By Robert Bicknell

I was intrigued when I saw an on-line item claiming “Golfers everywhere have discovered the stupidest new trend”, but was frankly very irritated when I saw it.

For those of you who enjoy watching stupid people doing even more stupid things, the link is: (https://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/07/golfers-everywhere-have-discovered-the-stupidest-new-trend-ever).

Let me save you some time and trouble…

In a nutshell, it shows people deliberately running over their friends with a golf car. Yes, you read that right…idiots deliberately running into and sometimes over their friends with a golf car. They even showed a little boy being run over by his little sister in a John Deere toy vehicle. The clip stopped with the car parked on the boy.

What kind of utter stupidity is this?

This is so wrong on so many different levels that it is almost impossible to cover all of them, but let me mention a few…

First of all, a golf car can travel up to 12-14 MPH (19.3 - 22.5 KMPH). Fully loaded with a player and golf bag, an electric golf car can weigh 650 lb (294.8 kg). That is enough speed and weight to do some damage to the person you hit.

Look, not all parts of the golf car are soft. Sure, the body shell is and is supposed to bounce back into shape after a low speed collision, but there is a steel or aluminum frame under that body. That can do some serious damage if the car hits the person in the wrong place.

Broken leg anyone? How about a broken knee. Or an arm when they fall?

Secondly, hitting someone with a golf car is assault with intent to injure. Oh sure, you say nobody was attempting to hurt someone, but if someone did get hurt, they could sue the hell out of the other guy and rightly so.

They had one golf car hitting s guy who just tried to hit over the lake. Yes, the car rammed the guy into the water. What if he hit his head on the way into the water and blacked out? I’ll give you a hint… he could drown and his friends wouldn’t be fast enough to prevent it.

When you’re knocked out cold you will inhale water without knowing it. Say bye bye.

I am not actually surprised that this trend is in the USA where people seem to have lost the capacity to think intelligently, especially if beer is involved  - and golf is a sport where a lot of beer is involved.

However, just in case anyone is curious - if it happens at MY course, that person will be banned for life and all the other clubs in Viet Nam will be informed of the details of the incident. They can decide for themselves what to do.

It takes a special kind of stupid to hit someone with a golf car on purpose.

As players finalize any last minute travel plans for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale next week, I have to look back a bit and say the US Open was a bit disappointing. I expected more carnage and bloodletting from the USGA.

I knew the event was in trouble when they cut down the rough after some complaints from the players. What is the world coming to when the USGA caves in to whining players?

Following the debacle at Chambers Bay (aka “The US Open without grass on the greens”, the USGA became a little gun shy and went looking for ways to make people happy. HMPH… that wasn’t the US Open, it was “JAT” (Just Another Tournament).

Fortunately, we still have the Open Championship coming and it usually provides some satisfactory fireworks, meltdowns and spectacular shot-making as players vie for the Claret Jug.

The R&A set up courses differently in that they tweak the course to be at its honest best, then let Mother Nature and the players provide the drama. When it all works out correctly, there are players losing their minds out there and playing what I consider to be “real golf”.

HINT: “Real golf” isn’t where there is no wind, no rain and the course is perfect. That’s “recreational golf” and is aimed at people who want to have fun, drink a lot of beer…

And apparently run over their friends with golf cars.-VNS