Kicker - Reptile mulligan

NICK EICHER, HOST: One of the fundamental rules of golf is that you must play the ball from where it lands.

But there are exceptions. For example: if playing the ball where it landed would require you to pry it from the jaws of an 11-foot alligator, you’re off the hook. Seriously.

Keith Williams was playing in a tournament in Gulfport, Mississippi when his ball landed near a pond at the 12th hole.

That’s when a nearby alligator picked it up.

AUDIO: He ate it! (laughs)

Thankfully, the U.S. Golf Association's rules have a provision for a situation like this.

I’m quoting here: “The player may take free relief by playing a ball from a different place, such as when there is interference by” a hungry alligator mistaking the ball for an egg.

REICHARD: It doesn’t say that.

EICHER: Lawyers. Alright, a paraphrase there. Here’s the black-letter version: “when there is interference by an abnormal course condition or a dangerous animal condition.”

REICHARD: Okay, I like your version better.

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

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