A single-engine plane closed the 17th hole at the Stillmeadow Country Club on Saturday afternoon after it made a crash landing and came to rest on the green.
"It was one of the strangest sights I have ever seen," said Mark Denton, who was golfing on the course at the time of the emergency landing. "I am just happy to see the pilot and the passenger standing on the green."
The pilot and passenger are husband and wife. Both declined to comment. Neither was harmed. The country club is south of Batavia.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Nelson Holden said the pilot told him that "he just followed his training and did what he needed to do. He told me he wasn't shaken up at all."
Nelson said the plane took off from the Clermont County Airport at 10:45 a.m. and experienced engine failure 10 to 15 minutes after take off. The pilot then spotted the 17th hole.
"He came over the tip of the trees at the end of the fairway and started on down the fairway," Nelson said.
"It then came to a coast onto the green."
Nelson said the engine shut off and the pilot couldn't get it to re-start. He said the what caused the engine failure is still being investigated.
Deaton said he was on the third hole when he learned the No. 17 hole was closed.
"We said, 'We hope somebody didn't do a yard job on the fairway,' and (the pro) said, 'No, a little worse than that: There is an airplane on the green,'" Deaton said. "Thank God no one is hurt in this."
There wasn't a golfer on the 17th hole when the plane made its unscheduled landing.
David Acree, whose backyard faces the 17th green, was in his home reading and didn't hear it.
"My neighbor to the left of me said his boy was out playing, went in for a drink of water and came back out and there was the plane," Acree said. "It happened very, very quickly."
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