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Florida golfer ignores scary alligator strolling next to him

Posted at 2:40 PM, Aug 26, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-26 15:40:29-04

In Florida, golfers play by a different set of rules. And one of the rules may or may not include ignoring giant, scary alligators.

Professional wakeboarder Steel Lafferty was playing golf at the ChampionsGate Country Club in Orlando on Wednesday afternoon when he had an unexpected run-in with a gator.

"I wasn't too worried," Lafferty told CNN.

"I wakeboard professionally so I'm always in the water and I've kind of been around gators my whole life. There was a bit of a worry, but it seemed like he was doing his own thing so I let him go."

In a video posted to his Instagram account, Lafferty barely acknowledges the alligator, taking a shot at the same moment it strolls by. He estimated it to be about 7 feet long.

Lafferty called his encounter with the alligator a "good experience."

"My shot was really good and that was really the only thing I was worried about. I had to make par on the hole because we had a bet going and I was more worried about winning the bet than getting eaten."

It wasn't the first time this month a Florida gator has made a dramatic appearance in an unlikely place.

Videos from last week show one swimming in the middle of a busy road and another climbing a fence.