Sometimes, it's a bit too dangerous in the game of golf to just 'play it as it lies'.
The PGA Tour is at the beginning of its fall season, with many of the golfers in the field fighting for their tour cards for 2026.
But on the par-5 11th hole at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi, one player would have to fight his own nerves after his ball landed in the water.
In Sunday's final round, golfer Vince Whaley drove his ball into the left rough and then hit his second shot into a pond on the right side of the green.
As he prepared to enter the murky water and hit his third shot, Whaley looked behind him to discover a six-foot alligator staring right at him.
Somehow, the Kentucky native managed to hold his nerve and got his ball out of the water.
Golfer Vince Whaley held his nerve as he hit a ball from the water with an alligator behind him
The gator stayed fixated on Whaley, but did not move towards him as he managed to save par
He then went on to scramble for a par - preventing disaster, or a bitten ankle.
Reflecting on the shot, Whaley said he believed the reptile was roughly 20 feet away before he hit his ball.
'Well, thankfully, my back was to him, so I could focus on the shot for a second,' Whaley admitted. He added that he had 'a lot of trust' in his caddie to watch out for him.
While the gator never moved, Whaley said that if it did, 'The plan was to get the hell out of the water.'
Whaley finished tied for third in the tournament with a score of 19-under for the event and 5-under for the day.
The 30-year old made two other top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour in 2025: at the Puntacana Championship last April and at the ISCO Championship in July.