“I’ve never been so scared.” Those were the comments of Pablo Larrazabal after he was attacked by hornets on the fifth hole during the second round of the Maybank Malaysian Open.
Larrazabal had just taken his second shot when he suddenly came under attack. The Spaniard literally ran for his life and leapt into the water. “I hit my tee shot just right of the bunker and chipped it out quite well. So I’m walking along and suddenly I felt something on my nose. I swatted it away and suddenly… they were not bees, they were three times the size of bees. They were huge and like 30 or 40 of them started to attack me big time,” related the golfer.
He said his caddy told him to run, “so I start running like a crazy guy, but the hornets were still there, so the other players told me to jump in the lake. So I ran to the lake, threw my scorecard down, took off my shoes and jumped into the lake. It was the scariest moment of my career, for sure. I’ve never been so scared.”
After emerging from the water, he was treated by the doctors and amazingly continued playing. To his credit, the player sank a birdie on the fifth hole and went on to hammer a four-under 68 today to make the cut.
“The referees and a doctor took me aside and gave me a couple of injections and told me to relax. After the injections I felt a lot better and could continue. Without the help of the referees I couldn’t have finished the round, because I was in no state to play golf.”
Asked how he would face the fifth hole again tomorrow, Larrrazabal said: “Tomorrow it will be very, very scary to play that hole. I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but hopefully I will play it as quickly as I can.”
