PGA Tour pro hilariously describes bee attack: "BEES! BEES! BEES!"

Erik van Rooyen described being attacked by bees following the first round of the PGA Tour's Mexico Open at Vidanta on Thursday.

Lara Kuipers

28 Apr 2023

PGA Tour pro hilariously describes bee attack: "BEES! BEES! BEES!"

Scenes of players ducking on a golf course isn't all that unusual, but Erik van Rooyen's reasoning Thursday at the PGA Tour's Mexico Open certainly was.

Van Rooyen, 33, was playing his opening round at the Greg Norman-designed Vidanta Vallarta with Chez Reavie and Francesco Molinari.

The South African, known for displaying his ankles at all times, had a 4-iron in hand when he was getting settled to play his second shot into the par-4 10th.

Related: Watch what happened!

He was 200 yards away when suddenly the South African dropped to the ground.

"I have never seen anything like that."
A swarm of bees was probably not something @FredVR_ and crew saw coming @MexicoOpenGolf pic.twitter.com/4RjzysQ5qx
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 27, 2023

The rest of the players and caddies in the area followed suit, and then the commentator explained the unusual situation:

"They're being swarmed right now with bees," he told the viewers.

Following his round, Van Rooyen then spoke to reporters about the wacky moment during his round.

"I was over the ball with a 4-iron, look back and I just saw them here and I just told my caddie, I'm like, "Bees, bees, bees," and he looks at me like I'm crazy. So I dropped down, then he sees them, he dropped down. Frankie and Chez, they look at me like I'm nuts and then they realized, like 30 seconds later the bees just went right at them. It's funny, but certainly don't want to get stung by those bad boys."

And on trying to reset after the encounter:

"You've got to -- I had a 4-iron in my hand to a pin that's tucked on the right. You've just got to reset and refocus so it's simple. You just do the same thing. I asked my caddie like where are we going, where's the miss, what kind of shot are we hitting and you just get back into it."

Van Rooyen was 3-under par at the turn when they were swarmed by the bees, and he was able to reset despite the distraction to produce a first-round 7-under par.