TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online
Golf Ball Diver Battles Gator At Tampa Palms Course
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: April 28, 2008
Updated:
TAMPA - The alligator had one thing on its mind when it glided from the shadowy depths of a golf course pond where Dwight Monreal was diving for golf balls Saturday afternoon.
It meant to kill and eat him.
"This is the first time I've experienced a hard-core, eat-your-butt attack," Monreal said.
He never saw the alligator before its jaws clamped his shoulder in a bone-crushing grip, starting Monreal's desperate, seven-minute fight for his life.
"It was the longest seven minutes of my life," Monreal said Sunday from his Port St. Lucie home, where he was recovering from a crushed and dislocated shoulder and broken upper arm. He was released from St. Joseph's Hospital after spending the night.
Monreal managed to break free of the alligator's jaws by jamming his thumb into its eye; then he staggered from the pond near the 13th hole at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club.
During the 14 years he has earned a living by diving into murky, alligator-infested ponds for errant golf balls, Monreal, 62, said he's had plenty of encounters with alligators, but they stopped at small nips or tail slashes.
"For golf ball divers, it's not uncommon to be nipped," he said.
This was different.
The alligator he and witnesses described as 10 or 11 feet long rose silently from the pond's shadowy depths into the shallows where Monreal was using scuba gear to dive in a couple feet of water.
"It was the perfect attack," Monreal said. "It came from behind and clamped down. He just wanted to do me."
He was keeping an eye on a smaller alligator when the attack came.
The alligator's first roll with Monreal in its jaws probably crushed his shoulder. To that point, Monreal had struggled just to keep the alligator from dragging him into deeper water and tried to pull free.
"He couldn't drag me because I had a foothold. I tried to pick him up and get back to shore, but he was so big I couldn't budge him," Monreal said.
Even at 6-foot-4 and 280 pounds, Monreal couldn't lift the alligator.
"When he started his second death roll, I knew I had to go offensive," Monreal said. "I rolled with him and got on his back and started digging my thumb into its eye.
"I realized I was going to lose my arm or lose my life if I didn't do something."
Alligators and crocodiles often spin or roll when they have large prey in their jaws. The move serves to dismember or subdue their prey.
The jabbing worked, and the alligator released Monreal.
"You've got to do whatever you have to, to survive," he said.
Saturday night, about four hours after the 4:30 p.m. attack, state-licensed trapper Julie Harter captured a nearly 8-foot alligator she thinks was the one that attacked Monreal. It was in the same place where the attack happened, about 50 feet from shore.
Monreal isn't so sure.
"The one that got me was a lot bigger than that. There's still a gator out there with a missing left eye," he said.
Harter said the golf course owners will keep an eye on the pond and call her back if they think another alligator is there.
"More than likely, we got the one," she said.
The attack was a first for Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club, employees said.
"This is the first attack that we've had on anybody," desk clerk Joey Zarella said. "They usually stay out of the golfers' way, and vice versa."
Monreal said he will be back in golf course ponds, searching for golf balls after he gets through five or six weeks of rehabilitation.
"Thanks be to God because he was there," Monreal said. "I was praying."
Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731 or njohnson@tampatrib.com.
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)
* Keep it clean
* Respect others
* Don't hate
* Don't use language you wouldn't use with your mom
* Use "Report Inappropriate Comments" link when necessary
* See Member Agreement for details
Reader Comments
Posted by ( mr_hanky ) on April 28, 2008 at 12:35 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I know things are getting pricey, but I don't think there's a golf ball worth an arm and a leg. However, I'm not a golfer so I could be wrong about that....
Report Inappropriate Comments
Posted by ( mountainman104 ) on April 28, 2008 at 6:26 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
first gator to get a hole in one, EYE that is..... true survivor.
Report Inappropriate Comments