Thieves stole 10,000 golf balls from club

Thieves stole more than 10,000 golf balls from a golf club in Kent that had just reopened after years of closure in an overnight raid shortly before Christmas.

Specialist equipment, such as a wheelbarrow and a picker, used to collect the balls from around the course, was also stolen from Kingsnorth Golf Club.

The value of the raid, “which must have taken hours”, was about £7,000.

Mark Chilcott who has owned the club for nearly 10 years, spent thousands doing up the course and the driving range, which opened in the summer to the public for the first time in four years.

The 56-year-old pro-golfer said he has had to install more surveillance and intruder detection devices after hearing the devastating news.

“I invested about £206,000 last year to get new equipment for the club so it could be open to the public again,” he explained.

“I bought 20,000 brand new balls and now just over 10,000 have been stolen, that’s about £7,000 worth.”

It is understood the thieves broke through a fence to access the club and collect the equipment.

Chilcott added: “Whoever it was knew what they were doing.

“They must have come in a 4X4 because there are tyre tracks all the way around the side of the fields.

“They got boards and built a bridge over a little ditch, used two of my wheelbarrows, throwing one in the hedge and taking the new one.

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“They went into my compound and my infrared lights haven’t picked them up so they must have known their way around.

“To have picked up that many balls it must have taken them hours.”