Not delicious ‘vada’, white balls turn favourite for crows at golf courses

At the local Cosmo TNGF course, close to the 5th green or en route the 5 par 7th hole, golfers turn extremely cautious. Not because of the complexity of the shots, but because this is where they encounter obstacles of the feathered kind. 

Regulars at the course often find that after hitting a shot, they move to the next hole, only to find the ball missing. “Your ball has been taken by a crow,” informs the caddy, without batting an eyelid. Newcomers at the course are both perplexed and bemused, but most members have learned to take in in their stride. According to an official, this is pretty common in many courses across India, and abroad too. “Recently, a visiting golfer from Sweden had played a very nice shot and walked the 230 yards to play the next ground stroke, only to find that his ball was not lying where it should have been. His caddy informed him that the ball had been carried away by a crow,” he relates with a smile. 

When asked if this affects the game, he says that technically when a ball is lost, the player incurs penalties. But in the case of “crow attack”, this condition is generally waived in friendly situations. 

Interestingly, the caddies have the situation under control. They have developed a technique of handling the situation when a crow alights near a ball which is far away. They know from experience that if the bird is alarmed, it will carry the ball and fly off. If it is left to check out the ball for a while there is a chance that it may not carry it off. Even if it does, there is a good chance that it will pick it up and bury it in the grass nearby, skilfully covering it. The caddies are equally skillful in uncovering it!

According to course staff, crows being predatory in nature are looking for eggs and mistake the golf ball for an egg and carry them off. The course staff know exactly what happens to the balls which are carried away and where they are stored. Golf balls being expensive, they often come to the rescue of the players by recovering the balls from some typical locations where they store the balls. In the MGC course it is near an overhead water tank bordering the course; in the Cosmo-TNGF course it is in certain trees. “It is quite a distraction during a serious game. It spoils the rhythm and forces compromises,” complains avid golfer Sridhar. “I faced this problem even when I played in courses in the UK. I was told that the crows mistake the balls for eggs, but we haven’t seen a pattern for their behaviour here in Chennai,” he said. 

Interestingly, kites, which too have been spotted making lazy circles over the golf course, do not attempt to steal balls from the golf course.