Photo: Jim Davis for the Globe.
Globe reporter Matt Porter played three holes with llamas Yowie (left) and Elmer (right) at the Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa. For $150 plus green fee, you can have a llama or two join your group.
Here’s a new angle on an old sport: golf with llamas. Not sure this would work for a serious golfer, but it makes a change.
Matt Porter went to New Hampshire to report the story for the Boston Globe.
“Lloyd Van Horn, a general manager, felt business could use a boost. So he decided to promote a few prospects who were down on the farm. Finnegan, his scouting staff told him, should be the first rookie up. Teammates Elmer and Yowie also were ready for a new challenge. Word was all three had shown well on the back fields.
“And yet the call-up was a tough adjustment. Finnegan reached the big club and tried on his equipment. It fit perfectly, but he felt awkward, for he had never played the sport. Same with the other two. None had any clue what they were doing.
“The staff pressed on. After a few training sessions, Finnegan, Elmer, and Yowie became more than just llamas. They were llama caddies.
“[Van Horn] may be on to something with the newest promotion at his Mountain View Grand Resort and Spa. For $150 plus green fee, you can remove all the seriousness from your round by having a llama or two join your group. …
“Llamas cannot swing a club, so they can’t play with you. They don’t speak — they’ll grunt, bray, or cry — so they offer no course knowledge. But they are pack animals, American descendants of those who hauled gear and people through the Andes, so toting clubs is no sweat.
“In theory, they make for fine caddies. As long as you tip them well. And by tip, I mean offer several handfuls of alfalfa pellets. That was how Elmer and Yowie took a liking to me before I played a rain-soaked few holes with them in late July. …
“I had Elmer on the bag, while Yowie, his bonded mate, trotted alongside us. I chose six clubs for the three holes, Nos. 7, 8, and 9, and carefully slid them into Elmer’s custom leather saddle. After a few neck rubs — not the head, advised farm manager Henry Bogdanowicz — of Elmer’s soft, summer-cut fur, and some one-sided chit-chat, they were ready to watch us tee off.
“Golf, by its nature, encourages a long, lazy look at the world. I’m all for that. Whether playing the game or reporting on it in the last two decades, I have gazed upon many animals while hitting one good shot out of every few that I take.
“In South Florida, I saw iguanas and geckos, plentiful there as are squirrels and chipmunks here, skittering in the scorching heat. I have locked eyes with alligators, and let them break the stare. …
“In New England, these clubs of mine have chunked a deep divot or two, but if the post-swing view is a hawk circling over a hillside, or a heron gliding low over the marsh, I’m all the happier.
“Up here in the Presidential Range, course superintendent Kalen Whitney said llamas are welcome to walk his course. They will nibble on the fringes, but unlike goats, they won’t tear grass from the roots. They have soft toes, so they won’t damage the fairways. Those large, gorgeous eyes can look in two directions at once, which could help a hacker like me track my wayward flights.
“Whitney is happy to deal with them instead of porcupines and raccoons, and groundhogs that make him consider reaching for [explosives]. Last year, a moose made a mess of one of the Mountain View Grand’s postage-stamp greens. … A mama bear and her cubs crossed the property a few weeks ago, and were no doubt given the same respect you would gators in any number. …
“The umbrella I carried to the first tee was perceived by Elmer to be a threat. I decided I’d rather be wet than test our friendship. When he sat down on the job, I didn’t mention it.
“Try chatting up a llama caddie and you might be answered with a ‘HAWWWW???’ … If seriously offended, ‘they can scream,’ Bogdanowicz noted. …
“Happily, most of what was heard that day in the mountains was the chirping of the birdies. Before we called it a washout, I played pretty well. Must have been the companionship of the llama.”
More at the Globe, here.
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