Min Woo Lee Gets Introduced To An Infamous Fox Squirrel At Pinehurst, Reacts Accordingly
Pinehurst No. 2, the Donald Ross masterpiece playing host to this week's U.S. Open in North Carolina, is regarded as being one of the more unique courses in the country for many reasons, including the type of squirrels that call the property their home.
Min Woo Lee, a native of Australia, was greeted by one of the native fox squirrels that roam the golf courses and was caught off guard, to put it mildly.
During his Sunday prep ahead of this week's major championship, a fox squirrel made its way toward Lee, who naturally grabbed his phone to ask his Instagram followers "What is this animal?" He understandably asked if the squirrel was a skunk or a raccoon given that it looks nothing like your traditional gray squirrel you see in most parts of the United States.
With the fox squirrel staring him down and starting to flick its tail, Lee took a few steps back before telling it to "stay back, brother."
According to North Carolina Wildlife, the fox squirrel is the largest tree squirrel in the state and is nearly twice the size of the common gray squirrel. It primarily lives in open pine-oak forests in the Sandhills and southern Coastal Plain, which checks out given that Pinehurst is home to plenty of pine trees.
In Lee's defense, if I came across a squirrel double the size of a ‘normal’ squirrel that just so happens to be black-and-white like a skunk, I'd immediately be on guard as well. And I'm a guy who is from small-town West Tennessee.
It's clear that there aren't just a handful of these fox squirrels living on the nine 18-hole courses at Pinehurst and they're only seen on random occasions. No, they're so popular in the area that golf fans can buy their own fox squirrel head covers.