English golfer Aaron Rai caused a huge scare at the PGA Championship after firing his tee shot towards spectators. Rai began the second round in contention after his four-under-par 67 on Thursday, but had fallen back by one shot by the time he reached the 16th.
The Englishman then endured a nightmare off the tee on the 535-yard par-four. It’s regarded as one of the toughest holes on the course, and Rai opted to play safe with an iron. Rather than find the fairway, though, he completely mishit his shot, and his ball sped low towards the crowd on the right-hand side.
Spectators barely had time to react as the ball narrowly missed them and cannoned back off a tree trunk. Having endured a narrow escape, people them scrambled to see where Rai’s ball had landed, with the tree just yards away from where he’d stood to take his drive.
On ESPN, one commentator explained: “He was back in his stance just trying desperately to keeo the ball low and and under the tree and you can see, arms went across, grabbed the heel of the club, went directly right and slammed into that tree.”
Footage of the incident soon went viral on social media and fans reacted, with @RKalland writing on X: “Aaron Rai almost domed someone there.” @TimRantz referred to the man standing inches from the tree, adding: “Aaron Rai almost just killed a guy.”
Many others echoed the same sentiments, with @SpencerSharpe20 writing: “Aaron Rai legitimately almost killed someone…. My goodness.” @MaybeNotDan added #shank to his line of “Aaron Rai literally almost killed someone.”
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