Illinois Sinkhole Swallows Golfer

But Mark Mihal is OK
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Suggested by turnbull
Posted Mar 12, 2013 1:06 PM CDT

Florida isn't the only state dealing with sinkhole troubles: On an Illinois golf course Friday, golfer Mark Mihal suddenly dropped into one. "I was standing in the middle of the fairway," he tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Then, all of a sudden, before I knew it, I was underground." He was rescued from the 18-foot-deep, 10-foot-wide hole by friends and the golf course general manager; one friend had to climb down and tie a rope around Mihal's waist, because he dislocated his shoulder in the fall.

It took less than 20 minutes to get him out, but there was concern that the hole might grow or collapse. The Florida man recently lost in a sinkhole "certainly went through my mind when I was down there," Mihal says. “It looked like it was more room to go down [in the hole]." Sinkholes are common around St. Louis, and one geologist says they're usually visible—but this one wasn't. So will Mihal ever golf again? "Sure," he says, although perhaps maybe not at the same course. (Click to read about the latest sinkhole plaguing Florida.)

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