IAN POULTER SURVIVED a close encounter with an alligator at the RBC Heritage last night to move within three shots of leader Jason Dufner.
The Englishman’s stray tee-shot on the 10th found the water and when he went to drop beside the hazard, Poulter had some company lurking beneath.
After dropping his ball, attempts to get rid of the alligator from the water’s edge were unsuccessful before Webb Simpson’s caddie intervened and chased it away.
“I took a couple of dummy swings and he decided to come in and take a closer look,” he told Sky Sports.
“I wasn’t very comfortable with that. It’s a little unnerving. I didn’t want to put my club in the water because I didn’t want him to take it. One of the other caddies came in and was a bit more aggressive, and he went.”
Poulter went on to double bogey the hole and despite dropping another shot at the next, the 41-year-old — who is playing on a major medical exemption after foot surgery last year — carded a third-round 69.
Poulter has this week and one more start to collect the prize money he needs to secure his playing status for the rest of the season.
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Since returning from injury in October, Poulter has made eight starts on the PGA tour, making five cuts.
Dufner had two eagles in a six-under par 65 to take a one-shot lead going into the final round in South Carolina.
Dufner eagled both par-fives on the front nine, rolling in an 11-footer at the second and pitching in from off the green at the fifth hole at Harbour Town.
His 13-under par total of 200 put him one in front of Canada’s Graham DeLaet, who lost a share of the lead with a bogey at 18 to cap a 69 for 201.
Dufner also had three bogeys on the front nine, but in addition to his eagles he had five birdies on the day, four of them on a solid back nine.
Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry head into the final round on four and three under respectively.
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