Golf's Dreaded Worm-burner

I know most of you know what I'm talking about when I say "Golf's Dreaded Worm-burner." It's that golf shot where you just about get all of it, but it barely gets off the ground flying at a high rate of speed.

I've hit my share of worm-burners playing golf, but one time I won't forget. I was teeing off on the par 5 4th hole at Meadowlark Golf Course in Huntington Beach. I hit a solid worm-burner with my driver and about 50 yards out I hit a mallard duck right in the head. It instantly dropped it to the ground. When we got up to the mallard it was barely alive. At the time I was only 13 years old and it made me really sad that I hit it. A friend that I was with hunted ducks with his dad and said we had to kill it to put it out of its misery.

There was no way I was going to do that so my friend took his 5-iron and with one hit it was dead. It was the humane thing to do, but it was still a very sad day. I continued my golf round, but I couldn't stop thinking about it.

To this day when I'm playing golf I make sure the first 100 yards off the tee is clear so that I don't put myself in that situation again because I don't want my day of golf to be ruined by something like this.

Has this every happened to you while playing golf?