Golfer Creeps Up Behind Alligator To Retrieve Ball

A brave golfer crept up behind a 10ft-long alligator to retrieve a ball after it landed alongside the huge creature.

Brandon Downes was out playing a game of golf with his brother Kyle at Cape Coral's Coral Oaks Golf Course in North Fort Myers in Florida when they had a run-in with the gator.

Footage shot by Kyle, shows Brandon quietly sneaking up towards the alligator, while his brother warns: "He's going to whip you with that tail, dude."

But unperturbed, Brandon makes a dash and grab for the golf ball, which he manages to get, before the gator saunters off back into the water.

Kyle told Storyful: "We came across the gator on the back nine and noticed a ball on the tail.

"Never unusual to see a gator, but a gator with a ball on its tail? Very unusual."

Storyful

He added: "We golf a lot being in SWFL so this is a rare sight indeed.

"How the ball got there is a mystery to me."

While Kyle is not wrong about alligators being a fairly common sight around Florida, an absolute unit of a gator hit headlines last month after it was pictured enjoying a stroll around a local golf course.

The footage was captured on the Valencia Golf and Country Club green, as the animal casually made its way across the grass before taking a dip in the water.

Many thought it was Photoshopped at first, owing to how ridiculously huge it is, but it was confirmed to be legit by Matt Devitt, a meteorologist with WINK News.

He said: "HUGE FLORIDA GATOR! Yep, this monster is real."

And just a couple of weeks after that beast was spotted, a couple of duck hunters out in Florida also had an encounter with a whopper gator.

Kevin Stipe and Cass Couey, who own the PRO HUNT navigation app, managed to capture video footage of the gator casually chomping on the birds they had shot.

Speaking to Fox 35 News, Stipe said the alligator was around 13ft long and was snapping up and eating the ducks before they could retrieve them from the water.

Couey added: "It was just another day in the swamp for us. But I'm glad people are loving it!"

Topics: Animals, US

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

@ClaireReid19