( CNN ) -- The next time you step foot on a golf course , beware the legal minefield that can await you . If the game was not difficult enough already , it has a well-deserved reputation of being the most litigious of all sports , bar none . The cases that come to court cover the full spectrum of grievances and bizarre incidents , from the elderly Irish pensioner suing his former golf club for cutting -- yes cutting -- his handicap , to two-time major winner Rory McIlroy going legal in a high-stakes wrangle over his multimillion-dollar deal with Nike . From players tripping over rabbit holes , to a pair of New York doctors involved in a landmark legal action after one of them was blinded by the other 's errant shot . It all backs up the main thrust of a publication from 2007 by Craig Brown , a law professor at the University of Western Ontario in Canada . `` Golf and the law seem to have been made for each other , '' he wrote in `` Why Lawyers Love Golf . '' `` On every fairway , in every stretch of rough , in every clubhouse , in every golf bag , at every swing at the ball , in every set of plans for a new course , in every application for club membership , there lurks a potential lawsuit . '' Dalton Floyd Jr. of South Carolina 's Floyd Law Firm has made a 40-year-plus career of handling such cases . He gives an example where neither the claimant nor the appellant were left with a good leg to stand on : . `` A lady and her husband were walking from the tee to her golf cart . In a freak accident she stood on a piece of unmade ground and contrived to rupture her Achilles tendon , '' he told CNN . `` Both her and husband were keen line dancers , could n't take part in the activity for months and brought a claim on that basis . The club had to settle . '' Golfing mousetraps . It highlighted the fact that golf clubs have to think very carefully about every area of their activity because there are mousetraps everywhere , in the legal sense . Most golf holes have yardage markers dotted on the fairway to let golfers know how far they are from the green , the most common at 150 yards out . But they had better make sure they are accurate . `` A golfer hit the ball onto a green and hit a player who was waiting to putt , '' recalls Floyd . `` The golfer hitting the shot claimed the yardage markers put out by the course were inaccurate and he thought the green was further away and out of his reach . `` The club had to settle the claim because they were liable . '' And beware the hasty and ill-thought-out redesign of a golf course , says Floyd . `` A club in Hilton Head cut down trees on the left of a dogleg hole , which meant a lot of balls ended up in a big condominium . The owners were not happy and the club was held liable and had to settle . '' Serious injury . While it is easy to poke fun at some of the claims , others are for serious injury sustained in the course of playing the sport . As CNN reported in 2010 , being hit by a poor shot while playing is a risk golfers assume and this was backed up by New York 's highest court in a key ruling . Playing at a course in Long Island , Anoop Kapoor hit a shot which struck his fellow doctor Azad Anand in the left eye . Anand was blinded after the incident and launched a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Kapoor for damages , alleging his friend was negligent for failing to warn of the shot . Kapoor testified he thought Anand was behind him and that he did n't see anyone between him and the hole when he took his shot . Kapoor unintentionally sliced it , striking Anand with terrible consequences . Floyd says most claims of this nature are dismissed : `` Thank goodness the courts have an understanding that you ca n't hit the ball straight all the time , particularly the amateur golfer . `` I think generally we get good decisions from judges because they understand golf is a sport and there is a certain amount of risk when you play . '' But that did not stop 15-year-old Alex Good of Hillsboro , Oregon from suing a local golf course for negligence after he hit himself in the eye with his own ball while on its driving range . According to court documents , Good and his high school teammates were using the practice range . It was raining and the staff at Pumpkin Ridge put up an awning . When Good teed off , his ball hit a metal post that was holding up the awning just inches in front of his driving mat . The ball ricocheted off and hit him in the left eye . Good 's lawyer claimed Pumpkin Ridge should have known that the metal pole was a danger . Pumpkin Ridge did not respond to CNN 's enquiries about the current status of the suit . Costly repair . During the economic downturn , even well-to-do golfers have felt the pinch , says Floyd , but he warns against what one did to save a few dollars : repairing your own clubs . He cites the case of a player who took his tee shot -- then the head of the repaired club flew off and got stuck in his playing partner 's knee . Painful for the claimant -- and costly for the do-it-yourself golfer , who was forced to settle the claim . It 's not a position in which former world No . 1 McIlroy should ever find himself , but he is embroiled in a very public legal dispute with his former management agency over its role in his contracts with Nike and other key sponsors . The 24-year-old from Northern Ireland claims he was misled over the terms of the deals and is seeking compensation . The agent , Conor Ridge , and the management company Horizon Sports deny the claim and are counter suing in a case which is slated for the courts in October 2014 . McIlroy , whose form has slumped since signing the big-money deals , admitted that it had taken a toll . `` I 've seen more lawyers ' offices and more lawyers this year than I care to see in my entire life , '' he told reporters at the World Tour Championship in Dubai last month . Angry Tiger . He also said he was taking advice from Nike stablemate Tiger Woods on how to deal with these pressures , although the world No . 1 himself is at the center of a controversy which threatens to end in a lawsuit . In a published article grading the tour performance of top players , former PGA pro and now analyst Brandel Chamblee flunked Woods , questioning his integrity and saying that he had been `` a little cavalier with the rules . '' As evidence , he cited three instances where Woods had been penalized for rules infractions and a fourth where an NBC analyst questioned the drop that Woods made after his ball landed in a water hazard . Woods ' agent Mark Steinberg responded angrily over a `` shameful , baseless '' report and said he was considering a legal action for damages . McIlroy will doubtless take his own counsel but might look no further than the fate that befell a 75-year-old amateur golfer from across the border in the Republic of Ireland . Handicap blues . Thomas Talbot , a retired insurance official , was left with a massive legal bill in excess of $ 500,000 after launching an action against his former club because it had cut his handicap . This would normally be a cause for celebration , but Talbot took it as a slight , particularly as a court in Dublin heard he was accused of `` handicap building '' -- or allegedly playing below his ability to get his handicap raised and thereby be able to win more competitions . Talbot sued the Hermitage Golf Club and its former handicap secretary in the Irish High Court for defamation , but a judge found against him last year and he has been left with heavy costs . Golf for a long time was a male-dominated sport but as more women started taking part , clubs which restricted membership came under the legal spotlight for alleged discriminatory practices . Federal law in the United States now requires clubs open to the public to admit women , but Augusta National , home of the U.S. Masters tournament , was a private club and adopted a strict male-only membership policy for 80 years . That suddenly changed in August 2012 , when it announced it would admit its first two female members , former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and business leader Darla Moore . The volte face came without ever reaching a court of law , but rather thanks to the tireless efforts of women 's rights activist Martha Burk and reported pressure from key sponsors . Discrimination suits also extended to the top level of men 's professional golf when Casey Martin , a former Stanford University teammate of Woods , took out a case against the PGA Tour . Martin suffers from a debilitating leg deformity that obstructs blood flow back to his heart . Having qualified for the full PGA Tour in 2000 , Martin wanted to use a golf cart in tournaments , but was refused permission by tour officials . Martin took a lawsuit on grounds of disability discrimination and finally won his battle in the Supreme Court . But he was unable to capitalize on his early promise and dropped off the tour , although he was a surprise qualifier for the 2012 U.S. Open . Trump challenge . No article about lawsuits in golf would be complete without mention of U.S. tycoon Donald Trump and his battles to complete a $ 1 billion development in northern Scotland . He faced down opposition from locals and environmental groups , including a lawsuit from an 86-year-old pensioner , to get permission to build his championship course on protected sand dunes in Aberdeenshire . But having built the course , now Trump himself has gone legal after the Scottish government gave planning permission to a massive offshore wind farm just off the coast -- and within sight of his new resort . Trump has called the 11 turbine scheme a `` useless and grotesque blot on our heritage '' and has launched a lawsuit to attempt to stop it . The Scottish government , led by First Minister Alex Salmond , wants all the country 's electricity demands to be met from renewable sources by 2020 and is vigorously defending its decision in the court case , which started November 12 in Edinburgh .
Golf has a reputation for being one of the most litigious sports . Cases range from the seemingly absurd to the serious . Rory McIlroy involved in legal action against former management company . Donald Trump suing the Scottish government over an offshore wind farm .