Skip to content

Vandals tee off on Granite Pointe

Golf can be a frustrating leisure activity, but a group of vandals took their angst towards the sport too far between last night and this morning.
99833westernstar06_29granitedamage
Granite Pointe head pro Jamie Stevens examines the damage left on the Number 9 putting green by vandals.

Golf can be a frustrating leisure activity, but a group of vandals took their angst towards the sport too far between last night and this morning.

Staff arrived to Granite Pointe golf course in Rosemont Wednesday to shattered class, strewn golf balls and nasty divots out of prime putting surfaces.

“It’s pretty serious damage… a pretty tough way to start the morning that’s for sure,” Granite Pointe head pro Jamie Stevens told the Star.

“We’re under the assumption it was golfers. The divots on the green were really quite consistent in the direction straight towards the clubhouse, so somebody knew what they were doing.”

The vandals started by breaking the lock on the storage bin that holds range balls and tipping the large wooden box over. They then proceeded to take the balls onto the Number 9 putting green —meant only for putting — where they hit almost 100 balls in all different directions. Balls were found strewn up the fairways, in the parking lot, in planter baskets and on the clubhouse patio. A window in the clubhouse was broken and three significant holes were punched in the stucco from flying balls.

“How much of it was planned is unknown, but it seems like this was thought out to some degree,” said Stevens.

“With the amount of golf balls and the amount of divots in the green, they must have been here for an hour.”

Though the cost of the damage is not huge, the mindless rampage has once again brought to light just how exposed the 18-hole property is to stupidity.

Stevens said the course is hit by at least a couple of vandalism sprees a season, some worse than others. Four years ago a group of youths took more than a dozen golf carts on joyrides throughout the course, dumping some in the ponds and rolling them on the fairways.

“You have to put it into the honour system,” Stevens said when asked how the course can prevent future damage. “It’s too much territory to keep watch over all through the night. So you hope everybody makes the right decision, but every once in a while you get a few bad choices being made and the golf course takes the abuse.”

Granite Pointe does take measures to prevent damage. After the cart incident they built more secure sheds to store the vehicles at night.

Police will include the Rosemont area in more frequent patrols at night, but Stevens said community policing is also required.

“We basically need cooperation from the neighbourhood,” said Stevens. “If you are living on this street and there is traffic coming to the golf course after dark… it would be great if neighbours could have a look to see what’s happening.”

Four years ago police eventually caught the cart joy riders. Though this situation is less severe, Stevens said police might have a chance at tracking down the culprits. They spray painted a stencil tag on the golf ball bin which will now be run through a database in hopes of finding some leads.

If you have information about the vandalism call the Nelson Police Department at 354-3919.