Chez Reavie (squatting), Francesco Molnari (obscured), their caddies, an official and a cameraman on Thursday.
Golf Channel
“Bees!
“Bees!
“Bees!
“Bees!
“Bees!
“Bees!
“Bees!”
And that started one of many wildest, oddest and spookiest moments you could ever see on a golf course. Though, in the event you have been tuning in to the Mexico Open at simply the best second throughout Thursday’s first spherical, all of it additionally type of regarded … humorous.
“Turned on the Mexico Open and this is the first thing I saw…..” tweeted former player-turned-analyst Trevor Immelman. He included an image of two gamers, two caddies and a cameraman on the turf. And a laughing emoji.
Indeed. To start, Erik van Rooyen, Francesco Molinari and Chez Reavie have been all enjoying the par-4 tenth at Vidanta Vallarta golf course. Molinari and Reavie had hit their approaches. Van Rooyen was about to. He was standing behind his ball.
And then he crouched down.
He waddled to his proper, towards his caddie, Alex Gaugert.
Van Rooyen bought down on all fours.
He cried, “Bees!” Seven or so instances.
A cameraman — and his digicam — collapsed. So did an official.
Reavie squatted, and his caddie, Brady Stockton, went to the bottom. Molinari and caddie Pello Iguaran did the identical.
A pack of bees have been enjoying by means of.
“Oh my goodness,” on-course analyst Billy Ray Brown mentioned on the printed. “Guys, I’m lucky — I’m about 150 yards away but …”
“That’s the most unusual thing I’ve ever seen on the golf course — everybody just hit the deck,” analyst John Cook mentioned. “It’s like a fog of bees that just blew through. Now where are they going?”
Had van Rooyen ever seen something like that?
“One time,” he mentioned after the spherical. “I can’t recall the place precisely, nevertheless it was on a golf course in South Africa and one thing like I’m over the ball and you then hear like a ‘zzzzz,’ which is the sound that bees make. I search for and so they’re there and the identical factor occurred.
“I was over the ball with a 4-iron, look back and I just saw them here and I just told my caddie, I’m like, ‘Bees, bees, bees,’ and he looks at me like I’m crazy. So I dropped down, then he sees them, he dropped down. Frankie and Chez, they look at me like I’m nuts and then they realized, like 30 seconds later, the bees just went right at them. It’s funny, but certainly don’t want to get stung by those bad boys.”
This is true. For a few half-minute, gamers, caddies and cameraman stayed on the bottom. They began to snigger. Eventually, they bought up, and van Rooyen went again into his pre-shot routine. Afterward, he referred to as the reset easy. He finally hit simply to the best of the inexperienced, pitched on, one-putted for a par and completed with a seven-under 64 that put him a stroke behind chief Austin Smotherman.
“I’ve been out doing this, on this Tour, for 30-plus years, and I’ve never seen anything like that, anywhere,” Brown mentioned on the printed.
We’ll finish issues right here with the foundations.
If you’re questioning, van Rooyen may have gotten aid, under Rule 16.2. It partially reads:
“A ‘dangerous animal condition’ exists when a harmful animal (resembling toxic snakes, stinging bees, alligators, hearth ants or bears) close to a ball may trigger critical bodily damage to the participant if she or he needed to play the ball because it lies. A participant might take aid beneath Rule 16.2b from interference by a harmful animal situation irrespective of the place his or her ball is on the course, besides that aid shouldn’t be allowed:
“When playing the ball as it lies is clearly unreasonable because of something other than the dangerous animal condition (for example, when a player is unable to make a stroke because of where the ball lies in a bush), or When interference exists only because the player chooses a club, type of stance or swing or direction of play that is clearly unreasonable under the circumstances.”
