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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Sports An LPGA Golfer, Bitten By a Black Widow, Performs Surgery With a Tee, Finishes Round

Posted by David Mendez on Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 1:15 PM

Honestly, I'm not sure I need to even write anything after that headline, because it already demonstrates how hardcore this woman is. Still...

Swedish LPGA rookie Daniela Holmqvist was playing through the qualifying round of the Australian Open earlier this week when she felt a sharp sting around her ankle—which turned out to be a black widow spider.

From Golf Digest:

After quickly swatting it away, she doubled over in pain.

"When I told the local caddies in my group what had happened, they got very upset and said it was a Black Widow, and immediately started looking for their phones to call the medics," Holmqvist told Karin Klarstrom of Svensk Golf.

As Holmqvist's leg started to swell and the pain became intense, she made the quick decision to take matters into her own hands (she'd just been informed that a Black Widow bite can kill a child in as little as 30 minutes). She pulled a tee out of her pocket ("it was the only thing I had handy," she told Svensk Golf) and used it to cut open the wound so she could squeeze out the venom and keep it from spreading inside her body.

"A clear fluid came out," she said. "It wasn't the prettiest thing I've ever done, but I had to get as much of it out of me as possible."

She then finished the 14 remaining holes in the round (supervised by medics the whole time), despite the pain and discomfort she was feeling. Unfortunately, she missed the cut to qualify for the tournament, which is a shame—but at least the whole world knows that Daniela Holmqvist ain't got time for spiders.

Tags: golf, spiders, daniela holmqvist, tremendous badassery