Considered an exceptional golfer, Condoleezza Rice had a rather messy hiccup Thursday at Pebble Beach during the first day of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. The former U.S. Secretary of State accidentally hit a fan who was standing on the sidelines with a golf ball and gave the woman a bloody nose, the New York Times reports.
The incident happened on the sixth hole, which has a blind approach to the uphill green, when Rice took her fourth shot and hit the ball out the grass and into the face of a woman standing in the roped-off sidelines. Oddly, no one gave a fore warning and the golf ball struck the woman's nose.
Rice rushed to help the woman and helped her try to control the bleeding by holding up a towel over her gashed nose until medical staff arrived.
"It was a really bad shot. I'm really sorry," Rice said as she tried to comfort the woman.
Before going back to the golf game, Rice told the woman's daughter to keep her updated about her condition. An assistant slipped the daughter a piece of paper with Rice's phone number. Rice, who up to that point was having a good game, struggled and seemed to feel awful about the accident.
"Obviously, she was really concerned. And for it not to bother her probably would be tough. But I believe the woman is fine, which is great," her caddie Kathryn Imrie said.
Rice is one of two women participating in the tournament as amateurs. Last year, she and banker Daria Moore became the first women members at the Augusta National, home of the Masters tournament.
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