The usually sedate greens and fairways of the Hawke's Bay Golf Club at Bridge Pa Golf were disrupted yesterday afternoon by a high-speed police pursuit. The saga began about 3pm when a man was stopped by police on Ngatarawa Rd.
As his details were being checked he took off, leading
police up Stock Rd, where he drove into a fence before going down Valentine Rd and toward the golf course.
He went through the golf club car park, past the utilities sheds, and over four fairways before hitting a ditch.
Golfers said the green station wagon he drove was "flying" through the course.
Having stopped he left the car still running, discarded what an eyewitness said was a shoulder-length platinum blond wig and continued on foot.
He jumped a fence and went into an orchard. Police following with dogs found him hiding in the orchard and made the collar.
The course was being used by Hastings company VJ Distributors, who had 80 people out playing in a tournament.
Tracy Long, of VJ Distributors, said: "I was going along in the cart and this guy came flying through, then he went down into the ditch and ran off. The man was wearing a blond wig, he ditched that and ran for it. My boss and I just looked at each other and said, 'is this for real?'. We're very lucky no one was in the way, he would not have been able to stop. He flew over every bump."
Police have arrested a 37-year-old Hastings man who will face dangerous driving charges in the Hastings District Court today.
