During a November round a few years ago at Holiday Valley, Prunella decided to help one of the members of his group, who had hit a wayward tee shot on the par-4 11th hole.

“I knew where it went, so I went up the hill to go get it,” he said. “I pick his ball up, and I'm going to take a shortcut across the trench coming back. I stepped on a rotted log, and I started going down. I figured, ‘OK, I'll just reach for the side. But I went down, down, down right under the water. Everything went dark. I hit my head on a rock. I came up with a mouthful of this God-awful water.”

Prunella managed to resurface and climb out of the water. His playing partners had no idea what had happened.

“These guys can't see me because they're down the hill. So I come stumbling down, my head's bleeding, and I'm covered with mud from head to toe,” he said. “I had a change of clothes in the car, so I go down, I towel myself off and come back out. My ball's in the middle of the fairway. I hit it on the green, two-putted for a par and continued the round!”

After the hole, he asked his playing partners, “how were you going to explain to my wife you let me drown playing golf?"

“Easy,” answered Tom Koczaja. “You went for a ball and we never saw you again.”