Rounds have been stopped (or at least slowed down) by all sorts of animals. Birds? Sure. Bears? But of course. Dogs? It’s ruff, but it happens. And yet, we can’t say we saw this one coming, especially at an official DP World Tour event, as a caterpillar—yes, a caterpillar!—brought play to a halt. A referee even had to get involved, which is how you know things are serious.
On the fifth hole at the Gary Player Country Club in South Africa, Marcus Armitage found himself in a bunker face-to-face with a caterpillar, causing a ruckus and wandering around in front of his golf ball. Now we’re assuming the insect didn’t know what he was doing, but you gotta respect its desire for social media notoriety and to make an impact at the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
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“Who’s that guy?” asked one commentator. “Some random caterpillar who’s trying to make it out of the splash mark, and he’s faring miserably.
“It’s an interesting rule because surely, you can help. You can move that. I don’t know much about caterpillars, but has he thought about going downhill? I suppose it is a loose impediment.”
And then, in the most unexpected dagger of all time, the broadcaster says that, “It actually looks like Tony Johnstone trying to climb stairs.”
Eventually, Armitage requested the assistance of referee Mats Lanner, who not-so-gently brushed the caterpillar away from the ball. If it works, it works, and yet, there must’ve been a slightly more delicate way to go about this. To be fair, we’re not refs here at Golf Digest, so Lanner gets the final say on this one.
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Armitage ended up with a par on No. 5 despite a less-than-stellar shot out of the sand. To be fair, he was recovering from a once-in-a-lifetime caterpillar incident. Who else can say that?
Thankfully, for all those worried, on-course commentator Wayne Riley checked back in with the caterpillar and did his best to make sure no one accidentally stepped on the newest Sun City mascot. That’s investigative journalism right there.
At the time of publishing, Armitage is currently one over for the day and five under for the event. He’s tied for 10th and has already overcome something most golfers couldn’t even dream about. Now we have to see how he fares against a Swallowtail butterfly.
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