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There are plenty of ways your round can take a turn for the worse when you play at Pebble Beach. One golfer encountered a very unique hiccup after a seagull snatched his wallet from his cart and dropped it into the water, and it ended up back in his possession courtesy of someone who stumbled across it while combing the shore for lost balls.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a single zip code in the United States that boasts a more impressive roster of golf courses than 93953. That enclave in California’s Monterey County is home to the scenic route known as 17-Mile Drive, which weaves past bucket list destinations including Spyglass Hill, Cypress Point, and The Links at Spanish Bay.
However, the crown jewel is arguably Pebble Beach Golf Links, the public venue that has hosted the U.S. Open on six occasions and is home to some of the most iconic holes golf has to offer.
Nine of them give golfers the opportunity to sacrifice at least one ball to the waters on the Pacific Coast, but one man who was playing in August ended up watching a seagull deposit his wallet into Carmel Bay before he was reunited with it a few months later.
A golfer who had his wallet stolen by a seagull at Pebble Beach got it back after assuming it was gone forever
In August, Pebble Beach was the site of a viral video that captured a man chasing after a seagull with his wallet in its beak before it flew off the course and dropped it into the water at the bottom of the cliff located next to the green on the eighth hole.
According to Golfweek the golfer in question was Michael Barnouin, a real estate developer from Atlanta who hit Pebble Beach for a round on August 7th after wrapping up a renovation project in nearby Carmel.
The 30-year-old was preparing to tee off on the ninth hole when his playing partners alerted him to a seagull that had made its way into his cart, and he was initially annoyed they brought that development to his attention in his backswing before his frustration peaked when he saw it flying away with his wallet.
They briefly searched the area where it was dropped before giving up, and Barnouin conducted another unsuccessful search after returning at low tide the following day. He canceled his cards and was resigned to the fact that it was gone for good, but that did not end up being the case.
A real estate agent named Erik Bueno owns a couple of rental properties near Pebble Beach, and he told the outlet he routinely walks along the water in search of golf balls that veered off the course. He was on one of those strolls in October when he came across a wallet, and he subsequently mailed a letter to Barnouin to alert him of the discovery.
Bueno ended up dropping off the wallet (along with a bag of reclaimed golf balls) at the home of one of Barnouin’s friends near Pebble Beach, and he was recently able to reclaim it to bring the story to a happy end.