Golfing with nature

[Kenny D]

Just wanted to see any fun stories with animal interaction on the golf course...

I live in Ohio and the strangest animal encounter I had was when I walked over a hill to find my ball and instead I found 10 or so deer passing through and suspiciously my well hit ball was missing..  haha I always wonder if one ate it or moved it (I looked around for it for a long freaking time!) what's the relief on that?  And any of you Columbus area golfers if you've played the "airport golf course" near Port Columbus, all I have to say is holy groundhogs..

I bring this up because I was just in Orlando and the wildlife on the golf courses was just crazy to see.  Gators, lizards, snakes, giant water birds, I rarely see and  made me think twice when hitting near dark/water areas.. made me say 'I'll hit another, just in case..." And apparently Florida has these birds that make a distinct and literal HA-HA chirp which only seems fitting on the course.

[xxsoultonesxx]

I've got a couple.

At my old cabin in the foothills where I lived when I was working at Crystal Mt. I would hit two dozen or so shag balls in to the woods across the road from my house, I would hit them in and then go poke around out there and I could usually find most of them. One morning I step out on the yard with my cup of coffee and a teed up 4-iron I smoke a low shot in the the woods and it bounced off a big pine tree at full speed and the sound of it woke up a whole herd of elk that were all laying in the brush and they all just stared at me for a couple minutes before they finally trudged off in the woods.

At my home course on the 7th hole tee box there was a woodpecker about a third of the way through his hole pecking adventure right off the tee box right by the yardage info/ballwasher. I was playing solo at the time and every time I would set up to the ball he would go at it, and it was pretty loud. He did it three or four times in a row and finally I gave up and decided I needed to film him on my cell phone, and I started recording him pecking at the tree and he let me walk within 3 feet of him before he even seemed cautious of me being there, then he took off.

[Harmonious]

Playing at Port Ludlow golf course in Washington, which is heavily wooded.  Going from one green to the next tee required walking around a slight bend through the woods.  When we got to the tee, there was a bobcat next to the blue tee markers, just sitting there looking at us.  I figured it would run away when it saw us.  Nope.  It stood its ground, didn't move.  We decided to play that hole from the reds.

Playing in Mississippi, I was walking along a lake near the clubhouse, looking for balls, not paying attention.  Heard a loud hiss.  A gator was about 6 feet in front of me, telling me to get away.  I did. Now, I am always careful to check ahead of me when I walk along any lake. Both for gators and snakes.

Now in Florida, there's wildlife all around. It's neat to see ospreys hovering above a pond, then dive in and come out with a fish.  Or to see red-shouldered hawks have a mid-air battle with a bald eagle.  Or baby sandhill cranes walking along with their long-legged parents.

Kind of makes you forget a bad shot when you see some of the neat things in nature.

[awmgolfer]

I have a lot of animal encounters. My wife and I were playing in the evening and came up to a short uphill par 3 and on the green we saw a huge shadow. Once my eyes focused I realized it was a moose. He finally moved off the green but proceeded to follow us on the next 3 holes. The funniest one happened to us in golf practice with one of the kids. It was another par 3 and the green is completely surrounded on 3 sides by woods. He hit it just on the left side of the green, about a 40 foot putt left. A fox came out of the woods, picked up is ball carried it to the other side of the green and then laid down and started playing with it. After a couple of minutes he gave it one good whack and it finished up about 5 feet from the pin. Was quite funny to watch. We had a lot of fox issues last year. Another par 5 over a small pond they would race out of the woods after you hit and grab your ball and run back into the woods.

[jetsknicks1]

You see alot of stuff here in Fla. Gators, turtles, cranes and deer. The funniest thing was walking ip to the first green and seeing dirt flying. There was a gopher diiging a hole right in the center of the green.

[TourSpoon]

At a course I worked at in 91-93 we had a lot of Mississippi Sand Hill Cranes and they were always in pairs.  At times the cranes would  come up to the clubhouse and see themselves in the glass.  One young stud was seen hopping up and down, semi fluttering, and really trying to impress himself doing the mating dance.  The birds were very elegant, took on personalities, and were part of the club.  We just had to keep them away from the edges of the bunkers and greens because they could do some damage poking around for grubs.  One morning one got hit by a errant tee shot and didn't make it.  It was very sad as it's mate literally mourned for two weeks.  It was eerily human like in how they reacted to this tragic event.

While I was there, I remember a legend about an overgrown iguana that was rumored to be as big as a gator.  A few weeks would go by and golfers would report seeing the beast.  I grew frustrated, seeing that I had never seen him and I was there all the time.  Then one morning on the 13th hole sunning himself on the tee, I see him.  He's about 3-4 feet long and when he notices me he pops up on his legs and takes off like a bullet into the woods.  That thing could move.  Now in South Florida this is very common especially since Hurricane Andrew as exotics are all over the place.

Golfing with my brother one day I hit my ball on the bank.  All excited to be up, I go down to my ball only to see it 3 feet from this giant cottonmouth (water moccasin).  I backed up slowly and used the dangerous animal ruling to take my drop.  I have seen plenty of gators, but this snake took the prize being 4 feet long with a thick midsection and huge triangular head.

[akw512]

I was playing one day, and we were on the tee box of an uphill par 3 over water.  Their is about 60 yards from the tee box to the front edge of the water, which is occupied by a large group of geese.  One guy in the group catches it thin and laces a line drive that nails a goose.  The goose literally gets rolled over from the impact of the ball.  The goose stands up, shakes, looks around, and limps over to the ball and sits on it like an egg.  The goose suffered a broken wing, and consequently never flew south with the rest of the group, but it survived for another couple of years on the golf course.

[glk23]

Walking up to a green on a course last summer and thought it was strange to see a dog hanging around.  As I got closer, realized it was a coyote.  It wandered off as I got closer.  I have seen plenty of deer on the courses I play.

[clubchamp]

I was walking down the 13th fairway and about 50 yards in front of me a chipmunk goes running across and BOOM hawk swoops down no more chipmunk.

[darkhunter139]

I was playing a round when I was visiting my friend in Minnesota and about 5-6 deer ran right across the fairway.