"He was the most courteous crash pilot: He managed to avoid the green altogether."

Richard Brooks with the story of a particularly thoughtful pilot who successfully avoided a green at Cresta Verde.

Barely an hour after he crawled out of a damaged plane on a Corona golf course, pilot Richard Hammerschlag said his otherwise safe emergency landing fell victim to a hidden sand trap.

"I was trying to avoid the green," the 63-year-old Costa Mesa resident recalled. "But I couldn't see the trap coming up (as I rolled) up an incline. It snuck up on me."

And this from a grateful GM:

"He was the most courteous crash pilot: He managed to avoid the green altogether," said General Manager Mike Kim. "We sustained a little damage to the sand trap, but nothing that can't be repaired."