Tim Jeves was about to play a shot on the 12th hole at Swaneset Golf Course and Country Club in British Columbia when he encountered a bear running full speed straight at him, a result of an oncoming golfer in a cart startling him.
“Do I make myself big and back away or do I run?” Jeves asked himself.
“I knew I’m supposed to do the former for a cougar but couldn’t remember whatever advice I’d been given for a frightened charging bear,” Jeves told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors.
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“Honestly, I didn’t have time to really think. I won’t say I ran, but I definitely didn’t back away slowly. I was moving quickly and loudly calling out ‘Hey bear! Hey bear!’ To try to scare or slow him. It didn’t. The one thing I did do, which I later thought was stupid, was drop my club. The one thing that might have slowed him if it had come at me.”
But it didn’t follow him. Instead, it climbed a tree, allowing Jeves a chance to get his phone out and videotape its next moves, which were quite bizarre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku1enyb49s4
As you can see, the bear appeared to be scared of the golf clubs sitting next to the tree, prompting Jeves to label his video, “Stationary Golf Clubs [a] Worthy Adversary for Scared Bear.”
Photo courtesy of ViralHog.