Monster Gator Gets His Own T-Shirt

The massive alligator whose image went viral after a Florida golfer snapped shots of its stroll across a course now has its very own T-shirt.

Dubbed Goliath the Gator by the folks at the Myakka Pines Golf Club in Englewood, the critter’s now-famous pose on the greens has been immortalized on a T-shirt that was sold recently to raise funds for The Wildlife Center of Venice. While Goliath’s image appears on the front, the T-shirt proudly proclaims that Myakka Pines is the place “Where gators go to golf.”

Goliath fans who would like to get their hands on their very own gator shirt are out of luck though. The fundraiser was only up for a short time with 68 shirts sold in the limited-edition run. The course’s goal was 50 shirts to benefit the wildlife refuge.

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Goliath’s celebrity is being embraced by the club in more ways than one. The course is kicking off a “Junior Gator Crawl” 9-hole tournament in his honor and now posts reminders about its play-near-gators rules in its “Good News” newsletter.

Rather than try to play through, the course tells golfers to leave their balls and “take a free drop a safe distance from the alligator and no closer to the hole with no plenty.”

Goliath first captured the national spotlight in early March when the Englewood course posted shots of him crossing green No. 7 on his way to a pond. The alligator appeared so massive in the photos, the Internet sparked with conversations about whether the photos were real or Photoshopped.

While some doubted the legitimacy of the shots, Mickie Zada, the club’s general manager, told The Blaze they are very real. In fact, she told the publication the course used to have a “much larger gator” in residence that was affectionately nicknamed “Big George.”

Alligators are a common sight on Florida golf courses (and elsewhere in the state), but encountering one as big as Goliath appears to be is rare.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reports female alligators rarely grow bigger than 10 feet in length. Males can grow “much larger.” The record in Florida is 14 feet, 3 ½ inches. That male was found in Lake Washington in Brevard County. Back in October, a 765-pound, 13-foot creature named “Lumpy” was bagged in North Florida.

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