RIDGEDALE, Mo. (AP) – Instead of panicking, Johnny Morris saw an adventure worth digging into when a massive sinkhole swallowed tons of earth at his exquisite golf course deep in the Missouri Ozarks.

Experts urged the 68-year-old founder of outdoors megastore Bass Pro Shops to fill the 40-foot-deep hole at Top of the Rock Golf Course near Branson with clay and boulders. But Morris has long been a cave enthusiast – even discovering one with spectacular formations two decades ago – and was intrigued by the possibility that an unknown cave system lay underneath. So he began to dig, a quest that continues a year later.

To the self-made billionaire, unlocking a natural mystery by burrowing further underground is worth it, no matter the cost.