What happens when nature and your favorite sport collide? It might look a little something like what happened on this British Columbia golf course. A black bear walked up to a golf cart, pulled a bag of clubs off the back of it, and hauled it away while golfers filmed. It all went down at Golden Eagle Golf Club in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, according to UPI reported. Nobody was hurt, but it seems the bear really wanted to work on its swing.
The bear approached the parked cart. It took the golf bag in its mouth. It dragged the bag off the course toward the tree line. A second bear was waiting there.
The golfer whose clubs were disappearing can be heard on the video saying, “Those are my clubs, man.” Another voice tells the bear to put the bag back. Neither request had any effect.
A Reddit user posted the clip, and it circulated on the site’s golf community before CTV News and CP24 picked it up on July 13. Whether the golfer ever got the clubs back has not been reported. The bear that took them has not been seen returning anything.
Bears Are Actually Regulars at This Course
The pair in the video were not first-time visitors. Bears have turned up at Golden Eagle repeatedly in recent days, and the course itself posted video in June showing three of them out on the grounds. Sightings like that are common enough at the club that staff has flagged bear season to players.
The setting explains much of it. Golden Eagle is a public course in Pitt Meadows, on the eastern edge of Metro Vancouver, where fairways run up against forest and farmland. Black bears move along those edges through the summer looking for food. A cart parked at the tree line with a bag on the back sits directly in that path.
What Do Golf Rules Say About Bears or Animals?
Golf’s rulebook anticipates this more than you might expect. There’s actually a special rule for it here in the U.S.: Rule 16.2. It covers what it calls a dangerous animal condition, and the R&A’s own definition names bears outright, alongside venomous snakes, stinging bees, alligators, and fire ants. When such an animal near a player’s ball could cause serious injury if the player had to hit the shot as it lies, the player gets free relief. The procedure is to find the nearest point where the danger no longer exists, no closer to the hole, and drop within one club-length of it.
A separate rule handles the animal that helps itself to your ball. Under Rule 9.6, an animal counts as an outside influence, so a ball carried off by one is replaced on its original spot with no penalty, and the spot can be estimated if nobody saw exactly where it was, according to Golf Monthly. Every one of these provisions is written around the ball. The rulebook has a good deal to say about a bear standing near your ball and nothing much to offer the player whose entire bag has left with one.