Golfer saves drowning man near St. Andrews, then finishes his round

Billy Radebaugh was hoping to break par, not become a hero. Then an enjoyable round of golf in Scotland turned into a numbing call for survival that the Columbus businessman never asked for but felt compelled to answer.

Heroism is not something to be sought. Quite the contrary. If possible, it is to be avoided, because to save the day means the day first needed to be saved. A child requires rescuing from a burning house. A heart attack victim needs immediate CPR. Better that no heroics are ever needed than for someone to have to step in and tamp down potential tragedy.

Heroism also is not something you script. There is no five-year plan. But that does not mean it “just happens.” It requires action. A need arises. Trouble calls. Do you answer? A decision must be made.

Radebaugh chose to answer. Courageously. That is heroism. The marketing business owner from Dublin, having fun on a golfing trip with buddies, dropped his clubs and swam into the frigid sea off the eastern coast of Scotland to rescue a local man who would have drowned if not for the help of a hero who wasn’t looking to become one.

Two worlds collide in Scotland

Two things were happening at once within a quarter mile of each other on Sept. 19 in St. Andrews, Scotland. Xiang Li, who goes by Kevin, was with his father-in-law collecting whelks in an estuary near West Sands Beach. Radebaugh, who was born in Upper Arlington, and seven buddies were on a golf trip that included stops at Carnoustie and the Jubilee course at St. Andrews Links.

Those two events – hunting sea snails and birdies – were about to converge into a single terrifying event that thankfully has a happy ending.

Radebaugh, 43, was 1-over on the No. 7 green at Jubilee with playing partners Steve Boyle of Dublin and Lawrence Gross of Upper Arlington when a woman approached asking if the men had a phone available to call in emergency help for a man struggling against the strong currents in the North Sea.

Lawrence Gross, Billy Radebaugh and Steve Boyle in the aftermath of a dramatic water rescue in Scotland. (Photo courtesy Tammy Book)

The golfers immediately used a range finder as binoculars to spot Li about 200 yards offshore. The local man from Dundee, Scotland, had not noticed the tide come in and he and his father-in-law were swept into the sea and cut off from the mainland, even as the 45-degree water rose to his neck and the currents kept them from swimming ashore.

For Radebaugh, it was decision time.

“I run down…