The NCAA Division 1 National Golf Championship ended in bizarre fashion for Oregon Junior Gregory Solhaug who was forced out of the competition after his foot was impaled by a golf tee.
The one of a kind injury was something that Oregon Men’s Golf Coach Casey Martine says he had never seen, according to Golf Digest:
“I’ve been in golf nearly 50 years and have never seen anything like that. He was in a lot of pain.”
The wooden tee somehow managed to pierce through Solhaug’s shoe and penetrate into his foot on the second hole at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. In a statement that was provided to Golf Week, Rick Nixon, the NCAA’s associate director for media coordination and statistics, said the following:
“Oregon student-athlete, Gregory Solhaug, suffered a foot injury during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships and was forced to withdraw from competition. Oregon, which completed Saturday’s second round with four players, will have the option to substitute another player into their team lineup for subsequent competition rounds, as they deem appropriate.”
The Oregon golf team’s Twitter account sent out a get-well message to their injured player shortly after play concluded. Many fans of the sport also chimed in with their support for Solhaug:
“Thinking of junior Greg Solhaug, who was forced to withdraw from today’s round due to injury.”
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Thinking of junior Greg Solhaug, who was forced to withdraw from today's round due to injury. pic.twitter.com/gxXtAeJLai
— Oregon Men's Golf (@OregonMGolf) May 27, 2023
Some fans were baffled on Twitter that a tee was able to pierce through a shoe, with one user saying, “How does a wooden tee pierce the bottom of a golf shoe, which is hard plastic and spikes? So bizarre but hope the young man is okay.”
Another user blamed the incident on shoes that are cheaply made with foreign labor, saying, “I agree how does a tee go through a golf shoe? They don’t make them like they use to! Cheap china shoes, just saying!”
The injury also had major consequences for the Oregon team, which was forced to go to a backup following the untimely injury, as Golf Digest wrote:
To make the 54-hole stroke-play cut at this week’s NCAA Championship, Oregon needed to make up seven shots on the teams sitting just inside the top 15 bubble, Stanford and Brigham Young, during Sunday’s third round at Grayhawk Golf Club. The Ducks also had to do it with a new player in their lineup, Gabriel Hari, after a freak injury forced junior Greg Solhaug to withdraw in the middle of the second round on Saturday.
Oregon would go on to miss the cut, finishing at 42 over par as a team. That finishing total was good enough to earn them 27th place at the National Championships.
The NCAA Championship will be decided in a championship match on Wednesday May 31st. The top two teams will meet in a winner take all match that will be aired on the Golf Channel at 2 o’clock mt.