Seeing alligators on the golf course is nothing new, especially for those who play their golf in the Southern United States. However, a group of golfers playing at The Club at Savannah Harbor were treated to a unique and harrowing experience this past weekend.
An afternoon round for Ed Vance, a Savannah local, and his friends was briefly interrupted by a massive gator who cambered out of some nearby bushes and across the 17th green as the group was attempting to finish the hole.
Vance told The Island Packet that as he was preparing to hit a chip shot to the green, he and his group heard some loud noises coming from the brush line. As he backed off his shot, the 9-foot gator emerged.
“We all looked at each other and were asking what is that noise,” Vance said. “At first, I thought it was the maintenance crew on the other side of the brush cutting it back or something.
“I will always remember the sound of his feet when he was walking on the green. The video doesn’t pick it up, but the ‘thud, thud, thud’ sound was what you would think a dinosaur sounds like. It was surreal.”
Undeterred, the gator made its way across the green, stopping momentarily to take a load off near the hole. Vance, a member at the club, said he sees gators all the time around the course, but never has he seen anything like what he witnessed on Sunday.
“We notice them and respect them, but really don’t pay that much attention to them because we are used to them and we expect them to be there. It is their habitat we are in,“ he said. “This was definitely a different experience though. He was massive and you just don’t expect them to walk up to the green while you are there.”
