RESTON, Va. -- Professional golfer Tripp Isenhour has issued a sincere apology for a December 2007 incident in Orlando during which he hit a golf ball into a tree accidentally killing a red-shouldered hawk during the taping of a golf instructional video.
"As soon as this happened, I was mortified and extremely upset and continue to be upset. I want to let everyone know there was neither any malice nor deliberate intent whatsoever to hit or harm the hawk. I was trying to simply scare it into flying away. As evidenced by our family having adopted three cats from a local shelter, I am an animal lover. We ask that everyone accept my sincerest apology, and please be respectful of my family's privacy," Isenhour said.
RESTON, Va. -- Professional golfer Tripp Isenhour has issued a sincere apology for a December 2007 incident in Orlando during which he hit a golf ball into a tree accidentally killing a red-shouldered hawk during the taping of a golf instructional video.
"As soon as this happened, I was mortified and extremely upset and continue to be upset. I want to let everyone know there was neither any malice nor deliberate intent whatsoever to hit or harm the hawk. I was trying to simply scare it into flying away. As evidenced by our family having adopted three cats from a local shelter, I am an animal lover. We ask that everyone accept my sincerest apology, and please be respectful of my family's privacy," Isenhour said.
my suggestion is no jail time......but off the tour for 1 year
and 1000 hours working with animal protection services.
Seems a bit extreme to me, hjack:
Take away a man's livelihood for a full year -- his innocent family and charities suffer, too -- and demand a half year of his working life (2,000 hours is considered full-time) . . . for accidentally killing a bird?
And it was an accident. His intent was to scare it away, not kill it. And while he may have aimed at the bird, he had no real thought he could hit it, much less kill it. After the bird was down, he attempted to save it by calling in a veternarian. He's adopted three stray cats from his local animal shelter. Does this sound like the profile of an animal abuser?
It was a one-in-a-million shot for goodness sakes. He was almost a football field away with a golf ball -- not a gun -- and a very small hole in the sky through which to send it. In fact, had somebody handed him a rifle and told him to shoot the bird -- that definitely would have stopped the offensive noise -- there's no way he would have done it.
Tripp has already suffered significantly and is obviously remorseful. That was evident to anyone who saw his interview tonight on The Golf Channel. How is society served by inflicting such severe additional punishment in this freak situation? Even the law pegs the financial damage at only $1,500. Quite a difference from the price you would extract.
And here I thought my bracelet had a typo, thanks Yoda!
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"In my experience, if you stay with the essentials you WILL build a repeatable swing undoubtedly. If you can master the Imperatives you have a champion" (Vikram).
The reason you can't sustain the lag is because you are so eager to make the club move fast (a reaction to the intent of "hitting it far"). So on a full shot you throw it away too early, which doesn't happen for your short chip. (bts)
i ask only 1 thing here...lets take this seriously..........outright animal abuse......absolutely pisses (sorry delete if you care to) me off
hjack
HJ,
I didn't start this thread as a discussion regarding the guilt or innocence of Tripp. This thread is about how a very public incident can work its way into our golf lexicon.
Other than Bucket's behavioral issues, promoting animal abuse isn't tolerated here.
Two thumbs up for Yoda's definition. I was thinking along the lines of "wayward shots that land you so deep in the woods you're in jail".
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Bagger
1-H "Because of questions of all kinds, reams of additional detail must be made available - but separately, and probably endlessly." Homer Kelly
This is a pretty sad and unfortunate incident. I've been on these kind of commercial shoots, and the average person doesn't understand how tough it is (yet how important) to get good "sound" when you're outside (planes, birds, cicadas, etc) for something that's going to air on TV. You get a whole crew of cameramen, sound folks, producers, directors, paid talent, etc, etc, and it's "take 1", take 2", "take 3" for all sorts of reasons. These guys don't work for free and time is money, but that pressure is no excuse for killing any animal, protected species or not.
I saw Tripp's interview and it sure sounds like it was an accident, but he'll have to deal with the consequences. I don't even know what his tour status is, I know the name but I couldn't tell you the last time I saw him in an event or getting any air time. He sure doesn't seem like the type to have done it on purpose.
I imagine the Rotella folks aren't too happy with this kind of pub either.