Admit it, we’ve all done it, right?! The HAPPY GILMORE Golf Swing where we’d take a couple of steps runnin’ and then swing like you just don’t care and hope to God it hits the ball somehow. It’s a mix of hockey and golf, the perfect combination to sports comedy but just as the parental advise at the end of every show that says ‘kids don’t try this at home’, trying HAPPY GILMORE Golf Swing with your friends may not be such a good idea after all, because after the laugh ends, the lawsuit begins…
Here’s what happened to one unlucky bastard according to Holllywood Reporter…
A judge in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Canada, has just ruled that the “Happy Gilmore shot” breaches a duty of care on the golf course.
In the case, the plaintiff sued after the defendant tried to impress his golfing buddies during a bachelor party outing that included beer, tequila, and marijuana. On the 16th hole, under the influence, Travis Hayter whipped out his “Happy Gilmore shot,” which the court defined in 2008 as “running from five to ten feet behind the ball and hitting it on the run.”
The ball leapt up and struck the plaintiff in the wrist, then in the chest, causing permanent damage to the radial nerve. The plaintiff no longer was able to return to his former work as a woodsman on account of the incident.
Let’ see here, there were beer, tequila and marijuana involved. I doubt such injury would be this bad if the douchebag attempting the golf swing wasn’t so drunk, wasted, and high as a kite.
But this goes to show that some things are better left on the screen and not in real life.
Who did the plaintiff sue?
Travis Hayter, the one who pulled the HAPPY GILMORE golf swing
He was ordered to pay the defendant $75,000 in damages
Oh I gotcha. I didn’t read your blog careful enough. For some reason I thought the ball had bounced back and hit him. I was thinking “who the hell is he suing if he hit himself?” haha
That ruling is stupid. I’m a scratch golfer and I hit the Happy Gilmore shot all the time for fun. My high school golfers do it too. The plaintiff could have got hit with the golf ball with a regular stance and swing. The Gilmore swing had nothing to do with it. It was all the booze and drugs that had the defendant incapacited enough to try something stupid. Not the actual swing itself. Playing golf all high and drunk was the stupid thing… not the Gilmore swing. He deserved the judgement but the Gilmore swing just got a bad rap by a judge that probably doesn’t even play golf. haha
you’re right..
but the ruling unfortunately stays..
HAPPY GILMORE swing is now illegal in Canada… unfreakin’believable! LOL