This is a strange, compelling story, but was probably avoidable.
I'm of two minds here. In a casual round situation, I feel like there's more responsibility on the group/thrower to take the proper safety concerns. On local courses where other park activites come into play, I'll skip a hole rather than risk hitting someone, or going through the ordeal of trying to explain the game, what i'm doing there, could you please move, etc. Slightly different is, say, some tool standing by a basket with no other park stuff around, staring at me standing on the tee like I've got a d*** growing out of my forehead. In that case, I'll ask them to move and explain I'm throwing something that way. Hornet's Nest 7 is classic, with 2 picnic areas just off the fairway to the right. Solo round, Labor day weekend, and a huge family reuinion/bar-b-q going on, I'll defer to the planned event (skip the hole, or go putter/putter/putter or something.) Carolina Clash, and some dork parks his car on the left edge of same fairway (not a parking spot,) I'll do due diligence to try to give the guy a heads up (or the TD will,) but I'm playing the hole as I see fit. Bad example, maybe, since it's car vs. face. But I can't imagine a scenario where I intentionally throw into any clueless park goer.
In a tourney, there's more responsibility to spread around, IMO. If this hole is a known safety concern, maybe the TD could've done more w/r/t signage, etc? Not to throw any TD under the bus, here, in all seriousness, maybe this responsibility is also Parks/Rec? Also, safety should at times affect shot selection, but less so, I think, in a competitive situation.
When there's already a planned, scheduled event in the park, it's as much (in this case) about the fishermen respecting other park goers as it is the throwers. If properly informed that a golf tourney was going on, the guy should at least accept the risk of getting struck, or find something else to do. There's a fine line between being a victim of an errant throw, and willfully putting one's self in the situation, looking for the confrontation. I'm a tad suspicious of this here, since the OP, or somebody on the scene, posted that this Russian is a regular fisherman there, and has likely had DG issues in the past.
That being said, getting hit in the face, at any time, by anything, is instantly infuriating, so I understand the Russian's rage here. Especially if the player(s) handled the situation badly. It's hard to be a Judge Judy here, since I don't really know how this went down, how the players handled it, how serious the "assault" was, etc.
Still, if it was me, and the guy really did come after me, swinging and talking about shooting me dead, I'm defending myself, hard and dirty, then pressing charges.
