Influencer Facing Charges After Hitting Golf Ball, Launching Golf Club Into Grand Canyon
A social media influencer, who creates golf content from time to time, is in hot water after she hit a golf ball into the Grand Canyon. To make matters worse her golf club broke during the swing and part of it followed the ball into the canyon below.
A video posted on TikTok by influencer Katie Sigmond shows the 20-year-old standing near the edge of a cliff with a golf club in her hands. She then swings the club and hits a golf ball into the canyon. During the swing the club snapped in two sending part of it over the cliff with the ball.
Social media influencer on the golf course (Image Credit: Katie Sigmond/Instagram)
The video appears to have been deleted from Katie's TikTok page, where she has almost 7 million followers, and can't be found on any of her other social media platforms either.
As with most things that people think are deleted on the internet, this video hasn't been completely scrubbed. A version of the video was saved by someone and uploaded to Reddit.
Following the incident the Grand Canyon National Park posted about it on Facebook. They started off by asking, "Do we really need to say, 'don't hit golf balls into the Grand Canyon?'"
After sharing some information about where the incident took place and describing what happened, they revealed that the public helped to identify the influencer.
"Members of the public helped identify the individual’s social media account," they wrote. "On October 27, Grand Canyon Law Enforcement identified, located and contacted the individual responsible for the incident."
Katie Sigmond Might Have Gone Too Far
As a result of her influencing mishap, Katie is now facing charges. As the Grand Canyon National Park pointed out, it's against the law and dangerous to send things flying over the rim of the canyon.
"Charges and a court appearance for the individual are pending," the Facebook post continued. "Throwing objects over the rim of the canyon is not only illegal but can also endanger hikers and wildlife who may be below."
The comment section on the park's Facebook post showed very little sympathy for Katie. Some might describe the sympathy as nonexistent.
Between the insults and the calls to ban her from the park there was no room for forgiveness. We should have a little bit of room for forgiveness.
Influencing isn't easy. Sometimes you break a few laws and you do stupid and dangerous things. Having said that, nobody appears to have been hurt by this and it can be turned into a learning experience.
The lesson here is keep creating content and keep the golf on the golf course!