Golfer, official rescue driver from car that plunged into California canal; golfer then went back to complete his round

INDIO, Calif. — A golfer in the middle of his round during a Southern California Golf Association championship and an SCGA official jumped into a canal at a golf course Tuesday to extricate a driver from a car that was submerged in the water.

“I have never seen an incident like this,” said Jeff Ninnemann, director of championships and golf operations for the SCGA, who leaped into the Coachella branch of the All-American Canal that runs through the 36-hole Terra Lago Golf Resort. “I was certain when the water started filling and we could not get that door open, I was certain it was going to end a lot worse.”

Battalion Chief Jorge Segura of CalFire in Indio said that sometime before 10:30 a.m., a driver of a Nissan Pathfinder went off the road near the clubhouse at Terra Lago and cut through an empty lot filled with trees, piles of sand and rock and even boulders. Tournament officials said they believed the driver was having a seizure behind the wheel.

Without hitting anything in the lot, the vehicle splashed into the canal running between the greens on two holes, the ninth holes on the North and South courses, where golfers were playing in the SCGA Amateur Net Championship. That tournament features 156 golfers from throughout Southern California. The surface of the water is about six feet below the embankment and only the roof of the car was still above the water as it sat on the bottom of the canal.

Ninnemann was on the first tee of one of the courses acting as starter when the incident happened.

“We got a call over the radio, it sounded like a cart with a ‘T’ had driven into the canal,” Ninnemann said. “So our immediate reaction was someone needed to verify what has happened and if there is a person that is in the canal, we may need to call 911 if they in fact got hurt. I saw more and more people running over here and then it became clear it wasn’t a cart, it was a car.”

When he arrived at the canal, Ninnemann found golfer Brett Fox of Simi Valley, California, already in the canal trying to get the door open on the car.

“Fox is in the canal because the driver is in the car and they cannot get the door open,” Ninnemann said. “Brett was calling for additional help. He said he needed help getting the door open.”

Ninnemann then jumped into the canal.

“We kept trying on that driver’s side door and Fox told me to swim over to the passenger-side door because he thought the driver was attempting to get out,” Ninnemann said. “The driver started to come to, but I don’t think he was fully functional. Fox thought he was trying to get out through the passenger side, so I went over to the passenger side. I was on that side, and Fox eventually got him out the driver’s side window.”

Someone on the bank of the canal tossed a rope down, Ninnemann said, and the driver was pulled up the concrete bank to safety. Ninnemann and Fox then used a nearby ladder in the concrete to crawl out of the canal.

“I’m still shaken to the core,” Ninnemann said “That water is ice cold. And somehow Fox is out and he wanted to resume his round. The guy is a hero today.”

After being given some time and a change of clothes, Fox returned to his round in the championship. He declined to talk about the incident.

Segura said the driver was already on the bank of the canal when his CalFire team arrived. In all, about a dozen CalFire and Indio police vehicles were on the scene.

“We are really lucky here in Indio that all of our equipment has paramedics on them and we have our own ambulances as well,” Segura said. “We had a couple of our firefighters and paramedics look at him and access him and we transported him to (John F. Kennedy) hospital.”

The driver was listed in stable condition Tuesday afternoon.

Segura said he couldn’t speak to a possible seizure of the driver, but said the driver was fortunate people were around to help.

“Fortunately, it was kind of a soft landing, and he’s okay” Segura said. “And he was wearing a seat belt.”

This is the second incident of a vehicle going into the canal at Terra Lago in 15 months. In January 2022, a maintenance vehicle fell into the canal just about 200 yards from Monday’s incident. In that first incident, the vehicle overturned and was upside down in the canal, and the driver was trapped and drowned.