I never found the golf ball that broke my kitchen window. It must have bounced into the back yard, its anonymity assured among all the other balls already on the ground.
I live on a golf course. My backyard overlooks the 14th fairway. Please don’t think I’m living the high life in some swank golf community; my neighborhood predates the course by at least thirty years. I bought this house despite its golf view, not because of it.
I used to golf. I grew up within walking distance of a nice little nine-hole course and when I was in high school I liked to borrow dad’s old clubs and play a round down there. I was never any good, though, and after four summers of trying couldn’t hit better than a 65 on that par-29 course. I left many golf balls in the back yards that lined that course’s first fairway; could karma be at work? Eventually I gave up on the game and gave Dad his clubs back for good.
I think my poor skills would be evenly matched with many of the golfers on the course behind my house. So many of them hook their shots into my yard that each of my sons has collected a giant box full of golf balls. They dream of financing major video game purchases by selling the balls back to the golfers. I keep telling them I’ll want a cut to fund future window repairs! My sons have learned to check the front yard, too, because every week or two a ball clears my roof and lands out there. Once I found a ball in a neighbor’s front yard across the street! The aerial image below shows where the ball landed. If that shot had only flown straight, it would almost have made the green!
In the year I’ve lived here, somehow only the one window has broken. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before I have to buy some more glass and break out the glazing compound again. But it’s not like having a golf course as a neighbor is all bad. My neighbor says that the building of the course moved enough earth around to take our houses out of a flood plain. He says that before the course was built, rain collected in the field that was there and routinely created a pond that placed half our back yards under water. I’m glad I never had to deal with that! Still, I wish more golfers would sign up for the lessons the club offers!
