A Villager was arrested after an alleged attack over “etiquette” sent a fellow golfer to the hospital.
Richard Eric Randell, 76, of the Village of Springdale, was arrested on a charge of battery after punching his fellow golfer Friday afternoon at the De La Vista Executive Golf Course, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
A witness said Randell began arguing with the other golfer at Hole #4. The witness said Randell was standing on the green near the hole when the other golfer told him to move. Randell responded that he knew the “etiquette of the game.” The argument intensified and the man “flipped off” Randell who approached the man and threatened that if he did it again he would hit him. The man “flipped off” Randell again and he “used his right hand to hit him,” the report said. The other man fell to the ground, but remained conscious. The witness told deputies that the man who had been knocked down had “previous medical conditions involving his neck.” The man was taken by ambulance to UF Health-The Villages Hospital. He suffered a “swollen contusion on the left side of his face.” When interviewed at the hospital, the man said Randell told him that “if he reported this that he better move.”
Randell was arrested on a felony charge of battery on a person over the age of 65. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center and released after posting $2,000 bond.
