BEAUFORT, S.C. - Officials say an alligator bit off part of a golfer's arm as he leaned over to pick up his ball at a private South Carolina course.

The man, 77, was retrieving his ball from a pond when the 10-foot alligator bit him at Ocean Creek Golf Course. According to the Beaufort Gazette, the gator pulled the golfer into the pond and 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 friends were able to free him from the alligator's grasp and called 911. The victim, visiting family on the island, was taken to the Medical University of South Carolina. Wildlife workers killed the alligator and and performed a necropsy at the scene to remove the man's arm from the animal's digestive tract.

The arm was stored in a cooler in the hopes of re-attaching it, the Gazette reported. 

The man has not been identified, and hospital officials would not release any information about him.

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