Widespread Vandalism Costing Golf Courses Millions of Dollars

A growing epidemic of golf course vandalism that damages golf courses and the golf cart fleets used to shuttle their customers from tee to green is costing $8 million and $10 million each year and leaving course owners, operators, club professionals and superintendents searching for answers according to a whitepaper published by Club Car.

A quick scan of past and present cases of golf course vandalism shows that these acts come in all shapes and sizes and don't discriminate between private, public and high-profile golf courses.

In Myrtle Beach, one of the most visited golf destinations in the world, the city's first golf course was gearing up for a grand re-opening when it was targeted. Historic Pine Lakes Country Club was hit by vandals who did moderate damage to greens and fairways. Club officials said the perpetrators stole flag sticks, threw sand rakes and tee markers into ponds and broke windows in a course restroom. Damage also resulted from vehicle tire marks that were ground into the fairway.

Prior to the 2008 U.S. Open, which was won by Tiger Woods, Torrey Pines south course in La Jolla heightened its security after its signature hole was damaged on two separate occasions. On both instances vulgarities were etched into areas around the third green.

First an obscenity was scraped into the green's surface. A month later a vulgarity was etched into sand trap and several sprinkler heads.

At Chambers Bay, site of the 2010 U.S. Men's Amateur championship and the 2015 U.S. Open, the course's signature image, the one and only tree found on the course that borders its west side and overlooks Puget Sound, was damaged by someone with an ax.

While the tree isn't in play for golfers, it appears in magazine, newspaper and television news pieces about Chambers Bay and is used in the facility's advertising and marketing materials.

"This isn't a simple act of vandalism," a county executive said at the time of the incident. "We're talking tens of thousands of dollars in addition to the intangible aspect of losing a living icon."

Last week, one of the Monterey Peninsula's golf courses in Pebble Beach had its signature hole dug full of holes, including three holes dug down to the underlying drainage system, according to the Monterey County Herald.

"In my 18 years I have never seen anything so significant in vandalism to a golf course," said Mike Bowhay, general manager for the Monterey Peninsula Country Club. "Every square foot of the green was perforated and dug by what looked like a group of individuals. It was more damage than one person could have done."

Bowhay estimated the damage would cost the course up to $8,000. He went on to say that the country club has about a half dozen cases of vandalism to its courses each year.

At Graysburg Hills Golf Course in Tennessee, a Rees Jones design a report filed by the deputy sheriff said golf course personnel said that someone had broken into the course's pro shop by smashing out a window. Once inside, the burglar or burglers stole golf eqiupment valued at between $8,000 and $10,000, two cash registers, food and beer.

Before the vandals left, a golf course valued at $4,000 was driven into a pond at the facility.

According to the whitepaper, which was developed based on interviews with owners, operators, superintendents and golf professionals, nearly every golf facility encounters some form of vandalism at one time or another. But it is vandalism to golf cars that causes the most serious and costly damage at a golf course.

Vehicle and equipment replacement costs, plus lost revenues, if the course has to shut down for repairs or prepare temporary greens, make these kinds of incidents an owner's worst nightmare," said Joel Willis, program director of Clubsurance, a division of The Commonwealth Insurance Group, which provides property and casualty coverage to golf courses.

The whitepaper (Golf Car Vandalism: No Joyride) was developed following research to identify owners' and operators' chief operational concerns. Among the survey findings were statistics that underlined the critical nature of the vandalism problem:

- 72 percent of courses reported vandalism of golfers playing extra holes without paying a green fee

- 27 percent said they had retrieved a vandalized golf car from a lake or creek

- 48 percent reported unauthorized use of golf carts

- 42 percent reported golf cars being driven in restricted areas

- 21 percent reported theft of golf cars

Mike Read, director of marketing for Club Car's golf category, called the statistics "shocking" and noted that "these are all issues that directly affect operating expenses.