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Being at one with nature is one of the many reasons why pros love making the annual trip to Sun City for the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

But Dutch star Joost Luiten found himself in a very tricky situation during a practice round yesterday when his ball came to a shuddering halt at the hands of one of Africa’s most feared predators.

The five-time European Tour winner failed to hit the green with a stray second shot and his ball nestled underneath the mouth of a crocodile, which was soaking up the sun between a small lake and the green.

Luiten took to Instagram with a video to show how close the crocodile was to the green.

Then, he got closer still with a zoomed in picture of the ball, which you can just about see underneath the crocodile’s body.

As you can imagine, the comments section was awash with Happy Gilmore references to character Chubbs Peterson, who had his budding career stopped in its tracks after getting his hand bitten off by an alligator.

“Don’t lose your hand like Chubbs,” wrote one follower, while another said simply, “RIP Chubbs’ hand.”

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