You know my rule: When golfing in alligator country, you always take the drop. Unfortunately, a 77-year-old man playing on a Fripp Island, South Carolina course on Thursday did not heed that advice, and lost his arm to the elbow when an alligator bit it off. Crikey.

It occurred on the 11th hole at Ocean Creek Golf Course (“May we play through while you’re looking for your friend’s arm?”), where hopefully there will now be a warning sign. But the most amazing part of this is that they found the gator, killed it, retrieved the guy’s arm, and are now trying to reattach it.

The man was bending over to retrieve a ball, I assume near some bushes or shrubs, when the alligator grabbed him. The gator, estimated to be about 12 feet long, dragged the man into a nearby pond.

The alligator went into a series of “death rolls,” a technique the reptile uses to tear apart its food. The man lost his arm in the struggle.

The man’s golf buddies were able to free him from the alligator’s grasp and called 911. They kept an eye on the alligator until workers from Tracks Wildlife Control in Beaufort arrived.

The victim, visiting family on the island, was taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital. Tracks workers killed the alligator and performed a necropsy at the scene to remove the man’s arm from the animal’s digestive track.

The arm was stored in a cooler in the hopes of re-attaching it. The victim was flown at about 5:30 p.m. to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. His condition was unknown late Thursday night.

(Ach, inappropriate)

Such attacks are rare, especially in South Carolina. But not unprecedented. Gators also seem to have a taste for old people.