Thursday, January 1, 2015

Water Hazard


I once knew a guy who had a rather unusual way of making a few extra bucks. He and a friend would sneak onto golf courses under cover of night and collect the golf balls that had been lost in the water hazards. They made quite a bit of money selling the balls they recovered. And while their activities weren't strictly legal, I always thought they deserved every penny. After all, no one else was going to do it. Why? My acquaintance lived in southern Louisiana, and the water hazards he frequented were all filled with alligators.

I used to think it would be great fun to play golf on an alligator-filled course. But now I have a new goal. I want to visit the Carbrook Golf Club in Brisbane, Australia. It may be the only golf course in the world where the water hazards are infested with . . . SHARKS. Seems a nearby river flooded several years ago, and six large bull sharks made their way into a lake in the middle of the course. They're all still there. And they're breeding.

Bull sharks have been known to nibble a human now and then. (You can't really hold it against them.) And golfers are known to be particularly delicious. So if any of you are up for the challenge, I bet that lake is filled with a fortune in golf balls.

More here.

12 comments:

Nicole said...

I wish the course my golf team plays at had sharks! Nothing against water snakes, turtles, and frogs but they aren't exactly that impressive in comparison.

Kitty said...

Shark fin is very tasty.

Anonymous said...

that would make golf interesting. lol

Anonymous said...

I can just imagine designing a ball retriever just for that one water hazard. No, I can't. Anything rigid that would give a bull shark a hard time to chew through would be too heavy to make into a ten foot long telescoping pole.

Wait a minute -- the groundskeepers are FEEDING the sharks?

Robert in San Diego, who has been attacked by geese in the middle of a golf course water hazard.

Anonymous said...

Completely off topic, but does anyone have any good Halloween decorating tips?

Robert in San Diego

LilacOfTheValley said...

hey Kirsten i know you've gotten like a 1000000 messages saying this...but..when is kiki 3 coming out? i read your books in 2006 when i was still in elementary and now i'm a sophomore in high school but i still stay up late and reread your books a 100 times over. i love your writing and my inspiration is betty! also nicki minaj but betty is right up there :) so ive been googling for days looking for a release day and i have read early 2011 and fall 2012. is it possible i already missed the release or it is really not coming out for months and months? finally, it is really true that there is going to be a kiki movie. i cannot stress to enough that if there is the actress who played Luna Lovegood in the harry potter movies should be kiki. not only does she look like her, ut she's hardly famous and very talent, and many harry potter fans would be interest, increasing your fan base. i love your books and will be checking back daily to see if you reply! thank you so absolutely much!!

LilacOfTheValley said...

@Robert in San diego-
Yes! get newpapers and stuff the bottom of a white garbage bag, tie it shut and draw a ghost face and hang them all around your front yard. also hang orange and black lights like christmas and sit fake cemetery stones on your lawn or better yet have ghouls and skeletons hanging from a tree. have a "knock if you dare" sign on your front door. Good Luck!!!!

EQ said...

@Robert: If you can find a fog generator and a projector, play the last piece of Fantasia, "Night on Bald Mountain" (the one with all the creepies and monster thingies) projecting it onto the fog.

Okay, maybe that's a little elaborate.

Here's one I saw recently: Somebody put up one of those crashed-witch-on-a-broomstick things, the kind you stick on trees. Below it, they wrote a sign: "Don't Drink And Fly!"

AlbinoPolarBear said...

Yess!!! come to australia!!! Well... dont live in brisbane, but close enough! But just saying, that would be so cool.
and @ LilacOfTheValley:
we do the ghost thing too!! We make a giant ghost circle which is pretty cool.
-Tooodles*** (ha renamed)

Anonymous said...

Dear EQ:

That's FUNNY! "Don't Drink and Fly." As for fog machines, I'd do it except I wouldn't want to fog the alley behind the apartment.

Robert in San Diego

Anonymous said...

Sharks in the water! Huhhhhhhh??? Now that's interesting! That would definitely keep away all the golf ball theifs.

Anonymous said...

I read a book once called the outsiders, where the kids did exactly that.... collected golf balls, I mean. I want a shark