Monday, July 30, 2012

Grizzly on #18 Green


One of my goals has been to take pictures of wildlife while they are on the golf course.  I like to capturing a picture of the animal while highlighting the golf course.  I have always wanted to take a picture of a bear on one of our greens at Greywolf.  I have seen plenty of bears on the golf course, but never had the DSLR with me or the bear has never crossed one of our greens.

Tuesday July 17th I was able to check the “bear on a green picture” goal off my goals list.  The best part is the bear was a Grizzly on our 18th Green.   The Grizzly that we captured was first seen on the 6th green by a staff member about to mow the green.   The Grizzly then moved across the 8th green, through our parking lot, and onto the eighteenth hole.  The Grizzly was a mid-size bear and we estimated it to be about two years old.  The pictures in the slide show below are not great as it is challenging to get the camera settings correct, while you are hold bear bangers, diving a Gator, and trying to ensure guests and staff are safe.  To show you how fast a Grizzly can move I calculated it traveled an estimate .8 Km in about eight minutes through some challenging terrain.   From there the Grizzly moved across the eighteenth green where we used bear bangers to keep it moving and scare it off the golf course.  I wish everyone kept his pace of play.  


Grizzly on #18 Green at Greywolf







Bear Print in topdressing sand

Something you do not see on tee sheet every morning