It is right to express concern another person has been hit by a golf ball struck by a leading professional golfer.

The golf world was already in damage-control mode after it became known a woman, hit by an errant Brooks Koepka tee shot on day one of the Ryder Cup, is looking like taking officials to court after sadly losing the sight of her right eye.

Then to add to those headlines was news yesterday that Tyrrell Hatton hit a female spectator high on her forehead at the par-3 15th hole at Kingsbarns Links. The woman was attended to at the scene before being conveyed to the local St. Andrews Hospital.

And as reported by this website yesterday Luke Donald, and a European Team vice-captain last week in Versailles and playing alongside Hatton, hit a male spectator in the ankle with his tee shot on the same hole.

Note how close the woman was to the green at the par-3 15th hole at Kingsbarns Links

If you look closer at the incidents on the 15th hole at Kingsbarns Links it was the organisers of the event and not the two players who the fingers of blame should be pointing.

For starters, players at Kingsbarns Links had to tee-up in a near 30-mph cross-wind.

It didn’t help also when Hatton, Donald and all other professional and amateurs standing on the 15th tee were staring at a left-front pin placement on that green.

With the wind coming hard off the left the tee shot, and it didn’t matter if you were a pro or a 15-handicapper like myself,  it required a left-to-right tee shot that first needed to miss the trees immediately left off the tee and then also carry the heads of spectators who were allowed to be far too close in the prevailing conditions to the green.

Take a look at where the unnamed Edinburgh woman is sitting in receiving medical attention for her injury – clearly very close on the left side of the 15th green.

A tournament official admitted afterwards they ‘got it wrong’ with the pin placement on the 15th but then there has been no formal statement to this effect.

So, while debate now rages as to whether golfing administrative bodies such as the European Tour and/or the R & A need to immediately enact changes to ‘protect’ innocent spectators, let’s not jump to conclusions in blaming the golfers.