Girl, 6, dies after being struck by golf ball hit by father

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A six-year-old girl has died after being hit in the head by a golf ball hit by her own father.

Aria Hill was sat in a cart when her dad Kellen sliced his tee-off toward her at the Sleepy Ridge Golf Course in Orem, Utah.

The youngster was flown to a hospital in Salt Lake City but died from her injuries shortly after.

Her uncle said the tragedy occurred while the pair enjoyed their regular round together: Kellen, he added, called Aria his “golfing buddy”.

“She loved doing it and had a good time with it all,” David Smith told the local KSL news channel. “That was one of their things that they would do together. It was something that was really important to them and something they did all the time.”

Writing on a GoFundMe page, her mother Talysa paid tribute to her daughter.

“Aria was the sassiest girl in the world,” she wrote. “She was silly, spunky, creative, unique, and so so full of love for everyone she came in contact with. There is a huge hole in our hearts that she has taken with her back to Heaven.”

Steven Marett, the head golf instructor at the course, said that while he had occasionally seen people get hit with balls before, he had never heard of anybody there being killed or even seriously injured.

“This is absolutely unimaginable, and it’s been devastating to see it at the course and in the community,” he said.

Charges are not being perused in relation to the incident, Orem Police lieutenant Trent Colledge said.

In June, a man was arrested after a baby was hit by a golf ball at a course near Birmingham, in the UK, and treated for a serious eye injury.