Payne Stewart Once Played An Epic Prank On David Feherty That Involved A Half-Dead Groundhog He Hit With His Car

david feherty payne stewart prank groundhog

Getty Image / David Cannon


David Feherty and the late Payne Stewart are two of the most well-known and beloved people in the golf world. While it’s a well-known fact that the lighthearted Feherty is a jokester, Stewart was quite the prankster back in the day as well.

Josh Berhow of GOLF recently sat down with Feherty at a lunch and shared some of the great stories the golf commentator told that day, but one sticks out above the rest.

Back when Feherty was playing on Tour with Stewart the two decided to watch a basketball game after one of the tournament rounds, but Stewart decided to pull a pretty wicked prank before they met up that night.

Stewart had actually swapped room keys with Feherty and on his way to the hotel, he actually hit a groundhog “in the ass” according to Feherty. Stewart saw that as an opportunity so threw the groundhog in the back of the car and planted it in Feherty’s room.

Stewart thought the animal was dead, but he was wrong.

“I come back, having played in the afternoon, and clump, I put the clubs down by the desk in the room, and a f—— beaver jumps out underneath it! You know, it scared the s— out of me,” Feherty said. “You know, this thing is foaming at the mouth and s—. I end up standing on the desk, and I’ve torn 18 inches of sheet rock out of the ceiling with the chandelier cords. And it keels over, and I’m poking it with my sand wedge, you know, to make sure the damn thing is dead. It’s a steaming pile of Stewart. That’s what it is.”

Feherty had planned not to even mention it to Stewart in an attempt to get under his skin, but couldn’t hold back.

“And he comes over,” Feherty said. “‘How you doing?’ ‘Alright.’ ‘What you shoot?’ ‘Oh, a 71.’ He says, ‘Do you wanna drink?’ I said, ‘Yeah, give me a double Bushmills.’ You know, so the bartender gives me a double Bushmills and I’m like still shaking. I’m like a pregnant nun, you know. And he looks at me and says, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ I said, ‘You put a f—— groundhog in my room you son of a b—-!’”

If only there was a camera on Feherty when he saw a half-dead beaver jump out at him in his hotel room.

It’s safe to say the pranks on Tour back in the day were a little stronger than those that may go on today. For some reason I can’t see a player on Tour today putting a half-dead animal in their car, throwing it in a player’s room and casually acting like nothing happened.

You can check out the other classic stories Feherty shared with GOLF here.

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Mark is an associate editor and the resident golf guy here at BroBible. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris. You can reach him at Mark@BroBible.com.