Our lawn isn't a good lie, church says

River Ridge Presbyterian sues its neighbor, All Star Golf, over errant golf balls.

By MATTHEW WAITE

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 21, 2000

PORT RICHEY -- For David Wilson, church administrator at River Ridge Presbyterian Church, the situation with their neighbor next door is embarrassing.

It seems that for more than three years some duffers from the All Star Golf driving range on Ridge Road haven't seen their prayers answered, and their persistent hook has sent dimpled golf balls into the church yard. With the House of the Lord under siege from wayward golf balls, Wilson said, they had to go to a House of Law and sue their neighbor.

"We're a church," Wilson said apologetically. "We don't sue people; we help people."

The church more than a week ago filed an injunction against All Star Golf Inc. in Pasco Circuit Court to get the range owner to put 50-foot-tall nets between the business and the church.

A man at All Star Golf Monday afternoon identified himself as the owner but wouldn't give his name and said he didn't want to speak to a reporter about the case. He referred questions to his attorney, who couldn't be reached. The owner said he was disappointed that the situation has reached legal action. He also said that nets would be installed by June 1 and that he has had the nets for three years, but various problems kept him from putting them up.

Flying golf balls have claimed a parishioner's windshield and a tail light over the past three years, according to the lawsuit. The leisure missiles have also put nearly a dozen dents into the metal roof of the gym, Wilson said. The matching blue metal doors along the windowless wall that faces the driving range have golf-ball-size dents in them.

The majority of balls golfers were hitting Monday went into the practice fairway, landing harmlessly near mock holes. Most of the tee boxes don't face the church's gym and would require an awful swing, or awful luck, to get the ball to the church's yard.

But the west end tee boxes do face the gym. To hit the church, a golfer would have to possess a bad hook or manage to hit one straight from the west end boxes -- at least 250 yards on the fly and over the cross facing the driving range and a dozen mature pine trees towering above the two-story gym.

To hear Wilson explain it, the property damage is a nuisance but no big deal. But the threat to the 85 middle school children who play outside from time to time is a serious worry.

"Our concern is we will be injured using our property," he said.

According to the church, All Star Golf and legal filings, the two parties have tried to work together in the past. There was talk of the church helping All Star get the telephone poles needed to put the nets up.

But the range's efforts were too slow, Wilson said.

"We felt like our only resort was to go to a judge and force him (the range's owner) to do it," Wilson said.

And the church's lawyer offered in the suit a way to pay for damages: a golf ball sale.

For a time, Wilson said, when the church would mow the grass or hold events outside, they would just throw the ill-hit golf balls back to the range. But during the construction of the gym three years ago, the balls would turn up in the construction site. Then they started hitting the side of the building.

For the past few months, Wilson said, he and other church members have been collecting the golf balls in a 40-gallon drum. It's now full; it is estimated that 1,000 to 2,000 balls have been picked up in occasional yardwork.

The suit asks that the Pasco circuit clerk take the balls and sell them, then use the money to pay for damages and attorney's fees.

-- Staff writer Matthew Waite can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com.

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