Sinkholes have made the news again, the US being the home of a sink hole that measured 15 feet deep and 10 feet wide – on a golf course that swallowed St Louis mortgage banker and avid golfer Mark Mihal!. He was with three friends the on the fairway of the 14th hole at Annbriar Golf Course which is near Waterloo, Illinois, when all of a sudden he disappeared into the turf according to the Daily Mail.

He fell into an enclosure that was described as bell shaped below the green, surprising not only his golfing friends but the course management who said “this was the first time anything like this had happened in Annbriar’s 20-year history”. Mr Mihal told the Daily MailOnline ‘I noticed this anomaly in the fairway and went to have a look but, by the time I took one step, I was gone, I was underground,’.

‘When I went through (the aperture) I couldn’t see anything, I didn’t know how far I was going or what I was going to hit.’

Apparently he landed on a pile of mud after plummeting through the earth, in a cavernous space that could have fit up to 10 people.

‘I was just lying on the side of the mound,’ he said. ‘There was some room in there, it was sort of like a room or a cave. It wasn’t confining. It was very dark, though after a while my eyes got used to it. But I couldn’t look up because there was stuff still falling.’

Unsure as to whether the hole would expand, The rescue was precarious to say the least for fear of swallowing more people. What compounded the rescue was the fact he dislocated his shoulder in the fall. ‘I knew the only way to get out was straight up and I didn’t have the use of my left arm,’ he said. Hank Martinez, Mike Peters and Ed Magaletta his golfing pals – called the golf course’s pro shop to assist with a rope and a ladder. In addition, Russ Noble the general manager also rushed out to assist. The last thing a golf course would expect need would be a cheap groundworkers liability insurance to compliment their cheap golf shop insurance!

It was reported that Magaletta, a local estate agent with whom Mr Mihal had been playing golf for ages, bravely volunteered to climb down into the hole where he tied the rope around his friend’s waist so the team could pull him to safety.