A Florida golf ball diver hoping to catch lost golf balls in a canal quickly learned that he was the catch of the day- an alligator’s catch of the day, that is.
Stephen Martinez said that he was simply diving for lost golf balls at the bottom of a lake off the second hole of the course when a 10 foot alligator bit his arm. "I just got bit and I got out of the water as soon as possible," he said.
Bonaventure Country Club General Manager Randy Weber reported, "He didn't see it, he just felt it. He said it grabbed his arm and then let him go."
Though he had just been bitten by the gargantuan reptile, Martinez remained calm and drove himself to the Pro Shop. Someone called 911 and Martinez was then transported to the hospital. "He seemed perfectly OK other than he'd just been bitten by an alligator," Weber said.
"He wasn't panicking. He was perfectly calm. He just had a bit of a bloody hand, right on the top of his hand… It was swelling. Then he had a minor cut on his forearm and on the side of his hand," Trent Hampel, who saw Martinez post-attack, agreed.
At the hospital, Martinez was treated with superficial wounds and is expected to recover. Despite being treated, Martinez said he was feeling the effects of a bite from the ten foot gator. "I’m in a lot of pain. It definitely hurts," he said.
Martinez has now been bitten by gators while diving for golf balls twice, but it won’t stop him, "These things don't happen often and it was just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I just hope it doesn't happen again. It's a rare occasion. I've been diving for years and years."