Els was the third player of the day to shoot 63, but his eight birdies and an eagle were offset when his five-wood approach splashed into the lake at the front of the green at the par-five 18th.
"Something very bad happened, " the police chief of Norton Shores, a community of 22, 500 near Lake Michigan about 40 miles west of Grand Rapids, told CNN affiliate WOOD-TV.
It takes Mr. Fleming-Wood almost exactly 45 minutes to change in the office locker room, run around the lake (four miles round trip), shower and get back to his desk.