Situated on the eastern coast of Scotland, St Andrews may be affectionately referred to as ‘home of golfing, ‘ but it’s a residence shared by some highly bothersome roommates: seagulls.
While spectators politely observe the noiseless signs held up by stewards as players take their shots, the seabirds — milling above the famous yellow leaderboard at the 18th opening — make a remarkable racket.
As they circle for food, the worry of being the unfortunate landing spot for their own waste is a continuous anxiety, with various staff and followers already falling nasty.
Yet in the air over the nearby food court and grandstands, not a single gull in sight. This is the consequence of some nifty recruitment by event planners: four birds associated with prey.
Fans navigating the Old Course throughout the week will develop accustomed to seeing a couple of hawks — the red-backed and a Harris — an Native indian eagle-owl and a tawny eagle.
Named Enya, Nailer, Sage plus Fearnley respectively, the guardians perch on the handler’s gloves toward off seagulls through the picnic area, along with the 1st and eighteenth grandstands.
The birds originate from the nearby Elite Falconry — employed for the event — with handler Ruben on lunchtime responsibility for Thursday’s opening round after a flurry of seagull activity around the first tee during the early morning.
“Without us here, the seagulls would literally become divebombing people aiming to steal their meals, ” John told CNN Sport.
With seagulls not a standard cuisine of the four birds of victim, they don’t fly around the course and instead sit calmly on the handler’s glove throughout their watch, their particular presence alone enough to stave off the particular unwanted visitors.
Golf is just not the only sport to call on the aid of parrots of prey from events. At Wimbledon, Rufus the Hawk has long been a local tennis hero for his efforts at the Most of England Tennis Membership.
To keep the courts without any pigeons — whose pecking at lawn seeds can disrupt play at the rugby grand slam — Rufus has become some thing of a local hero in southwest London, with one super-fan dressing up as the hawk for the 2017 championships.
Should Open organizers really want to up their video game, there is rumored to become a Tiger around this week who can scare golfers and gulls alike.