There are very few golf courses this time of year that are more beautiful than the golf course in Evergreen, CO.

However, the course is full of hazards, and not just the usual ones.

In Evergreen, the golf course is full of elk.

“They’re always out here. You just have to play around them,” said one golfer.

The elk are beautiful, but Zak Bornhoft paid a price to see them up close. It almost cost him his life. Bornhoft was golfing with three friends when a bull elk charged their golf cart on Saturday, stabbing him in the stomach.

The antler traveled all the way through his body and into his left kidney, slicing it in two.

“The doctor told me three inches either way we wouldn’t be sitting here. He said it would have been better to have been stabbed with a knife because of the dirt on the elk antlers,” Zak’s wife Megan Bornhoft explained.

Bornhoft is now recovering, but many say they’ve seen too many close calls on the course.

Andi Poland is a wildlife photographer who’s captured one close call after another.

“I think the elk are very predictable at that course. In my opinion I think they should shut down those holes they’re at regularly,” she said.

Denver Parks and Recreation isn’t considering that right now, but they are urging caution, hoping what happened to Zak Bornhoft is an unfortunate but isolated incident.

The city says no one in recent history has been gored by an elk on the course. A Denver Parks and Recreation spokesperson also says starters and course rangers notify people to avoid holes with lots of animals on them.

Article originally appeared on: kdvr.com