Golfers got the shock of their lives this past weekend at the Buffalo Creek Golf Course in Palmetto, Florida when a Jurassic-Park sized alligator crossed the fairway right in front of the astounded players.
Videos posted on YouTube and Facebook made the rounds, garnering over five million views. NBC News says the massive alligator, which looks to be 14 or 15 feet long, took bystanders by surprise. It looked almost prehistoric in size. “You ever see anything that big? I think that’s two guys in an alligator suit,” a bewildered bystander says in the video as the huge creature slowly lumbers past them.
According to Golf.com, Charles Helms, 56, was playing the third hole when he looked up and saw the alligator. He immediately pulled out his cell phone and began recording. When asked why, Helms replied, “A better question might be how can you not record it?”
“It is very common to see alligators on a Florida golf course and they’re typically not a threat to golfers,” Helms said. “Wild alligators are shy and will not bother you unless you provoke it or corner it so it feels threatened.” Helms must be a native Floridian with that seemingly cool demeanor.
Helms added that the alligator was so large it could only move slowly, stopping every 100 feet or so and lying flat on the ground to rest. Helms says “the alligator wasn’t in as much danger as it may have appeared. An alligator expert may refute that; I’m just going on what I have been told.”
This isn’t the first time a massive alligator has been seen on a Florida golf course. Last year a colossal alligator was seen on the Myakka Pines Golf Club in Englewood. Workers there said it appeared “to have taken residence on our White Course #7 hole.”
In other alligator-related news, CBS Miami is reporting that two alligators were discovered chowing down on human remains in a Davie Canal near the Everglades. No, the alligators did not kill the human, who has yet to be identified.
“What happened to them? How did they end up here? Could it be a homicide, could it be a suicide, could it be natural, a fisherman? We don’t know. That’s what the next step is to figure that out,” said Sgt. Pablo Castaneda with the Davie Police Department.
