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Nothing was going to get in the way of Daniela Holmqvist finishing her attempt to qualify for the LPGA season-opening Women’s Australian Open. Not even a potentially fatal spider bite.
That’s right, Holmqvist was bitten by a spider during her attempt to qualify for the event, and she then proceeded to use a golf tee to extract what she thought was potentially fatal venom. Talk about commitment and the drive to succeed. Wow.
According to the Swedish Golf Federation, the incident occurred when Holmqvist was playing from the rough on the fourth hole at Royal Canberra Golf Club when she suddenly felt a sharp pain around her ankle. As she swatted the spider away, she thought that it may have been a black widow. Thinking quickly, she punctured the site of the bite with a golf tee in order to squeeze out the venom.
“A clear fluid came out,” she told Svensk Golf magazine. “It wasn’t the prettiest thing I’ve ever done, but I had to get as much of it out of me as possible.”
Instead of seeking medical attention, she then decided to complete her round. While she was supervised by medical personnel for the remainder of the round, she did manage to get through all 18 holes. Unfortunately for Holmqvist, she carded a 74 and did not qualify.
The black widow spider is not native to Australia. Someone with knowledge of the situation said it was more likely a redback, which is another type of widow spider that does, in fact, make its home in Australia. Apparently, bites from the redback are quite common in the area. Luckily for Holmqvist, there has not been a death reported as a result of a redback spider bite since an antidote was discovered in 1955.
I don’t care what kind of spider bit her, the fact that the area immediately became so inflamed that it required her to break the skin and squeeze out the venom had to be a scary situation. Most people would have probably called it a day and made sure they weren’t going to die. Not Holmqvist. Even though she failed to qualify for this event, something tells me with her commitment and perseverance, she will be playing the weekend of plenty of tournaments in the near future.
Carl Conrad is the Golf Network Manager for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter or add him to your network on Google.
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