Golfer liability

Kentucky has no statute on injuries caused by golf balls. The rules come from a small number of court decisions, some of them old, so they should be read with caution. In general a golfer is not responsible for every bad shot, but can be liable for failing to use reasonable care for people within range.

Care and the duty to warn

In Kelly v. Forester (1958), Kentucky’s highest court repeated its earlier statement that a golfer must use ordinary care for the safety of people reasonably within the range of danger, and must give notice to people who are unaware a shot is coming and are placed so as to be in danger. The court accepted that no player can fully control where a ball goes.

In that case a golfer mishit a shot and struck his playing partner, who was standing off to the side and watching the swing. The golfer was not liable. The court said the duty to warn ordinarily reaches only people in the intended line of play.

Risks that players accept

In Hoke v. Cullinan (1995), a case about a tennis injury, the Kentucky Supreme Court held that a participant in an athletic contest is liable to another participant only for reckless or intentional conduct, not for ordinary carelessness. That decision did not involve golf, and the older golf cases speak of ordinary care, so how the two fit together would be for a court to decide. Hoke concerns players, not passersby or neighbors.

Roads and homes beside a course

In Lexington Country Club v. Stevenson (1965), a passenger in a car on the club’s driveway, which crossed a fairway, lost an eye to a golf ball. The court held the club liable for exposing its guests to an unnecessary risk without warnings or special rules for the hole. The jury cleared the golfer, who had played the hole in the normal way.

Kentucky’s published decisions do not appear to set a special rule for homes beside a course. Ordinary principles of reasonable care apply, and the deed restrictions or easements for a lot next to a course may address stray balls.

Golf carts and alcohol

A city or county may allow golf carts on designated public roads by ordinance. The road must have a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour or less, the operator must carry a valid driver’s license, the cart must be insured, and the operator must follow the traffic laws (KRS 189.286). Kentucky’s impaired driving statute applies to operating a motor vehicle “anywhere in this Commonwealth” (KRS 189A.010).