Stabbing an alligator in a golf course pond?

Gators can run up to 30-35 MPH for short distances. I can't do that, can you?

Hmm.. true. For some reason I was picturing him in a boat. lol I guess since he was fishing.

I have heard that gators can only run straight lines.. so if you run zigzags you can outrun it. Not sure I'd trust that though.

Self defense- my @$$. If a 5 ft gator wanted to attack him, the newspaper story would have read: "man gets killed my gator on the golf course." The fact that this gator was there at the course for so long was only because it wasn't posing a threat to the patrons or local protected wildlife. They have people come out to assess these things when a gator shows up down there. I'm glad the state has penalties to deal with such cases like this.

Some of you guys are really beating this down, If the alligator lunged at him as he claims he had
every right to do what he did,

Im thinking about I would do in this situation,
If a alligator lunged a me, without a second thought if I had a knife it would be used as protection to potentially save my life

My life over an alligator -- hard choice.... I know its not the best way of putting this, but if what he is claiming is legit then if it was in fact self defense then I think the jail sentence was un needed , and its because of hypocrites that say they would never hurt a fly until they are put in a life and death situation.
Ask yourself, if you were put in this situation and there was even a SLIGHT chance of fatality, would you do what ever you could to stay alive,
the answer is obvious

I absolutely agree with you. People can get real twisted when they start valuing animal life over human. Don't get me wrong, I wish that poor alligator didn't have to suffer, and I love animals more than most, but still.

On the other hand, if the guy wasn't really attacked, then I hope he is appropriately punished.

I say bull poop.
If you have time to get out a knife to stab him, he wasnt lunging. Those buggers are fast, I promise you if it lunged at him, he wouldnt be able to say the word knife before it nailed him.

As quick as it takes for a lunge, it takes half that time for a stab,

This is some CSI theory for ya :

He noticed that the alligator was biting at his bait. After noticing this he takes out his knife ( not
to harm anything, to merely cut the line ), with that the string is moving, the water is being
splashed around making little current movements , this attracts the alligator, Then a lunge
towards the fishermen seeing him as food.

Picture an alligator jumping up from the water, it would take a SPLIT second to take the knife
that he already had out and stab the alligator ( downward as you are already leaning over to cut
the line ) to avoid any harm that could of been inflicted on him.

I think he had more than enough time to react and he did
If it wasn’t in self defense -- do you really think he is going to hop on a alligator's back and stab
it in the head?

not likely