A round of golf in South Africa's Kruger National Park comes with uniquely challenging hazards ... 


 

While on a recent, early morning inspection of the golf course at Skukuza rest camp – the largest camp and also administrative headquarters of South Africa's Kruger Park – greenskeeper Jean Rossouw filmed a leopard 'teeing off' in an altogether feline fashion. The young cat couldn't resist stalking and pouncing on the tee markers much like a playful house cat, before eventually bounding off into the surrounding bushveld.


 

"I was inspecting the course to see what damage the animals had caused on Wednesday [September 8, 2021] night," Roussouw told a local news outlet. "Upon arrival at the second tee box, I came across this usually skittish, but on this day very playful, female leopard." The big cat is known to roam the area and this was not the greenskeeper's first encounter with the leopard. "Fear not, golfers can still enjoy a round," he insisted. "She [the leopard] poses little to danger to humans. That is, if you respect her in her natural habitat," he added. 

The Skukuza golf course – constructed in the early 1970s as a recreational facility for camp staff, but later made accessible to all visitors to the Kruger Park – is unfenced and it's not uncommon for uninvited spectators to stroll onto the fairways. The second tee seems to be particularly popular with predators having played host to a clan of hyenas earlier this year:


 

If it's a wild, close-to-nature round of golf you're after, nine holes at Skukuza should do the trick.


 

Top header image: Mihael Hercog/Flickr