Golf Balls damaging houses on Hole #9 in St. Paul

There has been an ongoing issue with golf balls being sliced off the hole #9 tee box and damaging property in the adjacent cul-de-sac in St. Paul.

This Spring five trees were planted which in time will likely mitigate the issue to a certain extent, but a lot of the balls go right over the existing trees.

Kim Heyman is the Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of St. Paul.

“The problem did lessen when the leaves first bloomed, but now the golf balls driven with sufficient force have cracked siding, put a hole in the shed roof and broken a window,” Heyman said. “At the residents request, the blue and white tee off boxes were amalgamated with the red tee box which certainly seemed to take care of the problem, but the golfers were less than happy.”

Heyman says once the tee boxes were put back in the original configuration the complaints started again.

“At last Wednesday’s Rec Board Meeting it was suggested that the white tee box be moved up to the red tee box and then the blue tee box be moved to where the white tee box was,” Heyman said. “The Rec Committee felt this wouldn’t be quite so drastic a change from the golfer perspective. If this doesn’t work other decisions will need to be made.”

The Director of Parks and Rec is concerned, as is the Rec Committee, that residents around other tee boxes will expect tee boxes to be moved, Heyman says.

“One of the concerns is that when you start moving tee boxes up, the courses par value drops and becomes less attractive to golfers,” Heyman said. “The home owners that are complaining all bought with the knowledge they were buying next to a golf course. However when as in the case of the homeowners around hole #9 when significant damage is being done to the property it is difficult not to be empathic.”

Arthur@lakelandconnect.thedev.ca