An acquaintance of mine was out golfing at an upscale course. Apparently he hooked a shot and broke a window of one of the $$$ houses lining a fairway. The owner had just replaced the window and said it would be $500 to replace again. Somehow my acquaintance paid for it with his credit card.
First off, $500 dollars sounds ridiculous for a window; but who knows, these houses go for 1mil +. I feel that it is just as much the homeowners fault than the guy that broke the window. I mean, come on, you build a house on a golf course fairway, you better expect to replace a few windows.
Has anyone had this happen to them? What was the outcome.
I’ve never had it happen (either to myself or to anyone I know), but several of the golf courses I play on have reminder signs on them stating that golfers on are responsible for damage caused by errant shots.
Even though the Golf Course has posted signs, you will find that they do have liability insurance for just the purpose of replacing windows on adjacent homes. Also the builder of the homes (or developer) should have insurance that would cover the damages. And finally, almost every homeowner’s insurance covers this type of damage (usually with a relatively small deductible ~$100-$250) So your friend was had. $500 was more than the homeowner would probably have to pay. But the Golf Course should be the ultimate one to pay.
IANAL or an Insurance Specialist so take that as just my opinion.
The same thing happened to me except it was a crappy slice. I wouldn’t have minded so much if it were a nice looping hook, but a slice, God how embarrassing.
In any case, to make a long story short, I nicely told the homeowner that if you build a house on a golf course you better expect some broken windows and to go pound salt.
Never heard another word. IANAL but it seems to me hitting a slice isn’t negligent, but if you don’t want broken windows then it is negligent to put your house on a golf course.
Wouldn’t windows made out of Lexan be put on windows facing golf courses? Or is the stuff too expensive, not optically pleasing, or not resistant to small objects hit with long sticks?
Findlaw.com had this section on liability around golf courses by an attorney in Florida who specializes in this sort of work.
Also, most homes near golf courses have a covenant that say a golfer may enter someone’s property to retrieve a lost ball unless they have to do something like open a locked gate or hop a fence.
Related topic: hitting cars on streets near golf courses.
There is a course in Houston (Gus Wortham) that has a major 5 lane street (Wayside) running parallel to two holes on their right side. This course is in the barrio. Several times on these holes I have sliced my drives rather badly. Every time I do it, my heart jumps out of my chest as I mumble “oh shit oh shit oh shit” and intently watch my ball fly into the 3rd or 4th lane over, praying that I do not hear the thud of my ball slaming into the windshield of some Shiny Pickup Truck with the name “Alvarez” scrawled on the back window in faux gothic letters.
It’s a public course, so I don’t know if the city of Houston could be held liable for damage (probably, since there is no 30’ webbing along the edge), but if I ever did hit a car I don’t think I would be finishing my round…