Damage to the green on the 17th hole is the worst the club has ever experienced. Photo/Pio Pio Aria Golf Club
Damage to the green on the 17th hole is the worst the club has ever experienced. Photo/Pio Pio Aria Golf Club
Sections of Piopio Aria Golf Club that have been torn up by suspected drunken "idiots" will unlikely be repaired until after winter.
Members are angry and hearbroken after a car ripped up parts of the 17th and 18th holes sometime on Saturday night.
Club president Hayden Cody said the groundswere damaged twice over the weekends, in what will involve costly repairs for a club mostly run by volunteers.
Pio Pio Aria Golf Club members have been left angry after the actions of a bunch of 'idiots' on Saturday night. Photo/Pio Pio Aria Golf Club
Sometime late Saturday or early Sunday morning, a car has driven onto the course and done several burn-outs on the fairway and green.
The green of the 17th hole was badly damaged and with winter settling in, will likely be irreparable for several months.
"Unfortunately going into winter all your growth pretty much stops, so they've come to a stop in a couple of points and just dropped the clutch and it's just down to the dirt.
"They have come in through the main gate and gone down the 17th fairway ripping it all up and continued across to the 17th green as well, which is the highly expensive part to fix.
"They've gone to the 18th fairway and ripped that as well."
Cody said to make matters worse, the club is hosting its biggest event of the year on Thursday, when about 100 people are expected to take part.
"it will be our most sponsored tournament of the year, so it's a bit hard to present the course in its best light. It's hard enough with the weather but it doesn't help when you get dickheads in here doing this."
However, Cody said it will still go ahead.
"We'll just have to make the best of a bad situation, really, and I'll just have to explain what's happened."
A Facebook page has managed to snare a couple of leads, which the club will pass on to police to investigate.
"A very big thanks to the f***wit who did this to the course..." the post read. "You will be caugvht and you will be dealt too [sic]."
Cody continued: "Apparently there was a party in Piopio on Saturday night and someone reckons that kids were racing from Piopio out to Tikitiki Rd and back. They've dropped s*** out of the car when they've got out so we've chucked that in a plastic bag and will take it away for a bit of testing. Just idiots."
The destruction was gutting for the club.
"We've only got one part-time worker here and everything else is done voluntarily by the club members so there's been a hell of a lot of time wasted in here. It's pretty heartbreaking for a small club."
Police are being notified after a car performed burn outs on the 17th and 18th holes. Photo/Pio Pio Aria Golf Club
Cody said it wasn't the first time the club had been targeted, but this time it was worse.
"We've been targeted a few times but this is most probably only the second time they've been on the green but this is the worst damage. So unfortunately for a small club like us we're going to find it pretty hard to put in something along the lines of a time-controlled gate or barrier arm."
For now, the club would just carry on and play golf and hope the weather doesn't get too harsh.
"It's going to take a bloody long time, really. The greens are the high maintenance part of any course with spraying and fertiliser and bugs but when it's been burned down to the grass we have to start from scratch in those parts again."
On Friday night a van crashed through a fence.
"Some poor prick has fallen asleep at the wheel and rolled his van into our fence."
