Article Courtesy of Channel
7 Miami
By
Heather Walker, Daniel Cohen
Published March 26, 2024
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WATCH VIDEO |
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In the golfing world, the term “hazard” means obstacles, like a bunker or lake
that makes shots more difficult. But residents of one condo complex say their
hazard is simply living next to a golf course. 7’s Heather Walker investigates.
This is what Robert Heath woke up to in January.
Robert Heath, resident: “‘Bam,’ my back windshield is
completely shattered, and it’s shattered so badly that the
little tiny microscopic bits of glass [got] all into the
back seat, some into the front seat.”
And over time, his car has been dinged and dented.
This damage was not caused by road debris or vandalism, but
by golf balls.
Robert Heath: “These are just a few picked up in the last
few months. One of these, though, broke the windshield.”
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One of these also broke his neighbor’s windshield.
Nancy Taylor, resident: “I didn’t know what had happened. And two of the
residents were walking by, and they said, ‘Oh, you were just hit by a golf
ball.'”
Robert and Nancy live in Park Place in Pembroke Pines. The buildings in the
condo complex are surrounded by this city-owned golf course.
Nancy Taylor: “The grounds are beautiful, with the exception of the hazard golf
course.”
Bad swings can send golf balls flying into their community.
It’s a persistent problem, but not a new one. Just ask longtime resident
Florence Hirsch.
Florence Hirsch, resident: “I’m living here 31 years. When I moved in, within
the first month, the front window of my car, the back window of my car and three
windows in my apartment.”
But what concerns them most is not their property, but their safety.
Florence Hirsch: “If that golf ball hits one of the people, they’ll never get up
again. I do believe that. Those golf balls are coming at a hefty speed, and
these people are too old to take it.”
Nancy Taylor: “I see what it did to my windshield, so I can imagine what it
would do to my skull.”
Two residents say they have already had close calls.
Marcia Storm, resident: “It just missed me. I’m taking another step, and it
would have hit me right in the head. Really. That’s the one time I got scared.”
Charles Heighter, resident: “It’s scary. It’s scary.”
Charles Heighter was walking with his grandchildren.
Charles Heighter: “I told them, I said, ‘Look out for golf balls.’ And right
when I said that, here comes a golf ball. So, if we would have been a little
further, it would have got one of us.”
We took residents’ concerns to the city, but it turns out, when a condo is
surrounded by a golf course, finding a hole-in-one solution is very difficult.
Heather Walker: “What came first, the golf course or the condos?”
Christina Sorensen, Pembroke Pines Assistant City Manager: “Golf course.”
Assistant City Manager Christina Sorensen says the course was designed with
larger trees and hedges. Still, she says, they can’t stop every errant golf
ball.
Christina Sorensen: “Is the City of Pembroke Pines concerned about the safety of
its residents? Yes. But there is an inherent risk living next to a golf course.
It’s not something that we get calls about every single day. It happens every
once in a blue moon.”
But residents say golf balls routinely sail into their complex, and they feel
something more needs to be done.
Nancy Taylor: “I may see, at least four days a week, I’ll see a golf ball inside
the community.”
Robert says he would like to see more netting installed and maintained.
Robert Heath: “It would mitigate, especially if you put it in the worst areas.”
Christina Sorensen: “I’ll commit to contacting the [homeowners association] for
Park Place and just seeing if there’s anything that maybe they haven’t thought
of that they can help their residents with.”
A conversation that could at least be a swing in the right direction.
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