Colorado Golfer Is Gored, Has His Kidney Ripped Apart By Elk While Playing A Round With The Boys

Zak Bornhoft, 41, and his boys were just trying to play a round of October golf on Saturday at the Evergreen Golf Course outside Denver, but a bull elk had a different idea. The elk decided that it would gore Bornhoft and rip apart his kidney instead. There are days when what happens at the course stays at the course. Not Saturday. Zak and his shredded kidney were rushed to the hospital.

Talk about a golf story that's going to play well at the bar for the rest of Zak's life. This is better than bragging about a hole-in-one. Yeah, well, you ever been gored by an elk while trying to crush 3-wood 280 over a creek?

Zak might've been gored and has some healing to do, but let's be honest here. He's the winner in this situation. Arrogant Golf Guy won't have a comeback when Zak shows the puncture wound and the Google search results.

Game over.

“The golfing went pretty good throughout the day until we got to the back nine and saw all the elk,” Bornhoft told CNN from the hospital.

“This bull elk was just eyeing us down,” he continued. “We were slowly going forward, and he started charging at us and he missed. My buddy gassed it to get away, and the elk gored me on my right side.”

In a Facebook post, Zak claims he and his friends “definitely were not playing with the elk!”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, I didn’t try to play with the Elk, I took pictures from a distance and zoomed in the photos. The driver of my cart is devastated but there wasn’t really anything he could do. We were just trying to get away.”














There are obvious questions here:


• What did Zak shoot before the goring?

• How many drinks deep were the boys when the elk said it was 'go time'?

• Did the boys credit Zak with par the rest of the round?

• What was the cart girl's reaction?

I have to be honest here, besides the pain of being gored and having the kidney ripped apart, I'm kinda jealous of Zak right now. Those of us who are life experience hunters would love to have this on our resumes. In fact, thanks to this post, I have put Evergreen Golf Course on my bucket list. I'm DMing Club Pro Guy to get a foursome lined up.

This track is under $50 on weekends, and you have a chance of getting gored by an elk. That's an incredible deal.
















Written by
Joe Kinsey is the Senior Director of Content of OutKick and the editor of the Morning Screencaps column that examines a variety of stories taking place in real America. Kinsey is also the founder of OutKick’s Thursday Night Mowing League, America’s largest virtual mowing league. Kinsey graduated from University of Toledo.