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Paraguay's Fabrizio Zanotti goes to hospital after being hit on head by ball
He was on the 16th fairway when struck by the shot of France's Alexandre Kaleka
Play had to be suspended in the first round of the KLM Open in the Netherlands
Zanotti earlier this year became the first Paraguayan winner on the European Tour
You would think that fans watching a golf tournament on site would be more susceptible to being hit by an errant ball than a golfer but that wasn’t the case at the KLM Open in the Netherlands on Thursday.
In a rare occurrence, Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti was struck on the head and was taken to hospital as a “precaution,” the European Tour said.
He was receiving treatment but was okay, the Tour added.
“The latest report from hospital is that all neurological tests have come back clear,” the Tour’s tournament director, Miguel Vidaor, told the European Tour’s website. “We wish Fabrizio a speedy recovery.”
The 31-year-old Zanotti – who earlier this year became the first Paraguayan to win on the European Tour – was on the 16th fairway when he was hit by Alexandre Kaleka’s shot from the 14th tee.
Zanotti was attended to on site by a doctor and paramedic as a concerned Kaleka looked on before an ambulance transported him to hospital. Play had to be suspended but resumed about two hours later.
Fellow golfers Felipe Aguilar of Chile and Ricardo Gonzalez of Argentina are staying with Zanotti and have pulled out of the event, the Tour said.
Entering Thursday, Zanotti was 27th in the Race to Dubai standings.
At No. 94, he is the second highest-ranked South American golfer in the world behind Argentina’s Angel Cabrera.