Florida of the day: Giant golf course alligator (or: Dave needs new golf buddies)

If you’re the sort of person who reads this blog, the odds are better than even that you’ve seen the video of the giant alligator wandering about Buffalo Creek Golf Club in Palmetto, Florida. Yes, the gator is impressive, but what makes the video truly Florida is the suggestion from someone off-camera that “Dave” — presumably the guy seen in the video shooting video on his phone — get next to the alligator “for perspective”.

Here’s the video with my subtitles:

The gator is a regular attraction at the course, and golfers often taken pictures of it. Wendy Schofield, a clerk at the club’s pro shop says that it “doesn’t bother anybody and they don’t bother him. He’s like a mascot for the course, which is owned by Manatee County.”

Charles Helms, who shot the video, told NBC news “You kind of learn very early on that people really aren’t on the menu. Just don’t bother it, don’t annoy it. Certainly don’t corner it — just let it go.”

And, it would seem, don’t stand beside it for perspective; let someone else do that.