LITTLETON, Colo. — A photographer in the “right place at the right time” captured a series of incredible images of bobcat kittens playing with golf balls near the fairway of a Colorado golf course.
David and Lynn Townsend were capturing photos and video of the StemBlazers golf tournament fundraiser at Arrowhead Golf Club in Littleton, when a surreal scene unfolded near the course’s signature 13th hole.
“We noticed two little two little animals, kind of scurrying out from the bushes onto the fairway, and they were far enough away you couldn't really tell what they were,” David Townsend recalled in an interview with Denver7. “It wasn't until everybody teed off from the box and then made our way down the fairway that we noticed that they were actually bobcats.”
The husband-wife photographer duo, who operate a business called David Lynn Photography, spotted four bobcat kittens playing in the rough adjacent to the 13th fairway.
Fortunately, they were “perfectly prepared” for the unexpected visitors. David and Lynn switched camera lenses and turned their attention to the bobcats.
“One of them just sat there with it in his mouth and the other one was kind of like grabbing the ball and running over another cat and jumping over him,” David said. “That's where I got those kind of aerial photos where the one cat was kind of the most active of all of them.”
- Hear from David about the incredible photos in the video player below:
We asked management at Arrowhead if such a sighting is common on the course grounds, and learned a little more about the wildlife that calls the course home.
In addition to a “healthy” bobcat population that includes two dens and at least nine cats, Arrowhead and the surrounding area is home to two mountain lions, and a bear and her two cubs, in addition to the requisite population of Colorado regulars like deer and foxes, Arrowhead assistant GM Kenny Windey wrote in an email.
Backing up to Roxborough State Park – a vast open space – helps, Windey said. Wildlife sightings by golfers, he said, are not uncommon.
“All these animals are wild and we do not go out of our way to bother them. This is their home and we are fortunate to share it with them,” he said. “The interaction with golfers is random and we try to communicate to our guests to let them be and keep a safe distance.”
Nature as a “common thread”
Townsend says he has worked as a photographer for 25 years. David and Lynn primarily photograph people, in their work capturing weddings, events and portraits.
They were once hired to take promotional photos for Woody Creek Distillery, which included shoots with the distillery’s “spokesdude” William H. Macy over two days in Aspen – “one of their favorites” on their résumé.
David, though, told us he got his start in nature and landscape photography. So now, whether the subject is a Hollywood star, a family, a bride and groom, or even a golf tournament, he says the surrounding scenery is often part of the composition.
“That's always been kind of like the common thread in all my photography is incorporating that part of the environment in whatever I'm doing,” he said.
Even with a quarter-century of snaps, a brush with fame and a vast portfolio of Colorado’s breathtaking backdrops, the photos of the Arrowhead bobcats will hold a special place for David.
“They rank up there for sure, with my favorites,” he said. “I don't want to say once in a lifetime, but with the amount that they were playing with each other – the shots I was able to get – I might have to say that on this one.”
Wait, so what do you do if a bobcat steals your golf ball?
If you’re like me, you may be wondering: What happens when you face a very Colorado challenge on the golf course like bobcats moving your ball?
For that answer, we turn to Rule 9.6 of the U.S. Golf Association rulebook, which addresses a player’s ball when “lifted or moved by outside influence.”
If it is “known or virtually certain” the ball has been moved by an outside influence such as wildlife, there is no penalty and the player should replace his or her ball at its original spot, or a best estimate of the original spot. If it is not known or virtually certain it was moved by an outside influence, the player should take stroke-and-distance relief, where he or she takes a one-stroke penalty and plays again from the spot where the previous stroke was taken.
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