. But I was bleeding from a half-inch gash on top of my hand which seemed to be pretty deep. The pain was pretty bad too. On top of the cut itself hurting, the salt water was making matters worse.
My initial thought was I hit a sharp rock, or perhaps a crab pinched me. But then I felt it – a sting ray brushed by my leg and I was fairly certain that’s what got me. “Oh God, aren’t those things poisonous?” I thought to myself. It’s a good thing the Steve Irwin incident hadn’t happened yet otherwise I would have been freaking out.
By now I was trudging to the beach as fast as I could, worried that my bleeding hand was chumming the water for Great Whites. Despite screaming “AHHHH” when it first happened, none of my foursome seemed particularly concerned about the Jaws scene unfolding in front of them. I distinctly remember one of them still laying out on a beach chair when I pulled myself ashore.
By now it was dinner time, and that (not my throbbing and still bleeding) hand seemed to be the priority. “Sure, I’ll man-up and go to dinner with you guys. Let me just ice-it, wrap-it and we can go” I told them. And that’s what I did. Iced it for about 15 minutes, wrapped it in some gauze (still bleeding, and now slightly discolored in a purplish hue) and off we went to the Outback Steakhouse.
Towards the end of dinner, I announced the pain wasn’t letting up any. I could tell this annoyed them as they had their hearts set on a few more Foster’s before heading home. But when I showed them it was still bleeding – 3 hours later, I think they finally realized they needed to deal with my bitching.
So off to the emergency room we went, where I explained to the nurse what happened. She took one look and exclaimed, “Yep, that was a Stingy. Basically you have two choices. You can stay here and we’ll admit you overnight or you can go home and submerge it in hot water.”
Hot water? I was icing the freaking thing! Turns out hot water (as hot as you can stand it) draws the toxin out (which from the sting ray, by the way, is not fatal – Mr. Irwin died because it stung him in the heart). In addition to the hot water, I needed to visit a medical center the next day to have a doctor see if I needed stitches or antibiotics or both. Crap – there goes one of our tee-times.
The guys were cool though – they came to the doctor’s with me (we missed our morning round) and fortunately, I didn’t need stitches (I did get antibiotics though). Even better, since it was on the top of my hand, it didn’t interfere with my swing! We finished our stay on Hilton Head playing at the beautiful Palmetto Dunes and even more alluring Sea Pines.
A decade later I still have the scar, and the skin around it is still slightly discolored. But, a few years ago, I was at a restaurant that had sting ray on the menu…revenge never tasted so good.
So, what’s your story?
