Come along with me on my carnage (I mean course) check this morning. What should be one of the most beautiful golf courses in the country is being destroyed by herds of javelina. If anyone has a contact in AZ state govt that can help us find a solution please pass it along. pic.twitter.com/XftywHtVCf

— Em Casey (@emcaseyturf) October 22, 2023

The story became something of Rorschach test, with one half of the public expressing sympathy toward the golf course and its employees and the other half siding with the adorable little javelinas, who were simply trying to survive an unusually hot, dry summer in their natural habitat. It became a referendum on the sustainability of the sport as a whole and quickly spiralled into one of the biggest golf stories of the week.

This made a tricky situation for Seven Canyons general manger Dave Bisbee even trickier. Javelinas are classified as “big game” under Arizona law and cannot hunted, trapped or relocated except under extreme circumstances. So Bisbee, working in conjunction with the Arizona Game & Fish Department, was forced to cook up an outside-of-the-box solution:

Chili oil.

Apparently, while we humans love to drizzle the stuff on everything from pizza to chow mein, javelinas aren’t as fond of the spicy oil. For now, the club is perfecting its recipe at its on-site restaurant — “We’re still trying to figure out the right formulation in the chili oil we put out. It’s a delicate thing for the grass,” Bisbee told ABC News — but it’s also working with suppliers to acquire a concentrate for a spray. So far, the results have been far more positive than their previous experiment with granules of coyote urine, which Bisbee likened to “bacon bits for their [the javelinas’] salad.”

The end goal is not the elimination or removal of the javelinas — wildlife officials estimate up to 450 javelinas may currently inhabit the golf course and its surrounding areas — but to encourage them to move on to greener (or should we say milder?) pastures until the weather cools down and does the job for them.

Main image: mlharing

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It’s getting worse and worse out there — crime is a viral trend now, yadda yadda yadda — but the man-made destruction can’t hold a candle to what’s been happening at this top Arizona golf course. If you’re sensitive to graphic golf gore, now’s the time to look away.

Come along with me on my carnage (I mean course) check this morning. What should be one of the most beautiful golf courses in the country is being destroyed by herds of javelina. If anyone has a contact in AZ state govt that can help us find a solution please pass it along. pic.twitter.com/XftywHtVCf

— Em Casey (@emcaseyturf) October 22, 2023

That was the scene at Seven Canyons Golf Club in Sedona as captured by superintendent Em Casey on Sunday morning. But it wasn’t humans or weather or some sort of extraterrestrial blight that caused this — it was a pack of adorable boar-like animals called javelinas.

Don’t let their cuddly appearance fool you, however. Javelinas are stubborn and stout. They defend their territory aggressively and sometimes fighting each other to the death over a prickly pear, their favourite snack. They travel in herds of five to 15, though some as large as 50 have been reported. When moving in numbers, even cougars — one of Earth’s apex predators — are afraid from them. So what chance does a greenskeeper stand?

mlharing

That’s a good question, and one Casey is desperately looking to answer. As you can see from the video, the damage to Seven Canyons is extensive, bordering on catastrophic. But you can’t just hire an exterminator. Javelinas are classified as a “big game species” under Arizona law, making it unlawful to trap, injure or kill them — even in situations where they may be causing danger or damage — without meeting a “rigorous” set of provisions. Where that leaves Seven Canyons remains to be seen, but here’s hoping this pack have had their fill and have moved on to greener pastures … or perhaps fairways.

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Never let anyone tell you working at a golf course doesn’t have its hazards. Excessive UV exposure, dehydration, heat stroke. All par for the course, if you’ll excuse the expression. Then you have the native flora and fauna. Poison ivy, falling trees, ticks, snakes, mosquitoes and, as one unfortunate Arizona golf course worker discovered this weekend, bees.

On Saturday at Pebblebrook Golf Course, a maintenance worker had to be rescued by the local fire department after encountering a beehive while working on the course. According to the Arizona Fire and Medical Authority, as firefighters armed with bee hoods and turnouts approached, they initially thought the victim was covered in grass clippings. As they got closer they realised it was bees. Officials say he was stung 2,000 times.

After subduing the insects with foam, they were able to rescue the victim, said to be in his 50s, and transport him to a local hospital. As for the bees, a beekeeper was called in to control them and relocate the swarm. The AFMA says this was the sixh bee-related incident they’ve responded to so far in 2023.

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Phil Mickelson played college golf at Arizona State. Met his future wife Amy on campus. After graduating, they eventually married and lived in the Phoenix area for a dozen years. Their first two children were born there.

From a golfing perspective, Mickelson has been equally successful in the state. Named All-American for the Sun Devils in all four years, a rarity among collegiate golfers. Won his first pro tournament in Tucson while still an amateur at age 20 — another rarity. Won a senior event in Phoenix at age 51.

All told, seven of his 57 career wins have come in Arizona. And two of his three career-lowest rounds of 60 have been shot here, including 10 years ago when an agonising 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole circled the cup before spinning out, costing him a shot at 59.

“I really do enjoy the state of Arizona,” Mickelson said.

And now the World Golf Hall of Famer is back this week, leading his HyFlyers into the first US-based tournament on the 2023 LIV Golf League schedule at The Gallery Golf Club.

You could be forgiven in thinking Mickelson had heavy influence in making LIV Golf Tucson a reality. But he insisted that the market itself was easy to identify as a potential venue, so no strong-arming of the schedule makers was needed. Tucson has a long history of hosting elite professional events, but golf’s biggest names haven’t been in this city since the last matchplay event was held in 2014.

It was a vacancy too good to ignore.

The Gallery, Tuscon. LIV Golf

“I would like to say that I had a direct impact on it. It really wasn’t,” Mickelson said. “We’ve tried to nail down some markets that have always wanted and supported professional golf, and Tucson has supported professional golf, and then it got taken away.”

He did acknowledge the senior event still held in Tucson, in which he played before joining LIV Golf. But he cited the difference in seeing many of golf’s current stars perform.

“World-class golf — like the best players in the world, the Dustin Johnsons and the Cam Smiths and Brysons and Brooks and so forth — to bring that back to Tucson, I’m really proud to be a part of that, even though it wasn’t me just saying: ‘We’ve got to do this,’” he said. “It was looking at it in general and saying this is really a good spot for us to be.”

Tucson might be a really good spot for Mickelson to break through with his first LIV Golf win. He’s won three strokeplay events in this city, along with four wins in the Phoenix area.

The most impressive of those seven wins is the first one in Tucson in 1991 when he was a junior in college. The first two rounds were split between Starr Pass and Tucson National, with the final two rounds at Starr Pass.

Mickelson won by a shot over Tom Purtzer and Bob Tway. Purtzer was nearly twice as old as Mickelson, while Tway was more than a decade older. Youth — and oodles of talent bubbling to the surface — triumphed over experience that week.

The win was memorable but also significant in Mickelson’s progression as a golfer. He said it opened up doors and created opportunities that otherwise would not afforded most college golfers. And it gave him a valuable lesson in how to win tournaments at the elite level.

“I think the thing that I recall or I like to look back on was that I actually made a triple-bogey on the 14th hole of the final round and overcame that with the birdies on 16 and 18 coming down the stretch,” Mickelson said.

“Because you’re not going to play perfect golf all the time, and sometimes having to overcome some obstacles and having that be an obstacle to overcome in my first win, it was a big obstacle. It was a big challenge. I look back at that as a reminder to never give up and keep fighting, you just never know what’s going to happen.”

Meanwhile, his days at Arizona State provided insight and knowledge on how to manage his way around a desert course. Seven victories in, few golfers can match his track record in the state.

Asked what it is about Arizona courses that brings out the best in him, Mickelson replied: “I think there’s an elevation challenge, although it’s 3,000 feet, it’s not like going to Mile High in Denver. But there’s still a challenge of learning how to hit certain shots, distance control with the irons, that when you spend years here, like I did in college, it’s a lot easier to figure out. I think that’s a big part of it. But also, just being comfortable here in the way that people have supported me over the years helps me play my best, too.”

Indeed, the 52-year-old Mickelson will be a fan favourite this week. He tees off in Friday’s shotgun start on the No. 1 tee with playing partners Cameron Smith and Charles Howell III, the latter having claimed the season opener in Mayakoba two weeks ago. Smith, the reigning Open champion, won on his second LIV Golf start last season in Chicago.

Mickelson has yet to find himself in contention on a Sunday since joining LIV Golf, but he does come off a confidence-inspiring four-under 67 in the final round in Mexico. He said working with new HyFlyers teammate Brendan Steele — the two California natives have been close friends for many years — has helped dial in his driver. Meanwhile, he’s reciprocated by helping Steele work on his short game.

Perhaps it all comes together for Mickelson this week, 32 years after that first win in Tucson.

“It’s fun for me to see a lot of familiar faces that I haven’t seen in a little while,” he said. “It’s fun for me to get back here. It’s fun to feel the support. It’s a hard walk and you have to be a little careful walking in the desert with some of the wildlife going on. But it’s nice to feel support here.”

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