The pawprints found in a bunker by the side of the 10th green at Worcester Golf and Country Club in Bransford Road, St John’s, Worcester would be enough to put anyone off their swing.
The prints was spotted by Nick Elt and his playing partner, Chris Carey, on August 18 at 10.52am – and they believe it may set a new course record, of a different kind to the one that usually stirs up conversation in the clubhouse.
MASSIVE: The ‘big cat’ prints in a bunker at Worcester Golf and Country Club in St John’s, Worcester(Image: Supplied by Nick Elt)
But is there a big cat roaming in the rough of the city course? Mr Elt says he’s far from certain but the unusual prints could at least be worthy of further investigation.
Rumours of panthers, pumas and other big cats continue to circulate but concrete proof of their existence in Worcestershire has never been established.
Mr Carey, whose leg appears in the photo, is 6ft 3ins with a size 12 shoe which gives some indication of scale.
Mr Elt of Swinton Lane, St John’s, Worcester said the ‘jury was still out’ on whether the print was left by a big cat but estimates the prints were ‘two or three times the size of a badger print’, one of the animals sometimes spotted on the course.
He added: “It’s a massive paw print. Chris is 6ft 3ins with size 12 shoes so that gives some perspective.”
A spokesperson for Worcester Golf and Country Club declined to comment.
Sightings continue to be recorded in the Worcestershire Big Cat Group on Facebook. One sighting, shared on August 31, involved ‘ a large black animal about the size of a small German Shepherd’ which shot out of shrubbery in Hawthorn Lane, Newland, Powick.
They said: “It bolted through the field and leaped the next date towards Berry Farm.”