Course owner avoids expensive course redesign

A golf course owner almost spent thousands of pounds redesigning his course to make it safer, only to discover that birds had actually been dropping the ‘wayward balls’!

Neil Sjoberg from Epping Golf Course said that birds’ confusion between golf balls and eggs may have resulted in some venues spending significant sums on unnecessary work.

One venue spent £120,000 on a course redesign because balls were found on a nearby block of flats’ roof. Only once the work had been completed did they discover that the balls had been deposited by birds and not hit by golfers.

“They spent £120,000 on altering the course rather than ask an obvious question,” he told Golf Club Management News. “How were golfers able to hit hundreds of golf balls onto the roof without one ever striking a window?”

Two of Epping’s holes play around a private school, but a stray ball had apparently flown 120 yards and 30 degrees off course to land in the school playground.

“At first glance one would say ‘just not possible’. We put up extra signs and a very tall net, re-angled the suspect tee and closed another tee during school hours.

“Nevertheless, an onsite inspection between us and the school added to their alarm as they found 40 golf balls where, we had said, ‘they cannot possibly go’.”

Sjoberg investigated where the balls had landed and discovered they were all bunched in clusters, usually at the mouth of fox or badger holes.

“Golf balls started appearing in the playground and with even greater frequency when the golf course was under snow,” he said. “Even with no golfers, balls were appearing in the playground!”

It then became clear that birds had thought the balls were eggs and were dropping them on hard surfaces in a search for food.

“It was in the early 1980s at another course in Essex that there was an apartment block 70 yards from the second green. When the residents’ committee trailed up on the flat roof to discuss resurfacing they found 400 golf balls!

“This started a chain of events and over the next three years £120,000 was spent reducing the magnificent opening par five to a harmless par four and realigning the second par three hole again to a far less impressive par four. This involved building a new first green and second tee,” said Sjoberg.

“I was chatting to a decorator recently. He said: ‘I was patching up the roof of last week and found 427 golf balls!’

“So if you are ever desperately trying to gather evidence of stray golf ball patterns and how to avoid paying for expensive course alterations after discovering a stray ball, do some research first!”

Related:

Click here or on the image below to watch an epic golf ball fail by a bird