Picture the scene. You are playing an afternoon round when you have shanked one into a pond near the sixth. You can’t hit out from there but you may as well fish your ball out because Srixon Z-URS’ don’t grow on trees. So far sound reasonable right? OK, what if when you dipped in to retrieve your ball a one eyed alligator emerges from the pond and forcefully invites you to join it in the water hazard? Sound a bit far fetched? Seem reminiscent of a scene in a bad teen horror movie? Tell that to Bruce Burger! Out of towner Bruce Burger almost suffered the same fate as one of his beef patty namesakes when he was accosted by a ‘gator at Lake Venice Golf Course on Monday. I bet he wasn’t ‘loving it’. Bruce was reaching for his ball that had found it’s way into a pond when a 10ft 11inch alligator latched onto his right forearm and pulled him in. Luckily for Mr Burger he was able to wrestle free from the big lizard using his left arm with the worst of his injuries being a strained thigh suffered during the struggle. This was the second such attack at Lake Venice GC in 18 years. Spookily, despite there being a family of alligators in a smaller pond on the other side of the course, both attacks took place in the same pond on golfers trying to retrieve their ball. Before.After Highlighting how priceless local knowledge can be, Dennis Weaver who was also playing on Monday said, "If your ball goes down there, you let it go," "Most people have the common sense not to go by the water." Which is all well and good but I wouldn’t expect a boarder line dinosaur to start on me when I’ve popped out for a cheeky nine. But this just shows how easy most of us have it. Rod Parry Lake Venice GC General Manager concludes, "Unfortunately, that's part of Florida," "There's wildlife in these ponds." And people say links golf is a test. For more on this story click here…