An Australian golfer has been jailed after drunkenly stabbing his best friend in a near-fatal incident.
The Herald Sun reports that the day started with three friends — Matthew McKay, Simon Mudd, and Shaun Peterson — drinking and watching boxing on television before heading to Broadford Golf Course just north of Melbourne.
The dispute arose over McKay’s behavior. The 31-year-old was damaging greens, “scratching one with a flag and stomping golf balls into another.” But when his friends insisted he stop, McKay headed to the parking lot, where he returned with a Smith and Wesson switchblade.
Peterson was the target of McKay’s first knife swing before he turned to Mudd, driving the knife into his left thigh. The blade hit an artery and Mudd immediately began to sustain serious blood loss. He was airlifted to a hospital for a blood transfusion and emergency surgery, arriving at the hospital “minutes away from death,” according to County Court Judge Frank Gucciardo.
McKay has pled guilty to recklessly causing serious injury and assault with a weapon and has been sentenced to 20 months in jail, with a minimum of 10 months before eligibility for parole.
Mudd, who the judge described as McKay’s “best friend,” has not fully recovered from the incident, suffering permanent nerve damage as well as psychological effects from the incident.
It was not the first time McKay has stabbed a friend: he was fined in 2009 in another slashing incident in Western Australia.
