A vehicle made their way onto our golf course by driving right through the fence that runs down the left side of hole #7. The fence is not the best barrier we could have up to keep people out but you would think it would at least make someone think twice about plowing their car through it. In this case, they didn't think once about it and drove went straight through the fence. Once onto the golf course, their joy ride began. Lucky for us, it had just snowed the day before leaving us with a nice inch of snow. The reason I say "lucky" is that the snow created a slick surface and the ground was pretty well frozen from the sub zero temperatures we had been having. The vehicle made its way up hole 7 and right over top of 7 tee box. It missed the green on #6 and drove right down the middle of the fairway. As they neared the #6 tee, they took a hard left and headed straight for #5 green. As they drove up onto the green, they realized that they could not go any further than that due to the tree line. They then whipped a few donuts on the green and either stole the flag and stick or took it and threw it somewhere that we have yet to find. The damage to #5 green was significant and will have to be repaired in the Spring. We have done what we can for now to repair it and keep it playable for the Winter. Next, they drove up #5 fairway and into some more donuts in front of #5 tee box before driving up over the tee and then right over #4 green. Once off the green they headed toward #4 tee box driving directly over the tee. They then found our cut through area beside hole #3 and drove over to #17. They drove right over the green and as they barely got off the green and into the fairway approach area the slammed on their breaks and made a sharp left turn that destroyed some of the zoysia grass and made some large ruts. This was by far the worst damaged area, but thankfully it wasn't on the green. They continued up #17 fairway and up over the tee box toward #16 green barely crossing part of the front of the green. They then went down on #13 fairway where they made another sharp turn that pulled up more zoysia but nothing too significant. They had some fun and did a few more donuts in the rough on hole #16 and then headed across the tee box and up toward hole #15. As they got near #15 green they took a hard left and headed toward #14 fairway. Drove down #14 fairway and when they got to the low area about 130 yards from the green, they started doing more donuts. They tore up a large chunk of zoysia there before heading back up #14 fairway. Once they got near the tee box on 14, I believe they saw their way out and left the golf course going right by our shop and exiting on to Red Bridge Road.
In my opinion, it could have been much worse. Like I said before, the ground being frozen and a blanket of snow covering everything made the vehicle do more sliding than normal which saved us. If it were dry like the conditions were before we got the snow, I think we would have had much more damage. We have repaired what we can and these damaged places will not affect the golfers experience over the Winter. We will re-sod where needed in the Spring and the fence needs repairs, but for now it is patched and closed off. Not exactly the ending to 2017 that we were looking for but just goes to show that the Grinch is still alive and well! Here's to a better 2018!
