(Photo of Arcadia Bluffs 12th hole by Mandi Wright and Junfu Han, Detroit Free Press)
After being alerted to language on the website of Arcadia Bluffs GC that told golfers to first “launch a ball” into the lake “on purpose” when playing its 12th hole, the Detroit Free Press commissioned a diver and reported that hundreds of balls were found in the water. The club has since amended its website and thanked the newspaper for drawing its attention to the “outdated reference.”
After being alerted that the website of Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club in Arcadia, Mich. included language in its website description of how to play the 12th hole of its Bluffs Course that encouraged golfers to first hit shots into Lake Michigan, the Detroit Free Press commissioned a diver and prepared a report that hundred of balls were found in the water. After being contacted by the newspaper for its report, the club’s President reported that the description had been updated to eliminate the reference to hitting balls into the water.
The Arcadia Bluffs website originally began its description of how to play the 12th hole with this language, the Free Press reported:
“Go ahead and do it, everyone does. Once you’ve launched a ball into Lake Michigan, on purpose, turn your attention to the native bunker on the right side of the fairway…”
After being alerted to that description, the Free Press commissioned diver/photographer Chris Roxburgh to dive into Lake Michigan in the area beyond Arcadia Bluffs’ 12th tee. Within about an hour, the Free Press reported, Roxburgh found at least 200 golf balls, from about 5 feet deep in the water to more than 20 feet deep, 400 or more yards aways from the bluff.
Some of the balls were partially or fully buried on the lake bottom, the Free Press reported, while others had become trapped in driftwood or rocks and some rolled around freely with the waves and currents. The balls showed varying states of age, the Free Press reported, with “many looking pristine [as if they had just been] hit into the lake, and others covered in algae.”
The Free Press reported that on an earlier scouting trip on a calmer day before his dive, Roxburgh reported that from his boat, he saw a golf ball in Lake Michigan more than a half-mile from Arcadia Bluffs’ 12th hole.
After the Free Press contacted Arcadia Bluffs about the language on the website, club President William Shriver sent the newspaper an e-mail to report that “The description of the 12th hole has been updated, eliminating the reference to hitting balls into the water.
“Thank you for drawing our attention to this outdated reference,” Shriver’s e-mail continued. “We certainly do not want to encourage the practice of hitting golf balls into Lake Michigan.”
In his response, the Free Press reported, Shriver described the issue as “one that has plagued lake and oceanside golf courses around the world for decades.”
“In the past, a sign posted at the 12th tee discouraged guests from this practice; however we discovered this sign actually had the opposite effect, as players actually hit more balls into the lake,”Shriver’s reponse added.
“The vast majority of our guests do not hit golf balls into Lake Michigan,” Shriver said. “By not drawing attention to the issue, we believe that the incidents of hitting balls into the lake have decreased. We take our environmental responsibilities seriously.”
Shriver added that the course has previously had divers retrieve golf balls from Lake Michigan, the Free Press reported, and that club personnel “routinely canvas” the beach below the 12th hole and remove litter, including golf balls.
The state regulatory agency charged with preventing pollution into the Great Lakes did not sound particularly concerned, the Free Press reported, when contacted about the issue.
“This is not something we would really spend much time on, simply from the level of effort that would go into overseeing this,” said Teresa Seidel, the Water Resources Division director for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), told the Free Press.
“Not that we are condoning anybody putting anything into waterways,” Seidel said. “But from a resource perspective, we can’t follow up on something like this. Because of our limited resources, we have to prioritize issues of greater environmental concern.”
Seidel later told the Free Press, after viewing video of Roxburgh’s dives and findings, that EGLE’s Law Enforcement Division is “looking into the issue.”
The Free Press also contacted Nicholas Schroeck, an environmental law expert and Associate Professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, for its report. Shroeck said that hitting golf balls into the water essentially constituted “putting plastic waste into a Great Lake,”which he said would be illegal under a statute of Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act that would prohibit knowingly putting such a substance in the water.
The fine for the civil infraction is not more than $800 if the litter is less than 1 cubic foot in volume, and up to $2,500 for 3 cubic feet or more of litter, Schroeck said. The individual golfers who intentionally hit a ball into Lake Michigan would be in violation of the statute, but because the golf course was encouraging the activity and it was occurring from its property, Arcadia Bluffs could have been found legally culpable as well, in Schroeck’s opinion. A prosecutor might even be able to make a persuasive argument, he added, that “each golf ball could be [viewed] as a separate incident, at 800 bucks a ball.”
The Free Press’ report also included comments from Sara Padden, a beverage cart employee at Arcadia Bluffs for the 2018 summer season who said she was fired after taking it upon herself to remind golfers at the 12thtee of the potential environmental harm that could come from hitting balls into the lake.
Padden said she began to “very politely” give golfers information as they prepared to hit balls into Lake Michigan on the 12th tee, after noticing that “almost every group [was] driving balls into the water, [with] a lot of guys [bringing] old balls that they don’t play specifically for that purpose, just whacking them into Lake Michigan.’
“[I would say], ‘Just so you gentlemen are aware, when golf balls decay, they release high levels of zinc and heavy metals into the water,’ ” Padden told the Free Press.
Padden also said she tried to raise the issue with club managers and members, but was then fired “for harassing the players and slowing the pace of play.”
The Free Press said in its report that it sought confirmation of Padden’s account from Arcadia Bluffs management, but that Shriver responded in his e-mailed statement, “As you may understand, we do not publicly discuss employee matters.”
Padden has since found other employment, the Free Press reported, and said she has no interest in filing wrongful termination litigation against Arcadia Bluffs.
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