Golfer is stunned to see 3ft-long poisonous snake slithering across the green

A golfer was given a fright when he spotted a 3ft-long poisonous snake slithering across a course in Lincolnshire.

As he went to play a shot on the green, businessman Dan Owen, 58, noticed what he first thought was a stick lying in the grass ahead, before he was startled by it starting to slither towards the rough nearby.

Mr Owen managed to grab his mobile phone to film the getaway on the seventh hole at Belton Woods Golf Course, in Grantham, before the slippery customer disappeared into the undergrowth.

He suspects the creature may have been a black adder, the UK's only native breed of venomous snake, the bite of which can have severe consequences as severe as kidney failure.

The father-of-four, who runs his own manufacturing firm, said: 'It was just lying there basking as they do, basking in the sun. I thought it was a stick at first but as I got closer I got a bit of a shock.'

Mr Owen saw the rare reptile on Tuesday afternoon.

He continued: 'It went off into the woods. It was going as fast as it could. I was just having a sneaky nine holes after work.

'I've shown the video to quite a few people and the consensus is it's a black adder, which are quite rare in the UK.

'I've only ever seen a snake on holiday in Sussex a long time ago and I lived in Australia for 28 years.

'You think you'd expect to see them in Australia a lot but you don't see snakes too often, only their skins.

'You play alongside crocodiles in Australia, you don't go into the water to fetch your balls!

'We just need some crocs in the ponds now and it would be pure Queensland.'

There are three types of snake native to the UK - adder, grass snake and smooth snake.

Black adder numbers are decline in recent years and it is now a protected species. They prefer to live in open habitats such as heath and moorland.

The likelihood of being bitten is slim, though 14 people in Britain have died from their bites.