Police in Vanderhoof are on the lookout for the driver or drivers who went for a joyride late Friday night or early Saturday morning and caused serious damage to the playing surfaces at Omineca Golf and Country Club.
Omineca club manager Steve Little said five holes on the front nine - 4,5,6,7 and 8 - were vandalized. He estimates the damage at between $10,000 and $20,000 and the time it will take to repair will delay the opening of the front nine.
“They came through the trails in the back and popped out onto the fairways, either with quads or side-by-sides and started doing donuts all over the fairways and then hit the greens and the tees,” said Little. “I was out with the RCMP (Sunday) and today we’re starting to repair things. The worst part is, because everything as still wet and we’re just getting set to open, that nine will be at least a week or two that what we were anticipating. The other nine will open this weekend.”
Little said there was some damage last spring from a vehicle running over a couple of the greens but nothing as bad as this latest incident.
“The RCMP basically told me they’re not going to do anything unless I can find out who it is, because they’ve got nothing to go on,” said Little. “I would guess, probably 50 per cent of Vanderhoof owns a quad or a side-by-side. Whatever they had, this one had power, because they were throwing debris around with their tires.”
The Vanderhoof Golfing Association posted on its Facebook site that its members are offering a $500 reward for information that leads to an arrest of whoever is responsible for damaging the course. Tips can be directed to the Vanderhoof RCMP at 250-567-2222.
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