‘Poison’ sprayed on golf club’s greens causes up to £250k of damage

The course operations manager of an Australian golf club has said a vandal has poured ‘poison’ on his course, causing potentially more than £250,000 of damage.

Speaking to The Advertiser, Steve Maddaford from Sandy Creek Golf Club said the criminal knew what they were doing.

“I went down [last Friday] and inspected them (the greens), and I thought ‘Wow, OK, looks like somebody’s sprayed some sort of poison,” he said.

Over the weekend, the damage became apparent at five different greens across up to 2,000 square metres.

“At the moment I’m monitoring those greens, to see if the poison spreads … we’re bracing for the worst case scenario, which is losing all five greens. And that’s got an approximate replacement cost of half a million dollars [about £265,000],” he added.

The police have been notified and have launched an investigation.

“It is suspected that herbicide has been sprayed onto several of the playing greens at the golf course some time in the past week,” a police spokeswoman said.

“It’s absolutely mindless. The spray pattern that’s been adopted, I believe is somebody that knows what they’re doing, either in a professional capacity or they’ve vandalised somewhere else,” Maddaford said.

It is understood the suspect accessed the course through an unlocked gate.

“If someone does return … and they want to really stick the boots in and do some more greens, I will hopefully be in that vicinity at that time,” he said.

Club president Graham Keylock said the situation was disheartening.

“Whoever has done it, has primarily attacked the club. This is a premeditated attack – they’ve come to the club to make a big impact,” he said.

The course is maintained by nine volunteers, with Maddaford, who works about 90 hours a week to maintain the grass at the 18-hole course.