SALT LAKE CITY — On any given weekday, most visitors of the Rose Park Golf Course in Salt Lake City are par for the course — players, fans of the sport and local residents.
But there are a few frequent mischievous guests who don’t exactly follow the game’s famous etiquette.
“We've had several foxes over the years,” said Ronnie Newren, the head golf professional at Rose Park Golf Course. “We have what I believe is the mother and father and they have, what I guess you would say is, a batch of pups each year.”
Newren, who's been working at the Rose Park Golf Course for four years, says he’s seen the foxes for as long as he’s worked at the course.
“Roxy is our male,” Newren said. “Everybody thought it was a girl, but we did find out it's a guy, but Roxy is his name. He always comes to the 10th tee. He usually comes in the morning. I know he's looking for food again. We're not allowed to feed him, but I'm sure there's a customer or two that don't always follow the rules.”
Newren says Roxy and a few other foxes have become the course’s unofficial residents.
“I’ve seen the fox many times,” said Terry Butcher, a Sandy resident who's been playing at Rose Park Golf Course for 35 years. “It’s darling and it stays away from us. It will kind of follow along and watch us, but it never gets close or has bothered us at all.”
While they are mostly looking for food, Newren said the foxes are also having a bit of fun at the golfers’ expense.
“We've had reports that they've been stealing the golf balls on one of the holes,” Newren shared with a giggle.
Rose Park Golf Course regular Rykker Tom has been a frequent victim.
“It’s happened multiple times,” Tom said. “I hit a decent shot. I can’t say I am a great golfer but I hit a decent shot on the green and the next thing I know this fox comes out of the bushes and steals my ball and I’m like, 'What just happened?'”
So what happens when a fox steals a golf ball? Is it a penalty for the golfer?
According to Newren, there is no penalty for such an occurrence.
“You just place the ball as near as possible to where he stole it from. In most cases, a lot of people do think there's a penalty, but the only thing you're out is a $5 golf ball," he said.
Newren and other employees at the course say they are sure the foxes aren’t stealing the balls because they look like eggs.
“They do what I refer to as 'mousing,'” Newren said. “They do pick up a lot of our voles and mice and just general little animals. You know how the food chain works — they're hunting all the time.”
But for the staff at Rose Park Golf Course, they aren’t so much a nuisance, Newren says. Like many golf courses in Utah, Rose Park is a safe haven for many animals. Newren wants to keep it that way.
“I have a lot of staff and we love animals,” he said. “We are very protective of our fox. We don't want to do anything that's detrimental to them being here and so we do ask our golfers to please be aware that these are wild animals.”
