Exclusive: Ponte Vedra Beach doctor settles suit against Inn & Club over errant golf ball: ‘It was like a gunshot’

An botched tee shot can ruin more than your scorecard.

A Ponte Vedra Beach doctor has settled a longstanding lawsuit against the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club and a member after being hit in the head with a golf ball in Nov. 2020.

According to her suit, the woman was strolling along San Juan Drive near the prestigious North Florida institution just as a golfer was lining up his seventh hole tee shot.

But rather than finding the fairway, the player — who runs a successful citrus oil company — sent the ball whizzing out onto the street, according to court papers.

The ball struck the unsuspecting doctor in the head — and felt like a “gunshot,” according to her suit.

“I just put my hands to my head,” she said. “I was wearing a hat, so I removed my hat, and then i just basically put my hands on my head and it felt like gushy. I looked at my hand and it was basically covered in blood.”

She “suffered both temporary and permanent losses, injuries and damages,” the suit alleges.

“Headaches every single day when I wake up is one of the major things that I did not have prior to the accident,” she said during a marathon deposition.

She also asserted that the injury makes it difficult for her to walk long distances.

The Citizen is not naming either party.

A lawyer for PVIC repeatedly pressed her on the severity of the damage, highlighting that an initial evaluation immediately after the incident only revealed a laceration. He also questioned the extent of her lost wages.

The physician initially filed suit against both the golfer and the club in Feb. 2021, setting off nearly four-years of legal combat that finally concluded with this week’s confidential settlement.

The case alleged that the club “created a foreseeable zone of risk” to pedestrians walking along San Juan Road and was “negligent in failing to take adequate precautions” to shield them from shanked balls.

Both sides drew testimony from dueling experts over several years before this week’s accord, generating thousands of court docket pages over that period.

The case was nearly brought to trial several times, before settlement talks were revived.

A PVIC spokesperson declined to comment.