Dean & DeLuca warning: Keep your head on a swivel at No. 9

Smart golf fans will keep their heads on a swivel at the Dean & DeLuca Invitational, especially around the ninth fairway.

Within a span of 20 minutes Saturday morning, two spectators had close encounters with drives just a touch outside the ropes at No. 9.

Mike Ingram of Grand Prairie was unfolding his portable chair along the left side of the hole, in perfect position to see both drives and approach shots before the turn, and even made sure to position a tree partially between him and any incoming golf balls. One found him anyway, off the hooked fairway metal of Emiliano Grillo.

“Sit down, get comfortable, I open up the chair and just as I was sitting down I see the ball strike about 12 feet away,” Ingram said. “Just as I raise my leg to go over it, the ball goes in between my legs and rolls off.”

That wasn’t the only fan interaction Grillo’s ball had before his second shot landed in the greenside bunker just long of the back-left pin placement. About a minute later, another spectator kicked the ball while strolling by, and Grillo called over a PGA rules official before playing his approach.

He didn’t appear to want to take a drop, but that was the official’s ruling, and after taking the free drop, Grillo appeared to have a better lie in the left rough — the ball sitting up slightly more after landing about six inches back from where the ball lay after being kicked and stepped on.

Grillo later produced the shot of Saturday’s early rounds with a 32-foot up-and-in chip from the sand for a birdie on the 400-yard par-4. Perhaps it wasn’t how Grillo, or Ingram for that matter, drew it up, but it counted as the second of three birdies on what was a bogey-free moving day for Grillo to that point. Grillo shot a 65 to go into Sunday at 4-under for the tournament.

But the close calls had only just begun as Mansfield’s Carlos Coll became the next near-victim at the ninth hole. Just two groups later, Ben Martin put his drive to the right of the ropes this time, between Coll’s legs as he stood, expecting any misses on drives to be to the left.

Martin’s playing partner, Brandt Snedeker, just missed a Dean & DeLuca volunteer with his drive before Martin blocked his drive about 12 feet further to the right.

“I saw where Snedeker’s drive landed, and I went to move a little closer to get a look at his next shot,” Coll said. “Then here comes another one, and it didn’t hit me square but grazed my pants on the inside of my right leg. I start thinking to myself, ‘A few more inches and that could have hit me in the head.’ ”

Even fewer inches, though, and a more sensitive region could have faced the business end of Martin’s wayward drive. No one was hurt, though, and Martin finished out his par on No. 9.

Stay safe out there, golf fans.

This story was originally published May 27, 2017 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Dean & DeLuca warning: Keep your head on a swivel at No. 9."