Some recent “news of the weird” that involved incidents at country clubs and golf courses included reports of golf-shoe scams at two Pittsburgh, Pa.-area clubs and horse-riding vandals who have repeatedly damaged a course in Utah.
Two country clubs in the Pittsburgh, Pa. area have reported a similar attempted scam involving golf shoes, according to The Almanac, a Pittsburgh publication.
At both Rolling Hills Country Club in McMurray, Pa. and Lone Pine Country Club in Washington, Pa., The Almanac reported, a man described as in his mid-50s, of medium height and unshaven, walked into the pro shop with a pair of men’s golf shoes. He then asked the person behind the counter to hold them for him, and said his wife would be in later to complete the transaction.
“He left us the shoes with a note to hold for the Morgan family,” Nick Domachowski, Assistant Golf Professional at Lone Pine. “He said his wife would be in later that day to complete the transaction. No one showed up.” The man claimed the shoes belonged to a family member who died, The Almanac reported.
The following day, The Almanac reported, the man called the Lone Pine pro shop and tried to get the price of the shoes credited to a Visa card, Domachowski said. Employees at the shop became suspicious and did not complete the transaction.
The scenario was similar at Rolling Hills, according to Peters Township police. A man with a similar description, walked into the Rolling Hills pro shop with a pair of golf shoes he claimed to have won and wanted to return them, said Captain Michael Yanchak of the Peters police.
“He asked to leave the shoes behind the counter and said his wife would be in later,” Yanchak told The Almanac.
Shop employees became suspicious and discovered the pair of shoes had been taken from a display in the corner of the shop, Yanchak said. They then began calling pro shops at area country clubs to see if a similar incident had taken place, The Almanac reported.
The Rolling Hills incident remains under investigation, Yanchak said.
At Glendale Golf Course in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Deseret News reported that Golf Course Superintendent Bryan Witzel has had to deal repeatedly with significant damage to greens caused by galloping horses. The latest incident, the Deseret News reported, involved three horses with four riders who came off the nearby Jordan River Parkway, picked up the pace of their horses to a gallop, and stomped directly over the 16th hole, leaving numerous horseshoe prints embedded in the soft grass.
“It wasn’t an accident. They were coming on and tearing it up for fun, I guess,” Witzel told the Deseret News. “The green is the most important place on the golf course. Why ruin something everybody enjoys?”
Witzel said it was the fourth time in the past two years that a group of riders have trotted across his course, damaging the 16th green. “The greens just healed from the last time we had a problem,” he said after the latest incident.
It takes up to two months for the greens to completely heal from such damage, Witzel told the Deseret News.
“Those horse hooves do a lot of damage on the course,” added Salt Lake police detective Greg Wilking. “They’re estimating about $3,000 worth of damage. There’s a lot of time and effort that goes into repairing the greens to make sure they’re in good condition and playable.”
Wilking called the vandalism “senseless damage.”
The vandalism was another blow to the morale of workers at Glendale GC, the Deseret News reported. dMorale is already low at the course, it was noted, since Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker’s announcement earlier this month that Glendale will likely be closed once the city figures out how to repurpose the land.
“This course is already under the gun, and things like this don’t help,” Wilking said.
Because not many horses are used along the parkway in that area, police are hoping anyone who saw the riders before or after the vandalism will contact them.
Those responsible could face charges of criminal mischief, the Deseret News reported.
To view photos of the damage caused by the horses’ hooves, go to http://www.deseretnews.com/article/print/865633466/Salt-Lake-police-looking-for-horses-riders-who-trampled-golf-course.html
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