An unusual hazard for a southeastern course in Florida would be

[Mike_Young]

The ATL area has several of those "naked stripper" tournaments and I hear there have been a couple of real close calls in those tournaments involving golf cars...

[Jeff_Brauer]

Nothing more hazardous than real boobs driving golf cars while staring elsewhere at fake boobs.....

[Steve Lang]

   how about Moose?  Or mountainous terrain to catch the eye?

[Mike_Young]

Nothing more hazardous than real boobs driving golf cars while staring elsewhere at fake boobs.....

who me???

[Sean_A]

Watching a helicopter land between the 1st tee and 18th green at Machrihanish.  Out jumps Greg Norman and his kid - who then proceed to steal our tee - surreal.

A dog bounding from the trees with my ball (thought it was lost) in his mouth - thank you very much.  The dog follows us to the next tee, watches me hit and peels off in search of down the middle.  I start to laugh thinking we will soon meet again, but no, the dog takes off with my ball.   

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

A seagull removing Greg Normans ball from the 17th green at TPC during the Tour Championship and then dropping the ball in the lake.
atb

[Patrick_Mucci]

I heard about this a few weeks ago and still sort of watching the area. I've can count on 1 hand how many snakes of any size I've seen at PT in 5 years, certainly no alligators. Thank goodness, otherwise Wilson, my pup couldn't swim in the ponds!

Tony,

Boca Rio had large fresh water otters swimming around for years.
Every now and then they'd scamper across a fairway.

Never saw an alligator at Pine Tree or Boca Rio, but one used to hang out on # 17 at Adios.
I saw a huge alligator in the canal at DelAire.  It looked to be in the 14-16 foot range but I wasn't about to take out a tape measure and gave it a wide birth.   Old Marsh had a few and Seminole had one a few years ago.   I'm told that abundant rain brings them east since the canals form a convenient highway East and to the sea.

I've seen what I thought were Coral snakes at Boca Rio, but never a rattler, especially in such a densely populated area with all those highways and traffic to contend with.

The damage done at the point of envenomation and beyond, providing you survive, is quite extensive with hemotoxic snakes, and may take years to recover from.

If it takes an increase in the budget to get rid of them, you have my vote.

[jeffwarne]

Watching a helicopter land between the 1st tee and 18th green at Machrihanish.  Out jumps Greg Norman and his kid - who then proceed to steal our tee - surreal.


Ciao

At Rosapenna (was once such a lovely place: )
Having a group of 16 Germans skip check in, steal our just paid for trolleys, race to the tee and attempt to send off four foursomes in front of our 2 group who had just been sent to the tee for our reserved tee times.
We stepped up and did a 8 man simulhit and blew through them after diplomatic relations failed (which wasn't that hard given they spent 20 minutes looking for their tee shots on #1

They were turning as we putted out on 18

[Rich Goodale]

The only time I played Wishaw Golf Club, we were on the 4th(?) hole and a tractor comes over the rise on the right and the driver yells at us:

"Head for the trees, laddies, there's a bull loose!"

Sure enough, right behind the tractor was a not so slowly lumbering beast who (we later learned) had esacaped from the nearby slaughterhouse.  Me and my playing partners climbed up the trees on the left and the bull lumbered past us, trundling across the 18th green and then towards the town.  A few minutes later we heard numerous police sirens and then soon afterwards three pops.  The bull had been taken down by sniper in the Wishaw town square.

[Bill_McBride]

Pat M,

'Tis all very well to take a trusty iron into the bush with you but remember that hospital statistics tell us up to 90% of snake bites occur as homo sapiens attempts to despatch the slithering snake. The red belly black snake on our porch, here in Brisbane yesterday was allowed to wend its weary way off the deck under its own steam!

Colin,

It's been my limited experience that there's less risk involved in retrieving your ball from underneath dense undergrowth with an iron rather than your hand and arm.

Snakes are free to bite my trusty 4-iron at will.

I've also found that the distance from the head of my iron to my arm and/or body is greater than the distance from my hand to my arm.


Yep snakes on the Australian courses are just another hazard! As to mocking by Aussies, I am an Australian but not born and bred thus I do not have the mocking skills that thoroughbred Aussies have.  I will leave the derision to the experts!!!  It will be a'coming!!
The "unexpected" shouldn't initiate derision.
I'm sure that fire ants, killer bees, cougars and bears aren't too common in your neck of the woods.

It's one thing to deal with a known danger, but, it's quite another to be surprised by an unexpected danger.

You sound like Donald Rumsfeld with his "known unknowns," etc.   

[Joe Bausch]

A seagull removing Greg Normans ball from the 17th green at TPC during the Tour Championship and then dropping the ball in the lake.
atb

Wasn't that Brad Fabel's golf ball?  It was funny.

[David Lott]

Another reason why Ireland and New Zealand are the true golfing paradises.

[Thomas Dai]

A seagull removing Greg Normans ball from the 17th green at TPC during the Tour Championship and then dropping the ball in the lake.
atb

Wasn't that Brad Fabel's golf ball?  It was funny.

I thought it was Greg Norman on the 16th (I mistakenly typed 17th earlier) although perhaps it was Steve Lowery! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr8JwKaXONAatb

atb

[Joe Bausch]

A seagull removing Greg Normans ball from the 17th green at TPC during the Tour Championship and then dropping the ball in the lake.
atb

Wasn't that Brad Fabel's golf ball?  It was funny.

I thought it was Greg Norman on the 16th (I mistakenly typed 17th earlier) although perhaps it was Steve Lowery! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr8JwKaXONAatb

atb

Fabel's was on the 17th:

http://www.pgatour.com/news/2009/04/29/fabelsider.html

[Mike_Young]

A few years ago Buddy Antonopoulus, pro at Medalist picked up what he thought was a King snake to show some kids or something.  It nipped him on the hand and a few holes later he began to go into a coma etc...it was a Coral snake...took him a while to recover if I recall...

[Joe Bausch]

A few years ago Buddy Antonopoulus, pro at Medalist picked up what he thought was a King snake to show some kids or something.  It nipped him on the hand and a few holes later he began to go into a coma etc...it was a Coral snake...took him a while to recover if I recall...

Yowser.  That's scary.

[Patrick_Mucci]

A few years ago Buddy Antonopoulus, pro at Medalist picked up what he thought was a King snake to show some kids or something.  It nipped him on the hand and a few holes later he began to go into a coma etc...it was a Coral snake...took him a while to recover if I recall...

Yowser.  That's scary.

Joe,

Thanks

Easy to remember

Black on Yellow, lucky fellow, yellow on Red and you'll be dead

[Mike_Young]

A few years ago Buddy Antonopoulus, pro at Medalist picked up what he thought was a King snake to show some kids or something.  It nipped him on the hand and a few holes later he began to go into a coma etc...it was a Coral snake...took him a while to recover if I recall...

Yowser.  That's scary.

Joe,

Thanks

Easy to remember

Black on Yellow, lucky fellow, yellow on Red and you'll be dead

neurotoxic...not a viper...   will hurt you...bad...

[John Chilver-Stainer]

In Canada watch out for the bears.

We were warned at Pemberton G.C to stay clear of the mother bear with her cub hanging out on the river by the 17th Fairway.

While putting on the 16th my buddy says. "Move very quietly back down the fairway there's a bear with her cub 20 yards behind the green"

You could say he was very concerned, as mother bears can be very protective.
Pretty exciting for me, particularly as it was my second day in Canada and had already encountered a cyote on the 8th Fairway.

[Matthew Lloyd]

A pack of coyotes on the 14th fairway at Kingsley just before dawn.  But they weren't a problem -- they played quickly and kept a good pace in front of us.

[Rob Curtiss]

I think the - Beware of Panthers - sign at Old Corkscrew in Estero was definitely a little intimidating

[SL_Solow]

When we were at Banff saw lots of elk and they had trapped a mountain lion a few days before.  In Florida, Sawgrass CC had a large number of really large gators.  At home, many coyotes around the Chicago courses.  Appropos of Sean's dog story,  on our 12th hole a friend hit his drive in the fairway.  A red fox came running out of the tall grasses well  off the fairway, picked the ball up in its mouth and ran some 20 yards into the shorter rough.  It hen dropped the ball, peed all over it, and scampered away.  Truly an appropriate comment on my friends driving prowess.