This is a story that I will never forget as it nearly led to a long life friendship being - lost. My dad use to play golf with three of his best friends for many years. Every Sunday it was a standing appointment for them to play 18 holes and have a good laugh and talk about the things happening during the week One of them was named Harry Nash he played for the South African soccer team somewhere in the 1960 or 1970 I really cannot remember exactly when but he was one of the four. This went on for many years and they absolutely loved it until one day when Japie, one of the others landed under a tree. He used his golfing iron to hit from under this tree. As he was swinging his iron to hit the ball he hit a branch on top of him and the club part broke off and hit him on his head.
He was totally lights out. They looked at him and decided to carry him to the next hole; this was the 7th hole. He knew nothing about it as he was basically lights out. They then carried and put him in the shade under a tree and played on, taking him from tree to tree. They still had a few holes left before the 9th hole so they just kept on playing and carried him along.
Remember there were no cell phones those days and they had to get to the clubhouse to phone for an ambulance. When they arrived at the clubhouse they phoned and the ambulance came and took him to hospital. After they had finished their 18th hole they went to the hospital to see how he was, he had come back to life but could not remember anything. Once he got home a few days later they went and told him what had happened. He was so angry he did not want to play with them or talk to them for at least six months. But being a long-time friend, and them apologising profusely as they did not really think it was that bad, things worked out.
I even remember them playing golf until they were all just too old to manage anymore. My dad loved telling this story as they thought it extremely funny dragging and carrying him from hole to hole. Now some people will think this was cruel but they just wanted to finish their game and get to the halfway house to phone for an ambulance. I must say even he had to laugh at this story as he could just imagine them carrying him and dragging just to get him under a tree as he was not a small man. He always said at least they could not play well because they were so tired.