Golfer attacked by bobcat is recovering

“I feel pretty good,” said Mike Popkowski who talked with News 8 from his New London home. “The biggest discomfort is in my right shoulder and my right hip from where I landed when this thing was on my back.”

That thing was a rabid bobcat.

Popkowski was playing golf last Thursday at the Mohegan Sun Golf Course in Baltic when his friend John suddenly told him to look out.

“When I looked up this thing had already left the ground and was coming at me,” said Popkowski.

We can’t repeat what he said but we can tell you he turned his back to the cat just in time

“John was trying to hit it with the golf club but was afraid to hit me,” said Popkowski.

The two then tumbled down a 7th hole hill.

Related: Sources with DEEP: Bobcat tested positive for rabies

“I stood up and the thing was laying in the bunker huffing and puffing,” explained Popkowski.

His friend continued to hit the cat which then took off into the woods and was eventually euthanized by DEEP Environmental Police.

“I have lacerations on my scalp there’s eleven staples,” said Popkowski.

He also has bites and puncture wounds on his left arm and shoulder and on his right ear which had to be stitched up. The horse the bobcat also attacked that morning had to get more than a dozen stitches.

Popkowski is now undergoing a series of rabies shots.

“I think in the back of my mind I’m concerned. Is it a hundred percent guaranteed that it’s gonna work?” he wondered.

Once he starts feeling a little bit better Popkowski does plan to hit the links again. In fact, he’s a member at the Mohegan Sun Golf Course.

But if he hits another ball into the woods or even near it…? “It’s there. It’s there forever,” he said with a laugh.

In the last 20 years, there have been only a few bobcat attacks in the state.

“Lucky me I can’t hit the lottery but I can get attacked by a bobcat,” said Popkowski.

Still he knows he did get lucky. It could have been much worse.