Playing at St. Andrews is one of those bucket list items for golfers – one they’ll never forget – but for American Billy Radebaugh, it’s an experience he’ll remember forever for more reasons than one according to Golfeek’s Rob Oller.
The 41-year-old was on a golfing trip with some buddies and had covered the first seven holes on the Jubilee Course in one-over when they were approached by a woman asking them to call the emergency services as there was a man in trouble in the North Sea.
Xiang Li, who goes by the name Kevin, was collecting whelks – a type of sea snail that are rather tasty with garlic and butter – with his father-in-law when the pair were swept out to sea by the notoriously vicious currents. In fact, Radebaugh had been forewarned not to enter the ocean just 24 hours previously, being informed that it was “the deadliest water in the world … the current will suck you to the bottom and won’t let you out.”
They group ran down to the beach where, through a range-finder, they spotted Li some 200-yards offshore.
“And the next thing I know, Billy is stripping down to his pants,” said Lawrence Gross, one of Radebaugh’s playing partners, who is in his mid-50s and who had also been informed of the dangerous currents and naturally began worrying about his friend. “It was surreal, like out of a movie, and Billy didn’t hesitate at all.
“We looked at each other and I was, ‘I can’t get to this guy,’ ” Boyle said. “He used an expletive and said, ‘I’m going.’”
Stripping off his jacket, shirt and shoes, in he went to what he described as “the coldest water I’ve ever been in in my life” and made his way out towards Li who at this stage had been in the water for almost an hour and was entering hypothermia and starting to go under.
“The currents are taking him, so I had to time it and catch him at the same time,” Radebaugh said. “If I miss, we both could be gone. I’m trying to keep my head above water and focus on him, and I get about 10 feet away and he goes under and doesn’t come back up. What he told me later is he took his last breath. He thought he was dead. I got to where I thought he was and swooped my arms and just nipped his shirt with my two fingers, and grabbed and pulled him up.”
Getting to him was one thing, getting the pair of them back in was another as the current tried to bring them further out to sea. Radebaugh played american football, baseball and basketball as a high-school student, but was never a competitive swimmer, but he fought against the current and managed to drag Li to within 70-yards of the shore where, mercifully, he felt the seabed with his toe.
“I would go to reach for the ground, where hopefully I could stand, but I just couldn’t,” he said. “The first two times I didn’t touch, and finally the third time my toe just touched the bottom, and I felt more relief than anything.”
Dead weight and in need of CPR, Radebaugh carried Li the rest of the way to the shore where the remaining members of the group and caddies began thumping his chest and breathing heavy sighs of relief when he responded. Relief turned to further dread, however, when a gasping Li informed them that his father-in-law was still in the water.
Radebaugh was prepared to go back in having spotted another bobbing head through the range-finder, but was stopped by his friends as they quickly realised that the head belonged to a seal who was in no need of rescue.
Fearing the worst, they were delighted to be informed an hour later by Scottish rescue services that Li’s father-in-law had been swept in a different direction and had washed up on shore, alive and almost well, a mile up the coast.
So, what do you do when you’ve risked your life to save someone else’s, and it was crisis averted on the other life you’d feared lost?
You return to the eighth tee and complete your round with a fresh pair of dry trousers, managing a very respectable seven-over.
But heroes deserve a hero’s welcome, and St. Andrews have shown their appreciation by extending an open invitation to Radebaugh and his friends to play there anytime they want, as well as tickets to the 2027 Open Championship at the Home of Golf.
All’s well that ends well, but he’ll be hoping for less drama and an uninterrupted round when he takes them up on that offer.