Skydiver hits tree and breaks leg to start golf tournament
BY SARAH ABRUZZESE
SARASOTA – It was supposed to be a momentous start, two skydivers were going to land in a grassy field and present Kenny Rolfe’s mother with a Three Stooges golf ball.
In the end, Ginny Creighton got the ball to commemorate the start of the “First Annual Kenny Rolfe Memorial Golf Tournament and Celebration of Life,” only after Jim Madison, 62, hit a tree and feel to the ground, breaking his left leg in multiple places.
Madison told Rolfe’s mother “Kenny was worth it.”
“It was the launch of the game,” Cheri Scott, a friend of Rolf’s said. “Everybody was right here when it happened.”
Scott and her friend, Cindi Ellison, who is a critical care nurse, ran to assist Madison. Ellison had him stabilized before the ambulance arrived.
The crash occurred in front of the 108 golfers assembled to honor Rolfe who died on Nov. 3, 2004 at age of 54 after suffering a heart attack on a flight between Los Angeles, Calif. and Dallas, Tex.
An avid traveler who had been all around the world, Rolfe was on his way back from a trip to Thailand.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050613/BREAKING/50613015
