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World number three Jon Rahm drew first blood at the 151st Open Championship – but not in the way he intended after a fan sustained a head injury from one of his errant shots.
The Masters champion sprayed his tee shot at the 12th into the gallery where it struck a man close to his right temple and left him with blood streaming down the side of his face.
By the time Rahm arrived on the scene the spectator was already receiving treatment but the Spaniard then discovered there was insult to add to the injury he had inflicted as his ball had ricocheted into the nearby bunker and was so close to the face he had no option but to play out back towards the tee.
“How are you?” asked the Ryder Cup star. “OK. How’s your lie?” replied the fan. “It’s terrible,” was Rahm’s response.
More pain was to follow for the golfer at least as he could only bogey the 442-yard par-four and that dropped him to one over.
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The Spaniard was not in the best of moods after bogeys at 16 and 18 saw him finish three over but he was at least pleased the fan appeared not to have suffered any serious injury.
“On that hole right is the place to miss and I knew if you go to that area you can get it somewhere close to the green with the lie but you never want to hit someone,” he said.
“He was OK. He told me he was a little dizzy so hopefully there is no concussion and it’s nothing too serious.
“Wherever the ball goes it’s secondary at that point. He did ask about the lie. It would’ve been the break of the year if it had finished on the fairway.
“You can’t ask for that at that point, you just hope he is OK because as soon as I walked off the tee I heard the call for the medics and you don’t want to get too scared when something like that happens.”
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