Matt James Apologizes for Hitting Man With a Golf Ball: ‘I Owe You a Beer’

Ouch! Matt James joked about his lack of sporting prowess after he accidentally hit a photographer with a golf ball.

The former Bachelor, 30, was teeing off at the Waste Management Phoenix Open Pro-Am Tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Wednesday, February 9, when his ball went flying into a group of photographers, hitting one. James rushed to check on Steve Cortez, who was thankfully only minorly harmed by the incident.

“I just really want to apologize again for [hitting you],” the Dancing With the Stars alum said in a video message to the photographer after the incident. “I was not aiming for you — frankly, I don’t think I was aiming for anything and that’s the problem. I probably shouldn’t have even stepped out here.”

After promising that he would return to the tournament again in 2023 after putting in “a lot of work between now and then,” James promised to make things right. “I owe you a beer. I owe you dinner. I owe you my life,” the North Carolina native added.

The next day, James poked fun at himself on social media, promising that he was moving “forward” after his disastrous swing. “The good thing is, it can’t get any worse than it was yesterday,” the ABC Food Tours co-founder jokingly told followers on the morning of Thursday, February 10, via his Instagram Story.

James continued: “I can’t legally hold or swing a golf club … until I undergo 100 hours of intense golf training. [Which is] warranted.”

The former college football player previously showed off his athleticism on Season 30 of Dancing With the Stars, before he was eliminated in the fourth week. Despite his loss, James was grateful for the chance to show audiences a different side of himself. “[The Bachelor] was something I did. It’s not who I am. And I think that a lot of people got that confused,” he told Us Weekly in September 2021. “After the show’s over, [people were] expecting me to look a certain way, act a certain way. I’m Matt James.”

Adding that he did not exist to “please” fans, James emphasized that he wanted people to focus on his accomplishments outside of becoming the first Black Bachelor.

“I’m here to be the best version of myself, and that has little to do with my appearance,” the TV personality said at the time.”[It’s] more so about how I’m treating people and the work that I’m doing in the community and the type of impact I’m trying to leave.”

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