A jury recently awarded $1.4 million to a Long Beach man whose eye was seriously damaged when a lawn mower flung a golf ball toward him at high speed.
Thomas Graham, who is in his mid-50s, was golfing with his son in Long Beach on June 14, 2024. While ordering food from the Heartwell Golf Course’s café, a lawn mower sent a ball that had been left in the grass hurtling through the café’s window. Glass shards hit the left side of Graham’s face, and one small piece entered his left eye, said Jon Davidi, one of the lawyers who represented Graham.
The shard caused nerve damage, leaving Graham with chronic bouts of eye pain and a constant feeling that he has something stuck in his eye, according to the lawsuit filed in October 2024.
American Golf Corporation, which operates Heartwell Golf Course, admitted liability prior to trial, in part because the mowing equipment that propelled the ball lacked basic safety features such as deflectors that would have prevented the ball from being shot toward the café, Davidi said.
On Tuesday, a 12-person jury awarded Graham a total of $1.4 million for his pain and mental suffering, according to court documents.
Graham has worked for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for more than two decades and continues to work as a commander for the department after the injury, Davidi said.
Before the eye injury, his coworkers described him as “a people person” and a “great mentor,” Davidi said, but the injuries caused by the errant golf ball started to change his personality.
“Just being in pain all the time would make him more irritable,” Davidi said.
Graham will keep making ophthalmologist visits to explore a potential remedy, but it’s not a guarantee that he will ever be pain-free, he said.
In the meantime, Graham is “trying to remain hopeful and optimistic that the symptoms will slowly improve over time, Davidi said.
Davidi called the jury’s verdict “wholly appropriate” and said it recognized “what was taken from him.”
Lawyers for American Golf Corporation did not respond to a request for comment.
American Golf Corporation runs more than 40 public and private courses throughout the United States, including El Dorado Park Golf Course and Lakewood Country Club.