On April 19, Mike Norman, a former Henderson County Public Schools teacher and coach, was enjoying the day with his wife and nephew at the 2024 RBC Heritage, a PGA Tour event at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
“We had tickets for Friday’s round, and we just decided to make a weekend out of it,” said Norman, who was an educator from 1988-2014, and longtime coach for the Hendersonville High varsity girls basketball team in North Carolina.
But their day on the links was cut short when something unexpected happened.
“It was about 9:30 that morning on hole No. 1. We had just watched three groups go off. We were standing at the ropes about where landing zone was. The ropes were at the edge of the rough, so there wasn’t much room for error,” he said. “Sepp Straka teed off and the ball clocked me in the head.”
Norman, 66, said the force from the blow knocked him off his feet.
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“It surprised all of us. There was blood, but I never lost consciousness. The next thing I knew, they were calling for the EMS people and first responders at the course. They were treating me there and told me I could go to the hospital if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to, so I refused,” he said. “It was so early … I just didn’t want to leave that early.”
As he was being treated, he looked up and Straka was standing there.
“He kept telling me he was very, very sorry, and I told him, ‘I’m OK.’ He asked for my phone number and then went back to playing,” Norman said.
Norman, his wife, Sharman, and his nephew, Davis, stayed on the course and watched a couple more groups come through.
“We started walking back along the course, and when we did, my head kind of reopened. My wife turned around and looked at me and said I had blood running down the side of my face,” Norman said. “They called EMS again. It was about 1 p.m. They got there, and after tending to it again, they suggested I go back to the hotel and take it easy for the rest of the day.”
Norman said he’s been to several professional golf tournaments, including the Masters once and the U.S. Open twice, but this was the first time he had been hit by a ball. His injury didn’t require stitches, he said.
While the knock on the head was unfortunate, Norman said he received a far more pleasant surprise later that day.
“After Straka finished his round that day, he sent me a text message asking me again how I was. He asked for my address and then he said he’d send me something,” he said.
As for the ball that’s likely blood-stained, it has yet to be found, Norman said.
“When it hit off my head, it went out of bounds, so Straka had to go tee off again. He said he didn’t even go look for the ball,” Norman said.
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