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1. Jason Baker

   

   12 posts
   
   6/22/2011 1:06 PM

   Been looking for an answer to this on the inter-net but with no accurate, definite answer.
   
   I have always been told and have always told others that if a golf-ball hits a house and causes damage that the golfer who hit the shot was the one responsible. This makes sense to me.
   
   I have found countless forums on the web discussing this and they each say different, some say the home owner takes the risk by buying a home on a course, some say the golfer, very few even claim the course is liable(although I am pretty sure that that has been proven untrue. )
   
   What has your experience been and can someone give me a link to a trustworthy source?

   
   
   
   
2. Richard Lavine

   

   3 posts
   
   6/22/2011 2:06 PM

   Jason,
   There is no definite answer to this. Each circumstance is unique. Then throw in different state laws, lawyers abilities, courts, juries, and insurance companies. All you can do as a superintendent to protect your club is to make certain your tees and blocks are situated correctly, away from homes. Beyond that, just have good insurance and legal advice.

   
   
   
   
3. Homme David R

   
   6/24/2011 12:06 AM

   Wise man say..... don't build house beside river, or on slope. Or on golf course.
   
   Dave Homme
   The Falls Resort

   
   
   
   
4. Satterwhite Kerry

   
   6/24/2011 9:06 AM

   Jason
   
   Unfortunately I have a lot of experience with this. Two of the golf courses that I managed in my previous position had houses adjacent to them, but the circumstances were polar opposites. At one of the courses the houses were built before the course was built. The other course was a real estate development and the course was built before the houses.
   
   The houses on the real estate course were pounded by golf balls and we had broken windows almost daily. There were houses that 100's of dimples in the siding because they were hit so frequently. We never had an issue there because there is an assumed risk in that environment.
   
   We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars after the other course was built to protect the houses and the adjacent road. We erected a series of nets and poles, redesigned the hole, twice, paid for the damages to the houses, and passing cars that were hit, and eventually destroyed the layout and design of the course and turned it into a par 3.
   
   Sometimes it just depends on who has the best lawyer.

   
   
   
   
5. McCallum David K

   
   6/27/2011 9:06 AM

   I agree that it can vary from course to course, from state to state. WE have had a few windows broken out in 12 years on our course. The guilty party has always paid up with little arguement. We have had one car windshield broken out passing on an adjoing road which was a tad touchier.......but the guy hitting the ball paid on that one also.

   
   
   
   
6. Michael Rosen

   

   0 posts
   
   7/1/2011 5:07 PM

   I would not pay if I broke a window on a course.

   
   
   
   
7. Neves Tracy B

   
   8/30/2011 3:08 PM

   rosenmic said: I would not pay if I broke a window on a course.

   
   
   If I had to pay it would be my last game of golf. We see this many times throughout the year. To date our club has never paid for damage. I have heard of players paying but only by choice. Some residents have extra windows ready to go knowing they will be hit in time. I believe you assume the risk if your willing to build on the course or buy a house on the course. Majority of the people I talk to had no idea they would be having this type of problem. I love golf courses but would never buy or build a house on the course.

   
   
   
   
8. James Smith

   

   113 posts
   
   9/1/2011 10:09 AM

   I have always been told if the homeowner can catch the person hitting their house he is responsible. I was also told that the golfers homeowners insurance would cover the cost (not sure about this). But recently I had an irate homeowner that lived across the road from the house on the course and a ball hit his car windshield. He caught the person who hit the ball right away but for some reason the home owner came to the course to make a complaint and talk to the golfer again. All this guy could say to me was if he would of hit my kid he would of been killed. All I could reply back to him was that is a possibility. Apparantly he did not like my reply because he kept on complaining until I told him to use a golf cart and go talk to the person who hit the ball.
   
   We had another homeowner who came to my office to complain about all of the golf balls hitting the side of his house. His house is on a par three and in a very bad position and gets hit alot as all of the holes in his sideing proves. I simply told him that his house was built 20 years after the course was bilt and maybe he should of researched the effects of living on a golf course before buying the house. I also asked him if he had seen all of the holes that was in his siding when he bought the house and wondered how they got there. I told him his only option beside moving was to plant trees on that side of his house to help block the balls.
   
   While on the subject or close to it here is a doozy for you. A golfer is playing on our hole #6 and hits his ball out of bounds in a persons back yard. So he hops the fence to retreive his ball and hops back over then finds out it was not his ball he found, so he hops the fence again and finds his ball and attempts to hop the fence for the fourth time and has the wooden picket go into the thigh of his leg leaving a good gash and a large splinter. HE pulls the splinter out and shruggs the injury off to his fellow golfers like it never happened. hits his shot to the green and then determines he needs to go home and gets in his cart and starts driving off and passes out and runs into a deep ditch. We had to call an ambulance for him but when he came to he still insisted in driving back to the clubhouse where the paramedics checked him out and fixed him up temporarily.
   
   The kicker to this injury was that there was a gate two feet from where he was hopping over the fence and everyone kept asking him why he did not just use the gate. I guess he thought that would be trespassing.