‘I’m not afraid of gators’: Pro unfazed after tussle with alligator at PGA National

Billy Horschel is a longtime PGA Tour veteran. He’s also a lifelong Florida resident. And both of those identities came into play when Horschel had a run-in with an alligator at the Cognizant Classic on Thursday.

The long-running event with a new name has been held at PGA National’s Champion course in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for almost 20 years. Horschel grew up in Grant, Fla., just north of the Palm Beach area.

So it’s safe to say both the tournament and the player have plenty of experience with alligators, the large, toothy and fearsome reptiles endemic to the state. Coincidentally, Horschel is a Gator himself, having starred on the University of Florida golf team in his college years.

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Unless you’re completely unfamiliar with golf in Florida, the fact that Horschel came upon an alligator during the opening round on PGA National’s 7th hole should come as no surprise. But unless you’re a Florida resident, what Horschel did next may have come as a shock.

The eight-time Tour winner set the scene when talking to reporters after the round.

“Yeah, we were on No. 6 green and I just putted out, went to the left side of the green there. Right about to walk to 7 I saw the gator coming across,” Horschel began. “The cop who was working with us walked over there and tried to shoo him, but he didn’t have anything to touch him and he was trying to get as close as he could.”

Getting close to an alligator is unwise, even for a Floridian. So to get play moving again, Horschel knew they needed a tool to help scare the gator back into a greenside pond. A golf club would have to do.

“It was either someone was going to have to go up to No. 8 and grab a rake or I was 30 yards away, 25 yards away, and I just grabbed a club and went over there and pushed him away,” Horschel said.

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Thinking fast, Horschel grabbed the first club he saw in his bag, then jogged over to the police officer and the offending alligator, which from video appears to be approximately 6-feet long.

Without hesitating, Horschel stuck the head of his wedge in front of the gator. At first, the animal didn’t back away, but after Horschel tapped it on the skull, the gator snapped its jaws then turned and ran for it.

To make sure the job was complete, the pro chased the gator all the way into the pond, then turned and walked back toward his caddie and his round seeming completely unfazed by the encounter.

“Listen, he was going nowhere good. So I just went over there, helped the cop. As Cam said before I went over there, he goes, what was he going to do, try and use a taser on him? But I think he would have had to get a little close on that one to try and make it effective,” Horschel explained.

As you can see in the video below, Horschel ended up choosing to use a wedge to shoo the gator away, an interesting choice given that it is the shortest club in his bag. But that turned out to be a good thing, because he had backups in case the gator fought back and bit his wedge.

“I had a 60, and I didn’t think about it, but the good thing I did grab a 60 because I’ve got two extra ones in the locker so if that one did become unavailable, I had two more in the locker.”

And in case anyone was shocked by Horschel’s casual attitude toward the gator, he detailed why he wasn’t afraid and dropped some safety tips for anyone planning on playing golf in Florida, too.

“Yeah, I’m not afraid of gators. Listen, as I tell most people, I said, they’re more afraid of you,” Horschel said. “The majority of the time they’re only going to come after you during mating season where they’re a little aggressive and then if you’re around their nest when they’ve got some eggs.”

He continued: “The majority of the time, they’re fine. I grew up with my dad grabbing their tail when they’re on the side of the bank and shooing them back in the water. I never touched a tail with my hand but I’ve done it with a club. Not that big of a deal.”

The incident didn’t negatively affect Horschel’s score either. Soon after clearing the course of reptiles, he closed out his round with back-to-back birdies at 8 and 9.

Those late red numbers gave Horschel a five-under 66 for Round 1, leaving him T16 seven shots behind leader Jake Knapp.