Jack Nicklaus is known worldwide as golf’s Golden Bear. But a black bear recently took over the limelight in Canada, stealing a set of clubs from the back of a golf cart.
Jerome Gignac, a Canadian golfer, was playing a round at Westwood Plateau Golf & Country Club in Coquitlam, British Columbia, when the mischievous mammal dragged his bag out of the cart and headed for the woods at the picturesque golf course, SBNation reported.
“It came out of the woods, came to our carts, searched through our bags,” Gignac told Global News. “There was no food in any of the golf bags, but for some reason, it picked my bag to pull off the cart.”
Video below contains language that may be offensive to some readers.
Golfers covet birdies and eagles on their scorecards, and players in the South have come to accept alligators sunning themselves near fairways as a hazard on the links, but a bear? That is something new, although the large animals have been known to wander onto courses in Canada.
The bear tore the bag from the cart and dragged it into a ravine in the woods as Gignac yelled in protest, Golf Digest reported. Fortunately for the golfer, some of his clubs fell out of the bag, so it was not a total loss.
“I can’t believe it,” Gignac can be heard saying in the video, adding several choice expletives as his friends roared with laughter.
Gignac told Global News that it was not unusual to see bears at the course, which is located north of Vancouver.
[ Black bear goes for swim to cool off from the heat ]
“I had one walk across a green one time when I was putting and completely ignore us,” Gignac told the news outlet. “My friend Peter and I were playing and the bear just walked right in front of us, across the green.
“But I’ve never seen a bear do something like that.”
Gignac was incensed and started after his bag in the woods, but ultimately decided that losing clubs was a better alternative than being mauled by a bear. He told Global News that it was a brand-new bag and all he could think about was saving his clubs.
Posters on X, formerly known as Twitter, had a field day making fun of Gignac, which is probably par for the course.
“Who goes after the bear in that spot,” Justin Macmahan tweeted. “Just take the L bro.”
“Good luck explaining that one to the wife,” Gaereth Leonard tweeted.
So, when it comes to golf shots, does a bear hit in the woods? We may never know.