‘Caddyshack’ comes to life in shooting incident on Wisconsin golf course

A woodchuck in a tree.

A woodchuck in a tree.

A rodent. A man with a firearm. A golf course. 

A Wisconsin man must not have heard this one before.   

In an incident straight out of the comedy “Caddyshack,” a 50-year-old man was trying to shoot a woodchuck on his property in Lomira, Wis., this week when the round missed, ricocheted off some trees and struck an 80-year-old man playing golf at nearby The Golf Club at Camelot, according to Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt, which was reported by several outlets in Wisconsin. 

The golfer, from nearby Fond du Lac, was struck in the upper torso, then treated at a local hospital and released, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. His name, nor the name of the shooter, was released.

The incident is still under investigation, Schmidt said when asked by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel if citations would be issued. Schmidt said investigators determined the distance the round traveled from the property to the golfer, but he didn’t release it.  

In “Caddyshack,” Bushwood Country Club assistant groundskeeper Carl Spackler, played by Bill Murray, is charged with taking care of a gopher problem on the golf course. He tries a water hose, a rifle and explosives. All fail. The gopher is dancing at the end of the movie.

Somewhere, the woodchuck might be, too. 

“We did not locate the woodchuck,” Schmidt told the Journal Sentinel. 

NEWSLETTER
Nick Piastowski

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.