The Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa was brought to a short standstill after a business of mongooses invaded the green just as players were about to take their putts.
Television cameras caught the moment around 20 mongooses entered the field of play and scurried across the green. As they ran across, they appeared to be heading straight for an in-play ball.
Hearts in mouths, it looked for all the world like they would leave one unlucky golfer with a slightly longer putt but, somehow, the mongooses managed to avoid disturbing the ball despite several taking a fleeting interest in it.
Although appearing out of the blue, the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City is used to such invasions as it lies on the edge of the large Pilanesberg Game Reserve, a 221 square-mile park which hosts lions, leopards, cheetahs and elephants.
The animals, famous for their ability to attack and eat venomous snakes, would have been welcome visitors on Malaysia's Klang Valley resort in Kuala Lumpur last month.
