Teen golfer injured with own club

Wayne County, N.C. — A fit of anger landed a Wayne County golfer in the hospital Saturday and taught his foursome a lesson they will never forget.

Clark Rose said the round at Walnut Creek Country Club started off as normal. He was playing with Taylor Gardner, a friend and teammate on the Wayne Christian golf team.

Rose said everyone was playing well until they made their approach on to the fourth green.

"Taylor hits a bad shot, he gets mad, slams his club against the cart, the club breaks in half and stabs him in the stomach," Rose described.

The broken club went about 6 inches into Taylor Gardner's stomach, then pierced his intestine.

Hayden Gardner, Taylor's brother, saw what happened. "It kind of, like, wrapped around and just shot straight at him," he said.

"When he fell down and said he was bleeding, we actually didn't believe him at all and we went over and it was bleeding pretty bad," Hayden Gardner said.

The foursome put Taylor Gardner in the golf cart and rushed him to the clubhouse, where they called an ambulance.

"His face was turning white, his lips were turning white," Rose said. "It was just bad."

Taylor Gardner lost a lot of blood and had emergency surgery.

By Monday, he was on a ventilator, but was expected to recover fully.

"They've all been saying he's lucky," Hayden Gardner said of his brother.

His injury has served as a lesson for his golf buddies.

"You don't want to be throwing clubs or anything cause something like that could happen again," Rose said.