Runaway horse tramples greens at Warrnambool Golf Club

Melbourne golfer Andrew Dennis was on an annual golf trip with several mates when he got a front row seat to the incident.

"I was on the 18^th green and we had another group of mates down on the 18^th tee, which is where this horse came charging through from a neighbouring paddock," Mr Dennis said.

"He flew through the tee and started galloping up the 18^th fairway towards us on the green.

"I wouldn't say the horse was agitated, but it was running around a bit crazy and we were all just trying to get out of the way and whip out our phones at the same time."

The 500kg horse made it to the 18^th green and trotted across the finely mown surface, putting deep hoof marks into the turf thanks to the inch of rain that had fallen only an hour earlier.

"One of my mates who is into horses went over and tried to calm the horse down, but then the automatic sprinkler system came on which spooked it and it charged off again down the 17^th," Mr Dennis said.

"By that time all the club staff were out on their phones calling people and trying to get the owner."

After around 10 minutes the horse's owner turned up.

"When he came in it was like the horse whisperer or Man from Snowy River," Mr Dennis said.

"He got it straight under control, gave it a pat and then leapt on bareback and galloped off back down the 18^th."

Mr Dennis said the strange event had made the annual trip one to remember.

"Only an hour or two earlier we had been pretty down in the dumps with the rain bucketing down, so this really turned things around. The boys were very impressed," he said.

"We came down to play Port Fairy and Warrnambool and I reckon this tipped the scales in Warrnambool's favour."