Strangest Animal Encounters

[rony]

A two legged critter came out of the woods and ran across the fairway in front of us with a funny shaped stomach. Found out later the cops were searching for a guy who had just stolen beer from a 7-11. That's the type of strange animals we encounter around here.

[mozgolf]

Lion kill on a green at Skukuza in Kruger Park in South Africa- the course is un-fenced within the park and is "swept" by park rangers each morning before play!!

Playing in Africa, plenty of monkeys/ baboons, impala and other buck, crocs and snakes not uncommon, giraffe, elephant and hippo just outside the fence in many places

[BigPete]

I played today and the group ahead - one guy hit driver on a par 5 - and just at that moment a pidgeon happened to be flying just on the wrong flight path. Ball struck pidgeon about 30yards from the tee. Thud. Feathers. The group was a bit shocked. Unfortunately the bird didn't survive.

[PINGWRXforeme]

Whats the ruling if a mini pony picks your ball up, walks it 40yds and drops it? Play it as it lies?

[DaSportsGuy]

All I've seen is deer and snakes. I've never golfed outside Ohio so that's about it.

[Thrillhouse]

In Florida i've seen gators and a coral snake
In Texas i've seen water moccasins and a few other kinds of snakes, as well as a big tarantula wandering across a green in Odessa
In Arizona i've seen rattlesnakes, red racers, a bobcat, habalinas (kind of like warthogs), coyotes
at Banff Springs in Alberta i've seen elk, and plenty of them.
in wyoming ive played a course with antelope all over the place, saw a rattlesnake at the same course
at other courses in Alberta and BC I have seen lots of deer, plenty of coyotes, a pack of wolves once, and a couple of black bears. I have yet to come across a grizzly and I hope I never do, they are really dangerous.

[One_Putt_Blunder]

Did someone say Bobcat? I know it is not on the course, but we have this guy that hangs around our condo.

 

Nice little rattler out at Vista Verde. It never gets old posting this pic

[bradski]

At willows Runs in Redmond Wa On the 7th hole par 3 Eagles Talon course I saw a bald eagle in one tree and a hawk in the next. .(willows Runs has tons of interesting wildlife like blue herons) Ive seen the hawks pick up rabbit's behind me in the fairway. I have seen many deer, coyote's, rattlesnakes, ect,. The most interesting coyote was at Mile square golf course in the middle of Orange county because it's in the middle of the city and these things would follow you around for holes.

[JJ35]

A course I usually play at is totally infested with kangaroos , they just sit there under the trees trying to get some shade , last summer playing there I sliced a drive right near a pack of about 20 of them as I approached I saw my ball right near a mother with a joey in her pouch she stood up and starred at me ,now I'm nearly 6 foot this thing was taller than me I said bugger this and went back and drove my ball again. It's nice to have a little wildlife on the course but this is ridiculous someone needs to come in and cull these things otherwise their numbers will get out of control.

[DaSportsGuy]

Nice little rattler out at Vista Verde. It never gets old posting this pic

That is ridiculous! If I saw that I'm not sure I would finish my round. I would freak out like you wouldn't imagine, lol.

 

How long was that thing?

[ZipinZ]

[size="3"] [size="3"]Had a huge Raven swoop down, pick up & fly away with my B-new Pro-V1 and my playing partner had a Red Fox run out of the bush grab his ball and then disappear ....hilarious![/size]

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D.
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[Trugravity]

A couple of year's ago, during the qualifier for the John Deere Classic (held at Pinnacle CC just outside Milan, IL) a great horned owl landed no more than 10 yards directly in front of the range. Everyone stopped hitting and watched in amazement! It sat there looking around for a good 5 - 10 minutes and then flew off. We figured it must have been sick, thinking it would never have landed in that close proximity if it had been well. Very cool to see!

[One_Putt_Blunder]

Nice little rattler out at Vista Verde. It never gets old posting this pic

That is ridiculous! If I saw that I'm not sure I would finish my round. I would freak out like you wouldn't imagine, lol.

 

How long was that thing?

 

4-4 1/2 feet somewhere in that range, it was pretty early for snake season mid march when I took this. You could tell he just came out of hibernation and had a big meal. He was moving pretty slow and really was not bothered by our presence. I had to go back and warn the group behind us, because the front of that green is a bit elevated and blind so I did not them accidentaly sneaking up on him. I wish I would have taken a picture of the snake when it was right next to the cup though.

[doubleBZee]

I have had deer about 20 yards from me. They must be used to it. Now nothing really crazy but my local course has an albino squirrel.

[GatorNate11]

Actually, my strangest encounter was with a squirrel in Myrtle Beach. Not really sure what type of squirrel it was, odd looking thing. The thing that was odd was how tame it was. Walked right up to me and just stood there like "any food?" then just slowly walked away. Nothing like the squirrel's here, things are crazy.

[Medic]

Is it just me or were you REALLY close in order to get that photo?

And follow-up question - anyone to your knowledge ever been bitten on the course? I played a course in Colorado that had warning signs all over the place telling golfers to avoid the bushes.

[budeagle]

[quote name='One_Putt_Blunder' timestamp='1320526387' post='3763579

 

 

Nice little rattler out at Vista Verde. It never gets old posting this pic

 

Thats not a snake, Thats a Lawyer lining up his putt

[TMBob]

[quote name='bradski' timestamp='1320527264' post='3763629']
At willows Runs in Redmond Wa On the 7th hole par 3 Eagles Talon course I saw a bald eagle in one tree and a hawk in the next. .(willows Runs has tons of interesting wildlife like blue herons) Ive seen the hawks pick up rabbit's behind me in the fairway. I have seen many deer, coyote's, rattlesnakes, ect,. The most interesting coyote was at Mile square golf course in the middle of Orange county because it's in the middle of the city and these things would follow you around for holes.
[/quote]

The coyote's follow people around at Newcastle also.....someone has feed them in the past so they learn to follow looking to get feed. They are not stalking you.

If fact at Newcastle right now there are two Coyote's that sit out in the range near the 262 Blue Flag Green and do nothing but hang out all day. This has been going on for the past two months. One is really big and health, about 50 lbs.....plenty of rabbits now.

[One_Putt_Blunder]

[quote name='Medic' timestamp='1320540174' post='3764213']
Is it just me or were you REALLY close in order to get that photo?

And follow-up question - anyone to your knowledge ever been bitten on the course? I played a course in Colorado that had warning signs all over the place telling golfers to avoid the bushes.
[/quote]


We did get pretty close to him, he was very lathargic with no signs of aggression. I tried to keep a safe angle to him to allow time to react if he changed direction and the rest is all zoom on the camera phone hahaha. Oddly enough I was playing this round with a couple Wrx'ers from Colorado, they were talking about the same thing but they were used to the smaller timber rattlers.
I do not know of anyone who has been bitten, but I am sure there have been, one of the guys I play alot of golf with works for one of the FD's here and I dont think a golf course snake bite call has come up before in our conversations. Thankfully most of the snake season golf is played by locals and we know better than to wander into dangerous areas.

@budeagle Love the lawyer line hahahaha

[Chef Otto]

Gators in Florida.
Had a 3' rattle snake on our tee box in Arizona.
At home in Utah there is a red tail fox out all the time at Wingpointe
A bunch of moose at Mt. Dell
Always see deer at Wasatch.
I use to live in Big Cottonwood Canyon and along with the deer and moose I have seen mountain lions, bobcats and snakes and a few eagles, skunks, coons and all kind of creatures

[mav52]

Water Moccasin laying in the cup on hole 12 at the Crooked Cat course at Orange National in Winter Garden Fl, not my first but I have never seen one residing in the cup...

[bulls9999]

Haha... when we first moved to OK I remember a sign on a course "watch out for Kite Hawks" and I wasn't sure what it meant (watch out for their nests?), and then I saw one another time dive bomb a golfer.

The funniest was while following my son at an AJGA tournament (Oak Tree CC), another player's mom was dive-bombed and she opened up her umbrella and it was attacking the outside of the umbrella. Then she fell on her back on the grass and it kept dive bombing the umbrella, and she tried to cover herself with the umbrella like a turtle shell, and kept pushing it away with the opened umbrella but it kept swooping down from above onto the ubmrella...then at one point, it grabbed it and tried to fly away with it and then she was pulling it back (as that was her only protection, lol).... I laughed so hard and then remembered I probably should go over and help, but it was more hysterical to just watch as it never made contact with her, just the umbrella. Even the golfers stopped and were rolling over on the fairway laughing.


[quote name='feedlotdoc' timestamp='1320455187' post='3760979']
My old course had kite hawks. Those things would swoop down and dive bomb you. My buddy had his hat knocked off by one while walking off the green. I once saw two bull snakes mating on the second tee box, kinda weird. Was chased by a swan in AZ. Rattlesnakes, turkeys, coyotes, foxes, deer are pretty normal. I also saw a dolphin playing in the water off of a par 3 at Tyndall AFB in FL. That was cool! We also see bald eagles at my new course.
[/quote]

[bulls9999]

Funky white-faced black squirrel, never seen this cool color before (in the Southern Pines/Pinehurst area). I've seen the typical grey ones and many around here in OK are a red-clay color.

[GatorNate11]

That's almost exactly what the ones in MB look like. It's an odd squirrel.

[Hammer99]

A Black Bear and her cub on the 5th green at Greywolf in B.C.

Called the proshop, they said don't putt out

A professional friend playing in India had to stop and wait for the cobra to finish moving over his ball.

Scariest, was just about to tee off in a tournament as a junior when the people around the tee whispered loudly "Don't Swing"
A mother skunk and 3 babies came out from under the starters shack and walked within a yard of me across the tee box and under the clubhouse. Heart was beating pretty good didn't want to get sprayed.

Duck hooked the tee shot OB

[mosesgolf]

Nothing too crazy around here in So. Calif.
I've seen Rattlers, Bobcat (one stared at me around sunset. We had a stare down contest. He was not afraid of me in the least.), fox (baby fox took off w/ my partners ball and put it in its lair), squirrels that took off w/ my buddies Snickers and once took off w/ my buddies Blackberry and I see deer once in a while. I've also had coyotes howl in nearby hills and have also seen a few out on the course looking for squirrels and rabbits. They are not afraid of man around here.

[GreatWhiteMullet]

For all the snake lovers and haters... this is a good old Aussie Red Belly Black snake from last weekend...

Generally not aggressive... play it as it lies.....


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[Medic]

[quote name='mav52' timestamp='1320587016' post='3765763']
Water Moccasin laying in the cup on hole 12 at the Crooked Cat course at Orange National in Winter Garden Fl, not my first but I have never seen one residing in the cup...
[/quote]

Now THAT would be a deal breaker!

Wonder how in the world he ended up in there.

And I have to ask. Obviously you saw him when you pulled the flag. Did he come slithering out towards you or stay in the cup? (or perhaps you used a ball retriever or the flag to help him out?)

Until your post I never even considered really looking into the cup before reaching in to grab my ball. I have had frogs and bugs in there many times but never something deadly!

[Splitter]

Well, since we're showing snake pics..

 

Pulled this baby off the green last spring. I think he gave himself a concussion and chipped a tooth on the putter before I got him rounded up.

 

 

[One_Putt_Blunder]

One other experience to mention is playing Spyglass while sharing the fairways with the numerous deer.