The monster gator who resides at Buffalo Creek GC in Palmetto, Fla., emerged again recently to take a stroll down a fairway, and a golfer’s video went viral, drawing comparisons to a “Jurassic Park” dinosaur.
In Florida, alligator encounters are fairly common; it’s not unusual to spot one on the golf course. What is unusual, however, is a giant monster of a reptile strolling down the fairway.
That’s what a recent video (below) out of Palmetto, Fla,, shows, and it’s gone viral, WTVT Fox 13 of Tampa reports.
“Have you ever seen anything that big?” golfer Charles Helms, who recorded the huge alligator with his phone, says in the video. You can hear another nearby golfer say, “No, never.”
Helms told Fox 13 he saw the gator laying on the fairway at the Buffalo Creek Golf Course and had to record it when the beast got up and really showed off its size.
“It is very common to see alligators on a Florida golf course, and they’re typically not a threat to golfers,” Helms told Golf.com. “Wild alligators are shy and will not bother you unless you provoke it or corner it so it feels threatened.”
At first, Helms wasn’t even sure if it was real when he spotted the monster gator. “I didn’t know if we were being punked or something,” Helms said.
Apparently, the alligator isn’t just real—he’s a regular at Buffalo Creek,” Fox 13 reported. “He has been here for a very, very long time; he’s not new at all,” said Wendy Schofield, who works at the golf course’s pro shop.
Schofield said that the word has spread of the gator, which has been estimated to be upwards of 15 feet long, attracting people who hope to catch a glimpse. “He is the highlight—but we are worth the price too,” she said.
The Internet has likened the video to “Jurassic Park,” and someone even made a YouTube video mash-up from the scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omGjzl8mJJU)
Massive though he may be, this particular gator seems to be docile enough, Fox 13 reported.
“He doesn’t bother anybody and they don’t bother him,” Schofield said. “He’s like a mascot for the course, which is owned by Manatee County.”
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