Wily coyotes latest woe for golf pros

Coyotes at a golf course in western Canada had sports fans howling this week, chasing balls, chewing broadcast cables and generally creating havoc at the CN Canadian Women's Open.

Television crews preparing for the tournament at the Vancouver Golf Club replaced several chewed cables along the fairways and soaked others in vinegar to discourage further tampering by the resident wildlife.

"We basically come in each morning and see what lines fire up," Larry Isaac, a producer with public broadcaster CBC told the local Vancouver Sun newspaper, adding: "They seem to only like the cables between (holes) 14 and 17."

The CBC crew finally raised lines off the ground and hooked them to ropes lining the fairways to safeguard them ahead of the start of play Thursday.

But the animal mischief didn't end there. During practice play, some coyotes came out of the woods to sniff golf balls that had just been hit from tees by players in the tournament such as Michelle Wie, Lorie Kane and Brittany Lang.

The Canadian Women's Open is the latest to face such challenges. At the PGA championship on Kiawah Island in South Carolina, CBS reportedly lost seven boom microphones when alligators came from marshes to steal them during the night.

AFP