Slovakia’s Low Tatras are home to a wild brown bear population, and this week that population turned a routine tournament into a wildlife standoff at Gray Bear, the course named after them. It happened during the second round of the Ladies Slovak Golf Open 2026.

After the opening round at Gray Bear, Tále Ski Golf & Hotel Resort, the LET Access Series posted a thank-you message praising the promoter, resort staff, members, and wildlife response team for acting quickly to protect the players. Little did anyone know how important that wildlife team would become the next day.

During the second round, bears were spotted near the competition area around 10 a.m. local time, forcing officials to suspend play.

Security teams immediately moved players, caddies, and staff back into the Tále Resort clubhouse while local wildlife teams worked to clear the area. The situation wasn’t entirely surprising, considering the course sits in Slovakia’s Low Tatras region, an area known for its wild brown bear population.

Gray Bear has hosted the Ladies Slovak Golf Open at the wooded, mountain-set Tále resort since the event’s LET Access Series return in 2024, chosen as a venue for its status as the country’s first 18-hole championship course. The forest lines nearly every hole, and it’s the same terrain that gives the course its character and puts it inside brown bear territory.

But for 22-year-old Dutch golfer Anne-Sterre den Dunnen, the experience was anything but routine.

She was nearby when the bears were spotted.

“I was standing just over a short birdie putt on hole 6 when we heard a long horn. There was no bad weather anywhere in the area, so we didn’t immediately realize it was for us,” den Dunnen recalled. “At one point, a referee drove up to us to tell us that we had to go to the clubhouse immediately because bears had been spotted on the hole we had just played.” 

The warning left her stunned. 

“We had really only played that hole, a par 3 situated a bit in the woods, just ten minutes earlier, and it was the flight behind me that had seen the bears. We went to the clubhouse as fast as we could, where we waited for an hour. By now, the national bear guard had arrived, and they made sure the bears went in the other direction. For now, they are staying to ensure that the tournament can proceed safely today and tomorrow,” den Dunnen added.

Officials remained on site to make sure the tournament could continue safely, and play eventually resumed. After the second round, Michaela Vavrova led the field by one stroke over Lauren Holmey, with den Dunnen tied for third alongside Tereza Zapletal Kozeluhova. The final round is being played on August 14 at Gray Bear.

The Ladies Slovak Golf Open carries a €50,000 purse and drew a field of 115 players, with the top seven finishers earning cards for the 2026 Ladies European Tour season. On the LET Access Series, that card matters more to most players than the check, and it’s why the field kept competing through the delay.

But the bizarre bear encounter raises another question: Have animals ever interrupted a golf tournament before? Absolutely. And there are plenty of wild stories.

The golf play interrupted by animals 

During the final round of a Ladies European Tour event at Vipingo Ridge, play was briefly stopped when a herd of wild giraffes wandered onto the 18th fairway. Since the course also serves as a wildlife sanctuary, players and commentators had no choice but to wait patiently until the tall visitors cleared the area. And then there was another incident from Down Under.

A massive group of kangaroos bounded across the fairway during the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, sending officials scrambling to delay play until the animals moved away from active landing areas.

At Gary Player Country Club in South Africa, baboons are also frequent visitors. Former World No. 1 Luke Donald once had to back away from a shot when an aggressive baboon approached him on the fairway.

Now, the Ladies Slovak Golf Open 2026 has joined that unusual list, and it carries a distinction the others don’t: a course named after the very animal that interrupted it. With brown bears a permanent presence in the Low Tatras, Tále’s response team faces a longer-term job: building bear monitoring into the tournament’s operations for future editions, not just reacting when a horn sounds mid-round. The course’s mountain setting has always been part of its appeal, and now the wildlife that comes with it looks set to become part of the tournament’s identity too.