The London Times reports: "Charl Schwartzel of South Africa had to take a one-stroke penalty after his attempt on the 134-yard par-three 7th at Trump Bedminster ended up in the water, and was swiftly swooped upon by a resident fish."
August 11, 2026
Fish swallows golf ball.
Posts
41 comments:
This is obviously Trump’s fault for supporting the hegemonic, apartheid white settlers fleeing South Africa.
Jonah and the whale
golf version
The fish thought it was a free egg. The early fish catches the hatchling.
….a bass programmed to chomp on the frog was womped by the ball instead…or maybe the fish is a Titleist rep hiding Charl’s ‘Green Tour’ balls from the camera…
…payback for men in shorts…
“You’re gonna need a bigger ball.”
I’ve been fishing with the wrong bait.
Gonna need a large Miralax to get that to move.
I like the dramatic music!
New definition of a “bait ball”…
Bass ’tard!
Was that Kramer hitting that ball?
At one of the local muni courses in CT where I used to play, there was a young fox who would regularly run out onto the fairway and/or green of two holes near the woods, pick up golf balls and run away. He had a big pile of balls stashed back there. The local rule was free drop in the approximate spot, no penalty.
As Tom Sellick used to say, I know what you're thinking...
This guy is way ahead of you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP8zNNCpBRI
The article is a little misleading: The player would have had to take a one-stroke penalty regardless of whether the fish swallowed the ball. The only way to avoid it would have been if he had been able to play the ball out of the pond.
Let them eat cake.
You girls at meadhouse done cheering war then?
Learned your lesson? Put an extra million or so from your heirs into the war budget next April via your taxes.. protect the little girls and all?
To the fish, it was just a bigger version of the day-glo salmon eggs used for bait. If you want to grow bigger fish, you need bigger eggs.
Maybe there's a market for boiled chicken, duck, or ostrich egg bait?
Somewhere on another green
the fish spits out the ball
and it rolls into the hole
And Harold Ramis yells, "Cut!"
Bass will anticipate an object in the air or coming into the water from land and hit it as it lands. I've had it happen many times. Very exciting! Unfortunately for us anglers they also have very tough jaws and will usually spit the lure before you can set the hook. That golf ball is probably sitting in a foot of water with all of the other golf balls.
Poor fish has a major problem. I sure hope someone threw some stool softener pills into that same spot.
When I was in Singapore it wasn’t unusual for monkeys to steal your ball. They often had piles of them. I think they thought they were eggs which strangely never hatched. Kind of like the promises of Socialism.
The fish just wanted to be included.
"The local rule was free drop in the approximate spot, no penalty."
Local rule not needed. The rules of golf provide a free drop.
As long as the ball was in the fish, would he be allowed to play the fish out of the pond?
Can a fish upchuck a golf ball? Cause he's never going to be the same if it goes out the other way.
Is that an Eagle or a hole in one?
"The pond was angry that day, my friends!"
Just a fish’n chip shot.
…did the fish really eat the ball or did it just flail at it thinking it was prey? No matter with the rules as you’re supposed to use the original ball unless he did eat it then a substitute may be used…and point of order- a new ball would be placed, not dropped. As it was deep water I suspect Charl elected to take a drop outside the hazard under stroke penalty…
Known as kind of a tight bass, he became a wide receiver…
"rehajm said...
…did the fish really eat the ball or did it just flail at it thinking it was prey? No matter with the rules as you’re supposed to use the original ball unless he did eat it then a substitute may be used…and point of order- a new ball would be placed, not dropped. As it was deep water I suspect Charl elected to take a drop outside the hazard under stroke penalty…"
Nope. The ball is in a lateral water hazard...look at the red stakes and red painted line. 1) There is no rule that says you have to play the same ball when it goes in a lateral water hazard, unless you plan to play the original ball where it lies, otherwise you can replace. 2) All the options to put the ball back in play after a penalty require a drop, not a placement. Two bad drops, which often is the ball rolling either back in the hazard, or closer to the hole, then the drop rule allows the ball to be placed.
Curious George, you are correct.
I once saw a bird fly off with a ball that was in the fairway.
Animals of all sorts tend to keep their distance from humans on golf courses, except raccoons learn that some golf carts have edibles in them and will check out a parked cart when humans walk away from it.
…yes charl elected to proceed under the water hazard rule but he could have played the ball from the hazard had conditions allowed, like if the water was shallow where the fish interfered. In that case the rules do not provide a ‘free drop’ as you explained, he would be required to place the ball as close to the spot where interference occurred…
I’ll correct myself for using the obsolete term water hazard. It is now a penalty area…
"rehajm said...
…yes charl elected to proceed under the water hazard rule but he could have played the ball from the hazard had conditions allowed, like if the water was shallow where the fish interfered."
Nope. When a fish eats a ball in a penalty area the ball is considered lost and the penalty rules apply. One shot but multiple choices where to play from.
“Nope”
No. See ‘Ball Moved or Deflected’…
"rehajm said...
No. See ‘Ball Moved or Deflected’…"
Not applicable to this situation. If the ball was not in a penalty area, yes it would be placed in its original position, no penalty. Penalty area, one stroke, and in this case, lateral hazard options. Which are all "drops." Just google what the ruling was for Charl and the fish.
Great, train more fish to do that and may be they'll just stop.
Not being a fan of skull-crushing boredom, I don’t know much about the rules of golf. But this seems like fan interference. In baseball it would be a dead ball by and play would resume from the position before the infraction occurred. And the fish would be ejected from the pond.
“Not applicable to this situation”
…does your schtick work on the other people at the bar mister clavin?
rehajm said...
“Not applicable to this situation”
…does your schtick work on the other people at the bar mister clavin?
You post shit about something you know nothing about, As usual.
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