Snowbird Cliff Jennings was relaxing on his lanai in the Village of Pennecamp recently when he spotted an alligator on the prowl on a golf course.
Jennings’ home abuts the Cane Garden Championship Golf Course near the 5th green. The foursome playing the hole had hit onto the green.
“Two balls were within a few feet of the pin,” he said.
Then the golfers moved off the green without completing the hole and they seemed excited. Jennings stepped out of his lanai to get a better view.
A large alligator, which Jennings estimated to be 6 to 7 feet long, was ambling down the fairway and onto the green.
“It walked five or six steps then it would stop and settle on the ground for a few seconds,” Jennings said.
Fortunately, Jennings had his phone with him and was able to take some pictures and a short video of the incident.
He said the alligator “came right from the center of the fairway dead center onto the green and passed within 6 feet of the hole.” Jennings noted that one of the golfers left his putter on the green.
When the alligator came onto the green, it came upon the putter.
“It took 10 to 15 minutes for the gator to cross,” said Jennings.
The 5th hole of the course has two ponds and the alligator was apparently changing his pond. In the five years that Jennings has been spending his winters in The Villages, this was the first time he has seen one on the prowl. Some of his neighbors in the Village of Pennecamp have also had close encounters with alligators. You can read more about that HERE.
“No one that I know in the neighborhood objects to the gators. We enjoy the babies in the spring. No one has loose pets so that is never a concern. I think fear of coyotes is more an issue with pet owners,” he said.
Last week, Joe Keyzers of the Village of Hemingway was teeing off on the 2nd hole of the Redfish Run Executive Golf Course. As he moved past the pond on the fairway he saw two large alligators who were on the edge of the pond.
“The largest gator was about 9 feet long and one which was partly in the water was about 7 feet long,” he said. Keyzers said the “gators were only 25 feet apart and as his group passed the largest gator raised its tail up in the air.” Other than raising his tail, neither gator made any other display of possible aggression. Keyzers, a Wisconsin native, has been a Villages property owner since 2009. This was the first time he has seen such large alligators on the Redfish course.
