Children's misadventures with golfing equipment

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe injuries sustained by children less than 15 years of age associated with golfing equipment resulting in presentation to an emergency department. These findings can then be used to highlight potential injury prevention strategies. Retrospective analysis of data from the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset was performed. Golf-related injury cases were identified for the period April 1997 - December 2002. Cases where the text description of the injury event included the word "golf" were extracted for analysis. Text narratives of all cases were reviewed and cases occurring during golf play or practice or at a golf course were excluded from the analysis. There were 309 presentations to an emergency department for treatment of an injury caused by golfing equipment in children less than 15 years of age. The majority of presentations were male (71.5%) and children aged 5-9 years presented most commonly (53.1%). Head injuries were the most common reason for presentation (84.4%), with open wounds being the most common type of injury (68.5%). Being struck by an object (96.8%) was the most frequent cause of injury. Whilst relatively uncommon, golf equipment injuries to children could be prevented by attention to community safety and awareness of correct storage of golfing equipment. In addition, education of children regarding the safe handling and use of golf equipment could be useful. This could help reduce the number of emergency department visits and hospital admissions, thereby contributing to the reduction of costs associated with injury.