GREELEY, Colo. — What happened to a Colorado golfer last Monday can only be categorized as a freak accident – it involves a golf club, a driving range, and a 5-inch-long eye bolt.
Golfer Matt Gutierrez was looking forward to competing in the Greeley Country Club Pro-Am tournament last week.
While swinging his wedge club during a practice session, it caught the boundary rope in front of him and yanked the eye bolt out of the ground where it had been anchoring the rope.
The eye bolt flew at him as if launched from a slingshot and slammed into his left leg. It actually pierced his bone, according to KDVR.
“I didn’t even feel it go into my knee, surprisingly,” Gutierrez said. “I was actually more concerned about my club because it had a big yellow rope around it. I looked down, and that bolt’s sticking out of my knee.”
Gutierrez, with the eye bolt still in his leg, was taken by ambulance to the North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley.
“They unscrewed it and pulled at one time,” Gutierrez said.
After two hospital visits, and an operation to arrest a painful infection in the bone, Gutierrez is on the mend.
He admits this is a once-in-a-lifetime freak accident, but is concerned about what he calls “a potential hazard.”
The Greeley Country Club has since removed the boundary rope and, just to be safe, will not be reinstalling it.
Last year, Gutierrez made a hole-in-one, so he knows what it’s like to experience something others may never do in their lifetime. Gutierrez says he’s going to keep the bolt as a souvenir, and, when he heals, the country club has a free round of golf waiting for him.