Yikes: Fairway Sinkhole Swallows Golfer

Marlon Walker reports on Mark Mihal's scary experience at Annbriar Golf Course's 14th hole.

The incident in which Mihal was below ground for about 20 minutes with a dislocated shoulder came just a week after the tragedy in Brandon, Florida.

“I was standing in the middle of the fairway,” Mihal said Monday. “Then, all of a sudden, before I knew it, I was underground.”

Mihal said he fell into the mud floor of an enclosure shaped like a bell, up to 18 feet deep and 10 feet wide. The rescue was precarious, he said, because no one knew whether the surface hole would grow or the enclosure would collapse.

Update on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 07:51 AM by Geoff

**It's become a national story. The Good Morning America take:

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Comments

[Willie]

After it was over, he picked up his ball and put it in his pocket. He was, after all, out of the hole.

Aside from that, I'm thinking of strapping 12 feet of 2x4 to my torso wherever I go, just in case. Won't be able to walk through doorways, but it's a small price to pay.

[digsouth]

WOW!

Scary stuff...I can imagine how his mind was racing waiting for them to get the rope and ladder, knowing a person had just died a couple of weeks earlier from a sinkhole--and his body has not been recovered.

Glad he is OK.

[fyg]

What is happening in Louisiana with the sink holes and methane gas, plus possible oil leaks in the Gulf of Mexico, is really scary.

It is not getting reporting much nationally.

I can't help but think that this fracking business that goes on in the pursuit of oil is going to have some serious long term repercussions.

[Brad]

Willie, just turn sideways when you go through doorways. You should be fine. :)

[RES]

I think this episode can be summed up very succintly in two words. And those words are "crap" and "holy".

[RLL]

@fyg: agree with you. I always imagine an episode of Star Trek where the Enterprise looks down on a planet that has radio'd for emergency evacuation because the planet is collapsing in on itself, and Bones says, "What were they thinking!?" And Spock answers, "They sucked all the liquid, gas, and minerals out of the planet's core in order to power the little carts that moved them around on the surface while also poisoning their atmosphere from the effort. It took hundreds of years, but logically, how could it have ended any other way?"

[Jeff]

On the bright side, he did record the first ever "One in Hole" in golf history...

[Too soon?]

This is what happens when you over water a golf course. Firm and fast is the way to go.

[Willie]

fyg and RLL:

Now do the right thing and send in your donations to Green Peace, RFK Jr., etc. . . . Never let a tragedy to go waste.

Other than that, hard to argue with a guy who gets his scientific/ecological bonafides from Star Trek.

Now, where were we?

Oh, I hear the R&A Trust is recommending they expand the sinkhole, steepen the face, etc...

[Golden Bell]

Gophers. It's always the gophers.

[digsouth]

fyg--- the first video is from a few years back- and it is scary as hell--- this is not from ''fracking- just from poor geologicl work and the hole being drilled in the wromg place--- this video is worht watching--some AMAZING video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddlrGkeOzsI


This second video is about the dome collaps which is currently happening, and as fyg noted, is being overlooked by the national press-

I WONDER WHY?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kprEOkRsV1c

tHIS IS IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND THIS IS *RIGHT NOW*!!!!!!


Willie-

Your R&A thoughts are worthy of national exposure. I hope Geoff links your statement up to the right people, ir Steve or one of the boys runs with it.

I give you a

+3 !

[Wayne]

These sinkholes that are swallowing houses and people are in Florida, not in Louisiana which is 100s of miles away. If you frack in Florida you are likely to get lots of brackish water.

[Goldie]

Whoa! This is certainly something I never thought would happen. Because I don't have much time to go out, I usually stay indoors and use stuff from http://shop.annestone.com/collections/putt-a-round to improve my putting game.

[Jennie]

@Goldie, I have those ball targets from http://shop.annestone.com/collections/putt-a-round, too! My nephews are learning golf thanks to them.