Both Bryson DeChambeau and Ian Poulter were deep into their LIV Golf UK rounds at JCB Golf & Country Club when a tee shot on the par-4 seventh caused a frightening near-miss. The Englishman was about to hit his approach shot as a golf ball went right past his head. He sarcastically yelled “fore” to remind the golfers of the most basic rule. But Poulter was rattled and angry and stepped away from his ball to recollect himself.

While no one knew whose ball it was, the camera soon turned to Bryson DeChambeau, who had just hit his tee shot on the seventh hole. He understood some mistake had happened and looked upset to have gotten himself into another controversy. But the Crushers GC captain was completely unaware that Poulter and his group were still on the fairway. During a post-round interview with TNT reporters, Ian Poulter opened up about the close call.

“It wasn’t his [Bryson’s] fault at all, but yeah, I mean, it just grazed the ear on the way past. It was very close. It wouldn’t have been good. It would have hurt a lot,” Poulter said while recalling the incident. “That was a shock to the system. The heart rate went up quite a bit. It was like when you can hear that ball, like, cutting through the air as it passes your ear.” But how did it happen? In Poulter’s words, a small miscommunication almost caused a terrifying injury.

Poulter was playing in a group with Jon Rahm and Lucas Herbert. Rahm’s tee shot on the par-4 seventh landed near the deep rough on the right side, while Poulter’s 356-yard tee shot landed on the left side of the fairway. The Englishman went to help Rahm find his ball near the rough. Poulter said—and this could be seen on LIV Golf’s play-by-play—they were some 40 yards away from the fairway when DeChambeau came to the teeing area. On top of that, the teeing zone had undergone a slight change as well.

The JCB Golf & Country Club’s par-four seventh was played at 470 yards in 2025. However, the new back tee adds another 24 yards. Since the course is built on varied terrain, this affects a golfer’s sight line to the landing area. Plus, the hole features a dogleg right, which blocks the view.

So DeChambeau was totally unaware that Poulter was still on the fairway preparing to hit his approach shot. He got a green signal and ballasted a 370-yard drive. The play-by-play shows DeChambeau’s tee shot landed just 108 yards from the pin on the left rough. Poulter’s ball was sitting barely five yards away. You can see Poulter trying to cover his head as the ball whizzed past him.

“Yeah, it’s not his fault. It’s one of those things. He thought he could probably see people moving further up once we found John’s ball, and he sent one down there,” Ian Poulter added.

Interestingly enough, the incident has brought DeChambeau’s past justification about not saying “Fore!” into sharp focus.

“Most of the time when we hit shots, if we don’t think it’s going to get there, there’s really no reason to say anything, and most guys don’t on tour. You could, because of how far I’m hitting it, every single shot say ‘fore.’ People think that I’m not being respectful and that I don’t care about patrons or people,” DeChambeau was quoted as saying to Rick Shiels, according to an HITC report. “That’s the farthest thing from the case. I’ve hit people before, and it’s been the worst possible feeling in the world, so don’t ever think I don’t care about fans.”

It is not clear whether DeChambeau understood that his drive was taking a sharp left turn at LIV Golf UK. But according to a report in The Telegraph, the two-time major winner later apologized to Poulter. But the incident seems scarier considering just what happened two years back.

Australian golfer Jeffrey Guan was hit on his face by an errant tee shot during a pro-am tournament in September 2024. The two-time National Junior champion, after undergoing multiple surgeries, lost his sight in the left eye. He was just 20 and had already made his PGA Tour debut.

The injury could’ve ended his career, but Guan returned to professional golf about a year later. He currently plays in the PGA Tour of Australasia. In only his second start since surgery, the 22-year-old recorded a top-ten finish at the CKB WA PGA Championship.

Before Guan, a spectator lost her eyesight at the 2018 Ryder Cup when Brooks Koepka‘s errant shot smacked her in the eye. So in that context, 50-year-old Poulter avoided a serious injury. Apart from this incident, both Ian Poulter and Bryson DeChambeau have had good rounds at LIV Golf UK.

The Englishman made five birdies and a bogey to finish his round at four-under 68. Bryson DeChambeau, on the other hand, continued the momentum he gained at The Open last week. He made two bogeys but more than made up for them with eight birdies and an eagle in his opening round. At 8-under 64, he currently sits second on the leaderboard.