South Carolina's Top Golfer Suffers Season-Ending Injury En Route To Grab Donuts To Celebrate Latest Win

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The South Carolina Gamecocks men's golf team will be without its best player, Nathan Franks, for at least the remainder of the regular season following the recent accident involving the team van. The crash occurred while the team was headed to pick up some celebratory donuts following Franks' win at the Schenkel Invitational.

According to NBC Sports, Franks was riding shotgun in the team sprinter van driven by assistant coach Brady Gregor when another car, making a left turn, pulled out in front of them on Highway 25 in Waynesboro, Georgia. 

Gregor cruised through a green light of the five-lane highway but was quickly forced to swerve to the right to avoid a head-on collision with the other vehicle. The driver's side of the large van sustained most of the hard impact before hitting a nearby power truck, which kept things from going from bad to much, much worse as it stopped them from falling into an 8-foot-deep ditch.

"It’s like she didn’t even see us, didn’t see the light that was red, definitely didn’t try to stop because she just gunned it, trying to speed up to get through that intersection," Gregor said…"She tried to take off, but her car shut down."

The crash occurred about 100 yards from the gas station they were going to pull into to get donuts to celebrate Franks' individual win.

Fortunately, there were no life-threatening injuries. The five other players in the van only picked up "some bumps and bruises." As for Franks, he actually helped the team unpack luggage when they arrived back in Columbia but woke up the next morning unable to extend his right arm. He was diagnosed with a hairline fracture and will be sidelined for the team's final two regular-season events, at least.

Franks, who now has two individual titles this season, avoided surgery but will be wearing a sling for the foreseeable future. The SEC Championship is set for April 24, and the Gamecocks have their fingers crossed that he'll be available to tee it up.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.