Forensic work is best understood through the cases themselves. The examples below — drawn from founder Michael S. Johnstone’s investigations and presented without identifying details — show the range of golf course safety and design matters the firm handles, on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants alike.
Errant ball · Course routing · Player injury
A golfer was struck in the head by a tee shot while standing near the green of a hole that ran parallel to — but in the opposite direction from — the hole being played. The investigation showed the accident was both foreseeable and preventable. The two holes sat only about 186 feet apart; the cart path was routed so that players waited directly in the landing area of shots from the neighboring tee; and a tree line meant to act as a buffer instead blocked sightlines and prevented any verbal warning. Using a “safety cone” — the zone where the large majority of tee shots can be expected to land — Michael demonstrated that shots would predictably reach the very spot where the victim stood.
Principle — a danger built into a hole’s layout is foreseeable, and the responsibility of those who can design it out.
Standard of care · Wildlife · Course defense
A player was bitten by a rattlesnake while searching for a lost ball deep in the native desert terrain of an award-winning southwestern course, and the course was
sued. Retained for the defense, the firm conducted a thorough investigation: the course had hosted roughly 15,000 rounds a year for years without a single reported snakebite; the surrounding region was renowned for its biodiversity; and the plaintiffs — local residents familiar with the area — had passed multiple posted “Rattlesnake Habitat” signs before hiking well off the fairway and up a rocky slope to look for the ball. Michael laid out the standards of care for both the course
and the players, and showed that the USGA rules expressly treat wildlife as an inherent part of the game. The matter resolved in a settlement the defense was
very pleased with.
Principle — a rigorous, well-documented standard-of-care analysis can be as decisive for a defendant as for a plaintiff.
Golf cart safety · Tournament operations · Wrongful death
At a charity tournament, a 64-year-old volunteer riding on the rear of an overloaded golf cart fell and died of her injuries, and her family brought a wrongful-death claim against the organizer, the course, the sponsors, and the cart’s operators. The firm reviewed the incident against the specific industry guidelines that govern golf carts and the additional rules that apply at tournaments and events — examining volunteer training and supervision, vehicle checkout and maintenance, occupancy and load limits, the serving and consumption of alcohol, speed and terrain, and post-accident reporting. The case settled before trial.
Principle — at organized events, safety depends on operations and supervision as much as on the course itself.
Causation · Cart paths · Hidden danger
A 69-year-old player drove her cart off a curb she could not see; the cart dropped onto the path, crossed it, and went down a steep embankment, leaving her seriously injured. The investigation found a confluence of causes — none of them the driver’s. To rehabilitate the turf, the course had instructed players to drive closer to the green and had removed the directional signs that normally sent carts off the fairway earlier. The new line of travel concealed a six-and-a-half-inch curb at the lip of a steep slope, with another unmaintained, loose-gravel slope directly across the path. The player followed the course’s own instructions and had no way to anticipate the danger that had been created. Tellingly, the course replaced the signs and installed a guardrail immediately after the accident.
Principle — liability often turns not on the player’s care, but on whether a hazard was foreseeable and preventable by the course.
Michael’s expertise has reached well beyond the courtroom. Following the 2018 Ryder Cup, where a spectator was struck by an errant shot and lost the sight in one eye, he was interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live about spectator safety — arguing, as he long has, for prevention over reaction: wider margins between play and crowds, and better public understanding of just how dangerous a ball traveling at high speed can be.
Michael S. Johnstone, AIA, was interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live following the Ryder Cup accident where a spectator was struck by an errant golf ball and lost the vision in her right eye. The incident raised international attention in the golf community and regarding spectator safety at sporting events in general. Here is an excerpt from Up All Night with Lisa McCormick that aired October 5, 2018.
Host Lisa McCormick: The recent success in Europe’s Ryder Cup also served to highlight an issue that’s been affecting the game of golf. A female spectator was struck by an errant shot during this year’s event that resulted in her losing her sight in her right eye. Then yesterday, another woman was hit on the forehead while watching the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Kingsbarns Golf Course in St. Andrews. Fortunately, she escaped serious injury.
Incidents like these have resulted in some soul searching: How to make the game safer? Let’s talk in greater detail with Michael Johnstone who is a forensic golf course architect in North Carolina… Michael, what do you make of this?
Michael Johnstone: The effect it has on this woman’s life, of course, effects us all…. In the U.S., there are approximately 40,000 players a year who are injured by errant golf shots or by someone swinging their club and striking them in the head. So, this is not an unusual circumstance on the golf course.
Host: In what way can a golf course design make a difference, Michael?
Michael Johnstone: Well, I can talk about design for the normal play on a golf course, but in this particular case, the tournament makes the environment quite different because so many spectators are introduced to what I call “the playing field”, and there are people that don’t necessarily understand that a golf ball can move at a rate of 170 miles per hour. It’s a hard little object and if it strikes you in the temple or the eye or the jaw, it can actually be lethal.
Host: Is it just something that we have to accept as part and parcel of watching live sporting events like this? If you want to stand in a good position, there is a risk that something like this could happen?
Michael Johnstone: When I watch tournaments like this and I see this tiny little corridor that the professionals are supposed to hit through, and there are people on either side in this tiny little triangle, I think it is a mistake. People need to be pulled back further, but also there should be some education about the fact that it is possibly dangerous. When someone yells fore, F-O-R-E, people should turn away from the ball and put their hands up over the temples of their head to try to protect themselves.
Host: I’ve never been to a big golfing event, but are you given any sort of guidance or advice along those lines?
Michael Johnstone: Well, unfortunately in the U.S., we tend to respond to things after someone has been injured rather than to be preventative, which is a shame… We do that in healthcare, we do that with weather events, etc. …
Host: Sure… yeah, do you think then that with these recent events highlighting it as an issue, it can change the way we watch things like this in the future, the way spectator sports are done?
Michael Johnstone: I certainly hope so… We’re putting in this case thousands of people in harms way… of course they want to lean in to see a little more. We need to give them a little broader triangle. Even the professional golfers are just human beings. They are not going to hit it perfectly each time. I think education is a big thing and prevention would be really important to try to reduce the number of people who are injured this way.
Host: Michael, it’s good to hear from you and to share your expertise with us. Thanks for joining us on Up All Night… Michael Johnstone who is a forensic golf course architect in North Carolina. I like that… You go to a dinner party and someone asks what do you do? “I’m a forensic golf course architect.” That’s naturally going to be one of those titles you’re going to say, “What is that?”