By Sandra Thomas
Staff writer

Early Monday morning, McCleery golf course marshall Geoff Holland stood surveying the wreckage of 18 golf carts, the most recent victims in a seemingly endless battle between the course and vandals.

The dashboards of many of the carts were kicked in, their ignitions yanked out and left to dangle. The plexiglass windscreens were kicked out, some smashed to bits. Several of the carts were found crippled, wheels bent or missing—one was recovered from 24th Avenue and Crown Street, some 40 blocks away. Others were recovered from holes on the course.

"Can’t even find the bumper to this one," Holland says, pointing to one of the carts. "They’re a real mess."

It was the third time in the past month that McCleery, located at the southern foot of MacDonald Street in Southlands, was hit by vandals. Several golf carts were vandalized just two weeks before, and the pro shop and driving range have both been broken into. This was the worst hit so far though, with damage estimates reaching as high as $20,000.

A neighbour told police he saw a group of kids playing around on the course at about 3 a.m. Sunday and yelled at them to take off. "Then I guess they told him to f*** off, and that was that," Holland says. "He didn’t call the police or anything."

On Monday morning, a huge hole is still visible where the vandals cut the chain-link fence with bolt cutters to drive the large people mover and staff cart out of the locked compound.

Pat Dunn, head professional at McCleery, says besides the cost to have the $4,500 carts repaired, the course will suffer loss of revenue. The carts cost $24 to $26 each to rent for a round of golf, and all carts would normally be in use every day during peak season. Dunn said it’s inevitable the insurance deductible will also rise. "This is the second time in two weeks. I don’t see how it couldn’t."

Dunn says many people, especially seniors, depend on the carts to get around the course. "I’m sure some of them are going to come here thinking they can use a cart to golf, but they’ll just have to head home. I also know some of them will golf anyway and actually risk their health. This is a lot more far-reaching than just a bunch of golf carts being damaged."

The vandalism is disappointing, he says, but life goes on. "You can’t let it beat you up."

As a result of the incident, the course manager plans to discuss with the parks board bringing back full-time security guards and installing more surveillance cameras.

Howard Norman, manager of golf operations for the board, said full-time security guards had been employed at the site, but their hours were recently cut to save money. "We had 24-hour security there for five or six weeks. The theory is once people know they are there, they quit coming around. So we thought we’d take a bit of a break and save some money. It just didn’t work out that way."

McCleery isn’t the only golf course vandalized recently. In the past three weeks, vandals caused thousands of dollars worth of damage at Fraserview and Langara courses. Just three weekends ago at Fraserview, located at 7800 Vivian Dr., vandals kicked in the doors of the public washroom, smashed the sinks, broke the toilets and ripped a fountain from the wall.

Two weekends ago at Langara, located at 7606 Albert St., vandals hot-wired a tractor that had a tow hitch and large piece of equipment attached to it and smashed into a fence in an attempt to drive onto the course.