Kennewick teenager awarded $784,000 after freak accident

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KENNEWICK — An 18-year-old Hanford High School senior has been awarded $783,682 in damages after he lost his left eye in a freak accident on a golf course.

"I feel it was a fair verdict and compensation for living the rest of my life without my left eye," Loni Dagan said.

On Dec. 31, 1998, Dagan was on the first tee at the West Richland Municipal Golf Course with his older brother when a tee shot from the ninth fairway blew into the temporary tee box.

Dagan, then 15, had just teed off. He picked up his tee and turned toward his bag when the golf ball hit him in the eye.

A Benton County Superior Court jury decided that the late golf-course manager, Rod Marcum, whose estate was represented by widow Michelle Marcum, was negligent in maintaining the property in a reasonably safe condition. Michelle Marcum assumed management of the city-owned course after her husband's death in 1999.

Kennewick golf pro Scott Johnson, who hit the ball, and the city of West Richland initially were named in the lawsuit but were dismissed before trial last week.

The fairway for the first hole was flooded, so the tee was moved from its usual location to prevent people from hitting balls into the water, according to court documents. The temporary tee was positioned in the rough between the first and ninth fairways.

Dagan's attorney, Hal Hodgins of Seattle, said the course didn't meet golf industry guidelines that the centerlines of parallel fairways must be at least 250 feet apart when there is no vegetation between the two. Court records said the ball had traveled well over 200 yards before it struck Dagan.

"I instantly lost my vision," said Dagan, who was fitted with a prosthetic eye.

"I have to turn my head to see everything," Dagan said. "My brain has had to learn new ways to know where things are."

Now when he plays golf, he wears glasses with polycarbonate lenses to protect his right eye.

"I think it was a tragic accident, and it's unfortunate," Michelle Marcum said. "It was just one of those freak accidents that happens once in a million."