Bruce Burger, 50, probably missed the "Beware of Alligators" sign when he tried to fish out his golf ball from a pond on the sixth hole at the Lake Venice Golf Club.

The Tennessee man's neglect might have cost him his arm as a 10-foot, 11-inch single-eyed alligator in the pond latched on to his right forearm Monday afternoon and tried to pull him in water.

Burger was however lucky enough to free himself from the alligator's jaws and was rushed to the clubhouse by a woman who was playing nearby and heard his screams for help.

"I saw him reach down to get his ball and he yelled," Janet Pallo, who was playing the fifth hole, told the AP.

The alligator was later captured by state Fish and Wildlife officers.