Wildlife on the Fairways

Sometimes the most memorable part of a round has absolutely nothing to do with golf.

An alligator at Sea Island, Georgia — one hazard best given plenty of room.

I’ve played golf with some interesting characters over the years. Some were wonderful players, some were entertaining companions, and a few probably belonged in a zoo. But some of my favorite spectators have had fur, feathers, scales, or antlers.

Golf is an outdoor game, and one of its quiet pleasures is realizing that we’re never really alone out there. While we’re thinking about our next shot, an entirely different cast of characters is going about its business around us. They don’t know what we shot on the last hole, and they certainly don’t care.

An Alligator Has the Right of Way

During a couples tournament at Sea Island, Georgia, Laurie and I came across a substantial alligator sunning himself beside the water. We’ve seen alligators on courses throughout the South (My buddy Larry likes to help them back into the water), but seeing one up close never becomes routine. It is a convincing reminder that some golf balls are simply not worth retrieving. I’ll take the penalty stroke.

Elsewhere around southern water hazards, herons, egrets, and other birds stalk the shallows with a patience most golfers could use on the putting green.

Sandhill cranes wading through a golf-course waterway in Florida.

A Kangaroo Problem, Finally Solved

I’d been to Australia several times and had one embarrassing complaint: I had never seen a kangaroo in the wild. I’d eaten kangaroo and visited a koala rescue, but somehow the country’s best-known marsupial had eluded me.

When I mentioned this to my friend Clyde in Melbourne, he knew exactly what to do: take me golfing. We went to Anglesea Golf Club, southwest of Melbourne, where kangaroos were everywhere. They grazed, lounged, and watched golfers with a marvelous lack of interest. After all those trips to Australia, the solution was a tee time. I should have known.

At Anglesea Golf Club near Melbourne, kangaroos were everywhere — finally!

The Characters Who Made Us Laugh

A few years ago in Colorado, my brother fed a cracker to a squirrel while we were playing. He gave him the cracker so that he wouldn't steal the entire package from the cart while we went up to putt.  The squirrel settled in to enjoy his snack, apparently convinced that the golfers were there to provide catering.

A Colorado squirrel enjoys the cracker my brother gave him.

In Las Vegas, a roadrunner followed Peter, Karrie and me for an entire hole, staring at us from the cart path as if waiting for food. Every time we moved, he moved. I kept expecting Wile E. Coyote to appear, although our persistent little companion seemed perfectly capable of finding his own lunch.

Our hopeful fourth player in Las Vegas.

At Waverly Woods Golf Course in Maryland, a red fox wandered out of the woods to watch us hit our tee shots. When he’d seen enough, he sat down and began cleaning himself. I’m not sure whether he was unimpressed by our swings or simply had more important things to do.

The curious fox at Waverly Woods, Maryland.

Then there was the rooster at Pine Ridge Golf Course, a little municipal course outside Eugene, Oregon. Apparently visiting from a nearby house, he wandered around crowing at the top of his lungs. He had absolutely no respect for silence during a backswing. I’ve played with some noisy golfers, but this fellow was in a class of his own.

The very vocal visitor at Pine Ridge near Eugene, Oregon.

The Four-Legged Gallery

While my friend Jon and I were preparing for his member-guest tournament in Alto, New Mexico, we encountered a horse grazing on the golf course. Jon and I were thinking about the competition; the horse was thinking about lunch. It was hard to argue with his priorities.

At home in Lakeway, Texas, deer are such regulars that they might as well have membership cards. Bucks with impressive antlers stroll across the grass, while spotted fawns curl up beneath the trees. Even after years of seeing them, I still stop to admire them.

And who can resist an armadillo? With its armored body and determined shuffle, it looks like a miniature tank. Seeing a mother with her babies is a reminder that the smallest creatures can produce some of the biggest smiles.

A mother armadillo and her young heading into the bluebonnets near our 16th tee.

The Feathered Spectators

At Rand Park in South Africa, I met the Hadeda Ibis, whose loud, laughter-like call sounds suspiciously like commentary on your golf swing. In Oregon, on our first buddies’ trip to Bandon Dunes, I spotted a puffin — a wonderfully comical-looking bird against that dramatic coastal setting.

A puffin spotted during our first buddies’ trip to Bandon Dunes.

Some birds inspire laughter; others stop you in your tracks. At Blackwolf Run’s River Course in Kohler, Wisconsin, we saw a family of bald eagles perched together in a tree. At Anchorage Golf Course in Alaska, a bald eagle flew right past us. Both encounters were unforgettable, for entirely different reasons.

Swans glide across ponds with an elegance that golfers can only envy. Canada geese, on the other hand, seem to regard every grassy bank as their personal clubhouse.

A Swan gliding across the water in Wisconsin.

Canada geese making themselves at home on the 18th tee at Oakmont CC near Ft. Worth, Tx.