Golfer in hot water after teeing off at Yellowstone’s Mammoth Hot Springs, other parks
A comedian drumming up interest in golf may have sliced into a hornets nest by hitting balls in Yellowstone and other national parks.
Jake Adams toured the nation to hit golf shots in 50 states in 30 days, posting videos of the adventure on his Instagram account — jakemadams3.
On day three in a snowy Colorado mountain meadow he uses a small pile of snow to tee up his ball and swings his driver while strapped to a snowboard.
On April 26, Adams stopped in Billings where he is shown hitting a ball at Briarwood Golf Course as well as off the Rims with two locals. That was day 25 of his tour.
Later the same day he’s shown on the banks of a river hitting a ball in Yellowstone National Park, then on top of Mammoth Hot Springs’ travertine terraces toward the hotel and boardwalk below and finally from a boardwalk next to a hot springs pool.
KHQ 6 news first reported Adams teeing off in Yellowstone. The National Park Service responded to the station’s request for comment with an email stating: “The individual who recently was captured on video hitting golf balls in Yellowstone National Park showed a lack of judgment and common sense. He violated regulations designed to preserve Yellowstone and protect the experience of other visitors. The National Park Service is investigating this illegal act.”
Adams isn’t the first online personality to run afoul of park regulations. In 2016, four travel bloggers were sentenced to jail and fined after they recorded their walk onto the thermal area around Grand Prismatic Spring. Visitors are required for their own safety and to protect delicate thermal features to remain on boardwalks.
In an interview, Adams told ABC News he was making the trip to emphasize a different side of golf.
“My kind of mission for golf as a whole is … it gets so stuck and like it’s patriarchal and kind of like traditional values of this stuffy country club and you know, kind of my message is there’s so many more people, you know, my age … who don’t believe in those traditional values that love and enjoy the game.”
Along his journey, Adams said he’s seen some stunning landscapes from which to hit golf shots, including drives aimed at state capitol buildings.
“Every state has something beautiful in it, except for Mississippi,” Adams told ABC.
In his last post on April 30, Adams was in Hawaii for the final day of the challenge.
