Giant Hippo Visits A Golf Course To See How the Golfers Are Doing
Golf courses usually feel calm, but this one got a lot more interesting when a giant hippo wandered in for a closer look. The animal was spotted near the 11th hole at Richards Bay Country Club in South Africa, where Ockie Annandale and his friends were already in the middle of their round.
The hippo lives in a lake at the center of the course, and it was apparently in no rush to leave. Instead, it strolled up to the green, munched on grass, and gave the golfers a very unexpected interruption.
What happened next turned a normal game into a story nobody there is likely to forget.
There are quite a few hippos in there, but they normally come out to forage at night. This big boy had come out during the day. We saw him near the edge of the green.
The hippo was calmly eating some freshly cut grass, and Annandale and his friends decided to try to continue their game without disturbing the animal.
“We were seeing if he’d let us putt,” Annandale says. “But the hippo went onto the green and started messing with the flag. My friend actually said, ‘Look, he’s going to take the flag out for you!’”
This reminds us of the cheeky baby elephant that tickled a journalist’s nose during a news report.
Watch the video here:
To give us some perspective on the animal’s size, he points out that the flag the hippo chomped on is actually about six feet tall.
The golfers had no hard feelings, their game was delayed for just a couple of minutes, but they were given a fantastic experience. “It was great. It was awesome!” Annandale added, “My friend and I both made birdies on that hole, by the way.”
That is one very committed course visitor.
For a darker hippo rescue story, read about Marius Els, who treated a rescued hippo like family.
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