The PGA Tour's Surprising Animal Encounters

Playing outdoors always means risking an animal encounter — luckily, these incidents were a welcome surprise. These unexpected visits from birds and reptiles made their PGA Tour games even more memorable.

Eagle or Birdie

A hawk interrupted the 2010 Honda Classic when it seized one of the microphones. The hawk angrily scratched, clawed and bit the microphone as if it were a dead rabbit. After flying off, the hawk tried to attack the microphone from a different angle, but it couldn't figure out how to capture its prey.

The 1998 Players Championship saw even more excitement when a seagull scooped up a golf ball in its beak. The bird chased the golf ball across the course, dropping it occasionally, before picking it up and flying away. Unfortunately, the seagull dropped the ball in the water before it presumably made it back to the nest.

Cold-blooded Fans

During the 1999 Zurich Classic, a turtle emerged onto the field while a player made his shot. The turtle prowled forward as if it mistook the golf ball for one of its eggs, stopping only when a spectator carried the reptile off the field as the crowd cheered.

At a later tournament, another guest appeared during the Zurich Classic: a giant alligator that walked around the players while they snapped pictures of the reptile. The alligator even appeared to charge at a spectator in a golf car, forcing them to back up.

Other surprise encounters have involved bees and monkeys, which put the tournaments on hold for a few minutes. These encounters remind players that they don't own the fields, and the animals lived there first.