Sliced a ball into an expensive window. Did I do the right thing?

[Aguirre]

Anybody else dislike courses surrounded by homes?  I know I do.  I mean, it's not a deal breaker in terms of how much I enjoy the course, but it does depreciate my rating.  I love it when I feel I'm all alone (save for other golfers), enjoying the outdoors.

And I can piss anywhere.

[Ernest Jones]

Anybody else dislike courses surrounded by homes?  I know I do.  I mean, it's not a deal breaker in terms of how much I enjoy the course, but it does depreciate my rating.  I love it when I feel I'm all alone (save for other golfers), enjoying the outdoors.

And I can piss anywhere.

Lol, yeah I think it was @BuckeyeNut that told the story of going to piss in a bush, not realizing that the bush bordered someones backyard and having some little old lady peer over the fence at him.

[Golfingdad]

I disagree.  Slicing a ball into someone's property pretty clearly rises to the level of negligent.  A person exercising reasonable care would know: (1) they don't have the skill to ensure they're not going to lose a ball right; (2) there is property located in the area where they might lose a ball; and (3) an errant shot might damage that property. With that in mind, the reasonable choice would have been to either hit a club that wouldn't reach the window, or not take the shot.  Choosing to do otherwise is negligent.   Whether there was assumption of the risk on the part of the property owner is a different argument, as is the level of contributory negligence.

That's not even close to correct. Even the best golfers in the world hit wild shots occasionally. Webb Simpson hit a couple of cold shanks with mid irons a couple of seasons ago. So, when he plays a hole with houses on both sides, does he have to putt it all the way down the fairway??? As long as they're acting in a reasonable manner, I.e. Not aiming 90* sideways to try and hit the house, then they're not negligent. Not saying they aren't responsible, just not negligent. I have sort of a personal double standard on this. I think if I broke a window, I'd want to offer to pay for it, but I'd feel like an ass asking somebody else to pay for my broken window on the golf course.

[brookter]

To be honest, I don't think there's any doubt about the right thing to do -- go and see the householder. You've broken the window, it's the least you can do.

The issue of who should pay is slightly different. Personally, I'd just claim on my golf insurance, which includes £2m accidental cover precisely to meet these sorts of circumstances (as well as paying to replace any Garmin G3 GPS watches eaten by labrador puppies -- yes, I'm looking at you, Toby...).

After all, the UK is acknowledged to be a less litigious country than the US, but even here, golfers have been found liable for bad shots, even when they've shouted fore. In one case, Mr Gordon hit a bad shot which caused another golfer to lose an eye -- it cost him (his insurance company) £400,000. The judgement was:

" Lord Brailsford found that primary liability for the incident rested with Mr Gordon, saying he had been over-confident in his ability to hit a good shot that day.

He stated: 'When Mr Gordon arrived at the 18th tee on the day in question, he made the error of over-estimating the likelihood of his tee shot following its desired or intended path to its intended target and, simultaneously, under-estimating the degree of risk to which his shot would place the pursuer and his three companions then proceeding on the path between the 6th green and the 7th tee.

'These risks should have been within the contemplation of Mr Gordon because he should have appreciated that every golfer, no matter his or competence, will make bad shots'.

'On the basis of his own evidence, I consider that these errors were caused by an inflated degree of confidence occasioned by what Mr Gordon considered, wrongly in my view, to be the very good round of golf he was having'.

He added: 'As a result of this overconfidence Mr Gordon made his tee shot at a time when the exercise of reasonable care should have informed him that there was a foreseeable risk that his shot might be bad and, further, might encroach on the area being traversed by the pursuer.

'I consider that these risks should have been within the contemplation of Mr Gordon because he should have appreciated that every golfer, no matter his or her degree of competence, will make bad shots'.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057715/Golfer-lost-eye-hit-ball-wins-400-000-damages.html#ixzz39gzDI81N

The liability was split 70:30 between the club and Mr Gordon.

I think if you play golf, then you're running a big risk if you don't have specialist insurance.  Mine costs about £100 a year and I don't think that's too unreasonable, given how much I spend on golf every month anyway.

[jlh1508]

I doubt that's literally true. If you're mowing your lawn, and I wander over barefoot and put my foot in front of your mower, are you going to pay my hospital costs? How about the lost wages I didn't earn while recovering?

Your so-called moral standard absolves others of their responsibility. Claiming that the golfer should pay for the damage is a huge swipe against personal responsibility: it places the entire blame for the situation on the one who didn't choose to be in the situation and did less (relative to the situation) to avoid it.

I'd hope you wouldn't pay hospital bills in the case I describe above; any reasonable person would say that I should have seen the lawnmower and known the risk. No one would fault you for trying to avoid running me over -- and that happens in golf, too. In fact,the rules are even written so as to encourage us to avoid hitting houses near the course (that's part of why O.B. is stroke and distance instead of one or the other: to provide a large enough penalty to encourage everyone to play away from that trouble).

It is funny how different people can view things

I would say the golfer not paying for the damage is a huge swipe against personal responsibility. The Golfer hit the shot, he knows the bounds of the golf course and it is his responsibility to keep his ball on the course. If he is not capable of doing that he does not need to play a course that is so tight with houses bordering it.

[jlh1508]

So you completely absolve the person who chose to put himself in the situation a very large number of times (hundreds per day, likely), without taking any precautions, and you place the entire blame on the person who was in the situation a smaller number of times (not daily, and maybe a little over a dozen on the few days he was in such situations), and who may have taken reasonable precautions to avoid the situation. Got it.

Imagine for a second

You have someone who walks the same road 3 times a day for excercise. They have lived there for 50 years and it is their daily routine to walk this road morning, noon, and evening.

Then you have a visitor from out of town driving down the road, it is their first time driving the road and they come to a blind curve a little to fast and veer on to the shoulder hitting the walker.. Who is responsible?

Is it the walker who has walked that blind curve hundreds of time and didn't take precautions? Or is it the driver who has only been in that situation one time?

I would hope we would all agree it is the driver who is responsible to keep his car on the boundaries of the road.  In the same way a golfer has the responsibility to keep his ball on the boundaries of the course

[David in FL]

It is funny how different people can view things

I would say the golfer not paying for the damage is a huge swipe against personal responsibility. The Golfer hit the shot, he knows the bounds of the golf course and it is his responsibility to keep his ball on the course. If he is not capable of doing that he does not need to play a course that is so tight with houses bordering it.

Take it a step further....

What happens when this aforementioned golfer inadvertently backs into another car in the parking lot?

When his kid hits a baseball through the neighbor's window, what life lesson does he choose to teach?  After all, the neighbor bought that house knowing that the neighborhood had kids in it, heck, he may have even done it purposely, and knowing that, should have at least put in Plexiglas windows.....

I know, I'm just an old guy who grew up in a different time, but my old man would've dragged my butt over to apologize, and then I'd have been mowing lawns for the rest of the summer to pay for the window.

[jlh1508]

Take it a step further....

What happens when this aforementioned golfer inadvertently backs into another car in the parking lot?

When his kid hits a baseball through the neighbor's window, what life lesson does he choose to teach?  After all, the neighbor bought that house knowing that the neighborhood had kids in it, heck, he may have even done it purposely, and knowing that, should have at least put in Plexiglas windows.....

I know, I'm just an old guy who grew up in a different time, but my old man would've dragged my butt over to apologize, and then I'd have been mowing lawns for the rest of the summer to pay for the window.

I am a young guy and agree with you completely

I remember playing at a course when I first started golfing that had houses all along the course. Now I was a beginner with a wicked slice, so on several holes I simply didn't play a tee shot and dropped out in the fairway where I felt comfortable. After the round I told the people who invited me thanks for the invitation but I won't play at a course this tight until I can drive the ball much better.

I took personal responsibility and made decisions that would take the danger of hitting houses out of play.

[Jeremie Boop]

I disagree.  Slicing a ball into someone's property pretty clearly rises to the level of negligent.  A person exercising reasonable care would know: (1) they don't have the skill to ensure they're not going to lose a ball right; (2) there is property located in the area where they might lose a ball; and (3) an errant shot might damage that property. With that in mind, the reasonable choice would have been to either hit a club that wouldn't reach the window, or not take the shot.  Choosing to do otherwise is negligent.

Whether there was assumption of the risk on the part of the property owner is a different argument, as is the level of contributory negligence.

You must be an amazing golfer, because even pro golfers will lose a ball left or right from time to time. Nobody knows with 100% certainty that they won't hit a slice or hook ever. I'm not saying that what the OP did is right or wrong, but to say that hitting an errant shot is a negligent action is pretty unfair.

[David in FL]

I am a young guy and agree with you completely

I remember playing at a course when I first started golfing that had houses all along the course. Now I was a beginner with a wicked slice, so on several holes I simply didn't play a tee shot and dropped out in the fairway where I felt comfortable. After the round I told the people who invited me thanks for the invitation but I won't play at a course this tight until I can drive the ball much better.

I took personal responsibility and made decisions that would take the danger of hitting houses out of play.

That same sense of personal responsibility will serve you extremely well in your professional career too.  We all make mistakes......heck, I make more than most.  But you can learn from mistakes, and the first step in doing so is in admitting to yourself and others where you went wrong in the first place.

[Slice of Life]

Wow.

Just read through this, and I'm shocked at the number of people who think it's the homeowner's responsibility that you hit their window and damaged their property.

It isn't their fault you slice the ball 150 yards. If you can't hit it straight or afford to pay for a window, stick to a tree-lined muni course.

[Spyder]

I can't believe how long this thread is with so many arguments again doing the moral and right thing. If you damage someone's property, you man up and do your best to reach out to that person if they're not home. Leave your cell number with a note and talk to them about it.

This is NO different than a damn hit and run with a car. "Well, they drove a Ferrari and I couldn't afford to pay for their $8,000 bumper. They bought the damn $250,000 car, they can afford the bumper. Not my problem". It's really refreshing to see that so many people are not the type that would run away like a little snake.

[scorpion12]

So it was mentioned by the OP that the pros have to deal with this at times...

Look at the example just recently of Sergio knocking his ball into the gallery, it hitting the diamond ring of a spectator, knocking the diamond loose, and Sergio requesting the officials retrieve the information of the rings owner so he could make reparations if the diamond wasn't found. Good example to me of the right thing to do.

Here's a bad example of what not to do... There's a joke I heard about a person hitting a parked car in a parking lot with their car. Witnesses watched as the driver got out of their car and began writing a note and leaving it on their windshield. The witnesses applauded the driver "for doing the right thing" and watched as the driver got back in their car and drove away after placing the note on the damaged cars windshield. A little while later, the owner of the damaged vehicle comes out, notices the damage, and then reads the note.

The note read as such: I hit your car. I'm sorry. It was my fault and I was inattentive. There are a few witnesses watching as I write this note thinking I'm leaving my insurance and contact information. I'm not. They don't know that.

The driver left a note. It just didn't say what the witnesses thought it said.

There's a course or used to be in North Charleston Sc... Eagle Landing I think it was called... right across the street from Northwoods Mall... I wouldn't even dream of playing that course when I lived in Summerville (12 miles from there)... not because the fairways were very narrow and tight, not because the homes were roughly $100,000 each... I refused to play it because I didn't want to run the risk of hitting a house and damaging a window or property.

But that's just me.

Op, I'd recommend you notify the homeowne that you broke the window. Offer to pay what you can. Or not. Only you can live with yourself.

Personally, if I live in a house by a golf course, then I'm going to want to have windows that will take the impact of an errant golf ball. They make them. It's part of the mitigation of damage that might happen from living by a golf course.

[jlh1508]

Lets try this I build a house next to a dog park

One day a man is playing fetch with his dog at the dog park. His throw of the ball goes a little wild, flys into my property, hits the window of my house and breaks it.

Who is responsible?

[divot dave]

Do what's right, otherwise the golf gods may wreak havoc on your game.

the golf gods have a moral conscience?

[Spyder]

Lets try this I build a house next to a dog park

One day a man is playing fetch with his dog at the dog park. His throw of the ball goes a little wild, flys into my property, hits the window of my house and breaks it.

Who is responsible?

You are for building your house on a dog park, duh. Hell, you're responsible if a pitbull jumps the fence and bites you too. I guess you shouldn't have built your house there. It's called "assumed risk".

[BrownCoast]

Today I played well, relative to my handicap of 21, I shot 92 (with five three putts).  I'd love to be happy, but I sliced badly on hole number five  (on which course specifically is irrelevant) and I heard a smashing unlike anything I've ever heard before. It was a large expensive window on at least a five million dollar home.

The people who live in such houses, so they say, cannot obtain insurance against golf ball damages because such a thing it too expensive.

I did not know what to do.  Leave a message saying sorry about the window, but that will teach ya to build on a golf course idiot?  So I just ran away like a ten year old playing knock a door ginger.

What should I do?  Confess to a wealthy man that I'm poor and can't afford to pay for the damages?

Inform him he can't sue poor people?  Please help, my conscience is killing me.

Did you yell FOOOOOORRREEEEEEEE? if so I'd say you're safe...if not i think you have to face the home owner. my guess is they will be pissed at you but not make you pay for it

[David in FL]

the golf gods have a moral conscience?

Karma is a real bitch, and she has a loooooong memory!