Not for the first time
Bear sighted: golf tournament in Japan
07/16/2025 – 12:37 p.m.Reading time: 1 min.
A golf tournament had to be canceled in Japan. There is an extremely curious reason.
Again a bear ensures an interruption in the Japanese golf calendar. The start of the Sendai Classic in the Golf Club of Tomiya had to be canceled at short notice after an animal was spotted near the first discount.
Actually, a pro-am tournament should have taken place on Thursday, but it was deleted. The start of the actual competition-a women’s event with a total prize money of the equivalent of 580,000 euros-is now questionable. It is open whether and when the tournament will continue.
The organizers said that the decisions were made “to ensure security and check future measures”.
A similar incident had already been reported to a tournament in Ishikawa at the end of May. At that time, the competition was completely canceled after two rounds. A bear also caused a sensation in June when he appeared on a runway in Japan and thereby impaired air traffic.
The number of encounters between humans and bears has recently risen sharply in Japan. According to official information, 219 people were attacked in the twelve months until April 2024, six of them fatal. Among other things, experts see a reason in climate change that bears increasingly venture into populated areas.