Is this a hole in one? Golfer sucked into sinkhole

[liberal N proud]

WATERLOO, ILL. (AP) Suddenly being swallowed up by the earth on a golf course's fairway drove a wedge between Mark Mihal and a stellar round.

The 43-year-old mortgage broker was counting his blessings Tuesday and nursing a dislocated shoulder sustained four days earlier when he tumbled into an 18-foot deep sinkhole on the 14th hole of the Annbriar Golf Club near Waterloo, Ill., just southeast of St. Louis.

Friends managed to hoist Mihal to safety with a rope after about 20 minutes. But the experience gave him quite a fright, particularly following the much-publicized recent death of a man in Florida who died when his bedroom fell into a sinkhole. That man's body hasn't been found.

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/mark-mihal-survives-mid-round-sinkhole-031213

[petronius]

1. Freaky - I hadn't pictured such a small opening at the surface, thought it

was more a pit, rather than a dome-shaped hole. That's a good friend, who went down to help him (although maybe not the strictly safest decision, I suppose)...