Happy Gilmore - Chubbs

[NatsAddict]

This story sounds almost exactly like the one Chubbs tells in the movie Happy Gilmore.

One-eyed gator chomps down on golfer trying to get ball out of pond
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted June 26 2007, 10:28 AM EDT
 
VENICE -- A Tennessee man who lost his ball in a golf course pond nearly lost a limb when an 11-foot alligator latched on to his arm and pulled him in, authorities said.

Bruce Burger, 50, was trying to retrieve his ball from a pond on the sixth hole Monday at the Lake Venice Golf Club.

The alligator latched on to Burger's right forearm and pulled him in the pond, said Gary Morse, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. He used his left arm to beat on the reptile until it freed him.

``I saw him reach down to get his ball and he yelled ... 'Help. Help. I've been bitten by a gator,''' said Janet Pallo, who was playing the fifth hole and ran over to drive the man to the clubhouse.

Burger, from Lenoir City, Tenn., was taken to a hospital but was not seriously injured, Morse said Tuesday.

It took seven Fish and Wildlife officers an hour to trap the one-eyed alligator, which measured 10 feet, 11 inches, Morse said.

The pond at the sixth hole has a ``Beware of Alligator'' sign posted because the staff is aware that a large alligator likes to hang out there.

``Unfortunately, that's part of Florida,'' course general manager Rod Parry said. ``There's wildlife in these ponds.''

Sun-Sentinel


May and June is mating season when they are more aggressive regardless of the situation, and are especially aggressive when protecting nests.  Further, we are in the middle of a severe drought which has greatly cut back on their food supply.  When in a tangle with one that size, he's lucky to have gotten away at all.  One that big has gotta weigh about 400# -450#.  To not be seriously hurt is almost a miracle.

[tomterp]

Anybody that approaches a pond in the southern states had better be paying damn attention. There's lots of critters around that can do damage.

I braced myself on a nice convenient mound of earth in Texas, at the edge of a pond where I was catching some nice bass.  Unfortunately, the mound was a fire ant mound, and they got me pretty good before I realized what was happening.

Learned I was allergic to them, too.

[PANatsFan]

I swear I saw a wolf driving through Texas/Louisiana once. Not a coyote - a wolf. Looked at pictures of both and decided it had to be a wolf. Yes I know they're basically extinct, but I know what I saw.

[The Chief]

I swear I saw a wolf driving through Texas/Louisiana once. Not a coyote - a wolf. Looked at pictures of both and decided it had to be a wolf. Yes I know they're basically extinct, but I know what I saw.

Holy crap they can drive? We're screwed!

[PANatsFan]

North - he ran right across I-10

[The Chief]

North - he ran right across I-10

re-read, I guess my first joke was too subtle

[PANatsFan]

oh yeah. Hard to see one's own typos. I forgot the word "while" 

[ronnynat]

That sounds exactly like Chubbs. The golfer had it coming if there was a sign there.