Vandals have ripped up a golf course in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park twice in recent days, driving back and forth across three holes and causing up to $100,000 in damage, a parks and recreation spokesman said today.
Park staff discovered the initial damage on holes six, seven and eight Friday morning at the course, located near the western end of the park, according to San Francisco Recreation & Parks spokesman Elton Pon.
Hole seven “was damaged beyond all recognition,” Pon said.
“There’s no longer a green there,” he said.
Pon said an unidentified vehicle with thin wheels is believed to have gained access to the course, which is not fenced in.
After staff made some preliminary repairs, the vandals attacked again.
“On Monday evening, they came back and did the same thing on the same three holes,” Pon said.
He said the tire tracks resembled the ones found on Friday and called the behavior bizarre and troubling.
The nine-hole course caters to golfers of all ages and abilities, and it is one of the department’s most popular, according to Pon.
The six undamaged holes are still open for players, but the damaged ones could remain closed for up to three months, Pon said. Damage has been estimated at between $75,000 and $100,000.
This is not the first strange case of vandalism Golden Gate Park has endured this year.
Between May and August, dozens of trees and flowers were damaged or destroyed for unknown reasons.
“It would be difficult to try to link the (cases), but it’s been a rough summer for Golden Gate Park,” Pon said.
Ari Burack, Bay City News
