A little over 40 years ago, I was a camper at Greenwoods in Michigan. I can vividly remember a camper a year older named Robbie walking into the path of someone swinging a golf club and getting hit in the head. He was quite bloody and in a lot of pain, and I believe he even went to the hospital. Golf was one of the activities we did at the camp and if there was a safety presentation, I don’t remember it. That wasn’t really much of a thing back in the 1980’s. Fortunately Robbie turned out fine, or at least as far as I am aware of.
Flash forward to now and there are a bunch of fun places for hitting golf balls and eating food. Topgolf is the industry leader, but there are others with Five Iron Golf and X Golf two prominent ones in Chicago.
These places don’t cater to golfers the way a golf course does. The cater to the whole experience which is fun and includes various games that can be played. It’s a popular place for birthdays, bachelor parties and corporate events. Because there are kids and others not used to the golf course environment. Accidents can happen.
And while it was not in Illinois, Topgolf got hit with a judgment of over $15 million for an injury to a nine year old who suffered a traumatic brain injury when they were hit in the head with a club at a birthday party. The accident description I read sounded really similar to how Robbie got hurt at Greenwoods back in the 80’s. The injured child crossed the red safety line just as another child was starting his swing and he was struck in the forehead.
According to the lawsuit, the child suffered an open depressed skull fracture, orbital roof fracture, cerebral hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury. He had emergency surgery with three titanium plates placed in his skull.
The crux of the lawsuit was that Topgolf failed to provide the required tour and safety talk that a “bay host” is expected to give before guests begin playing. That briefing lays out explicit instructions to stay behind the red line to avoid being struck by a swinging club. Testimony revealed that Topgolf had been aware of such incidents for years and allegedly a safety consultant recommended back in 2013 that they put in safety barriers and/or have staff nearby the hitting bays. Those recommendations were not followed. I imagine they thought it would be too expensive or detract from the user experience.
Topgolf tried to blame the party hosts, but the jury placed Topgolf at 97% fault and the party hosts at 3% fault. Eventually a confidential settlement was reached according to reports.
The lesson for the public is that if you get injured at one of these places and were not given a safety briefing, there is likely a lawsuit. Fortunately these types of tragedies are few and far between, but if you’ve ever been to one of these places, it doesn’t take much imagination to see how these accidents could happen. Nobody can say for sure if a safety lecture would have stopped this from happening, but when it didn’t happen and that is expected to happen, it creates liability.
And if you’ve ever been to one of these places and had to listen to one of these lectures, this is why.
We help people throughout Illinois with injury cases. If you would like a free case review with an attorney, please contact us at 800-517-1614.
