No: Its paid under "Property Damage To Others" up to $500 irrespective of libiblity. Ther additional coverage was originally designed to settle neighbors disputes and the question of libility is waived. My sn throws a baseball through the neighbors window. The insurance company will pay for the replacement of the window up to $500 without a deductible applying to the insured

I love your humor and especially because of the point it makes which is the "elephant in the room".

If you buy a house on a golf course the chances are pretty good your house is going to get hit with a golf ball before too long. The risks belong to the homeowner, IMHO, and according to most laws and regulations.

While you say - and most agree with you - that the risk belongs to the homeowner, do you believe personal ethics should lead a golfer to go up to the homeowner, pull up his big boy pants, admit his error and offer to pay at least the deductible on the homeowner insurance? Or do you think the golfer should hit a second ball and just go on like nothing happened?

Both sides of the issue - interesting
 

We recently bought a house in TV on a golf course. I think as a homeowner I have to own the responsibility of repairing my house if it gets damaged from a golf ball. BUT, as a golfer if I did damage to a house I would walk up to the owner of the house and offer to pay for the damage or leave a note. I think the law is not going to decide this issue due to court costs etc. I think a person's morality should take the high road here. I have to sleep soundly at night. I really don't know what would happen if one of my golfing buddies walked away from this situation but I would hope I would not golf with them any more. I did take the good golf course here at TV. They say you can't walk into someone's yard to recover a ball. I do have trouble with that. I think if I can walk in without doing any damage whatsoever and not disturb anyone in the house I should be able to recover the ball. Playing the ball in their yard should never happen. It is a very interesting question and probably will never be agreed upon issue.

old argument but again I love how easily everyone says 'personal ethics' or something to that extent. Easy to say when you're talking about a relatively small price like a deductible or a window. If the window cost something stupid like 10 thousand dollars (obviously it wouldn't), would you still say "Ok, I'll man up?" Or would you say "I'm sorry it happened but the law says I don't have to pay"? Think about it. Would you?

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What does this have to do with the question of who is responsible for damages if your golf ball hits a house?

I understand your point, but consider this which actually happened to my mom. My folks had a home on a golf course. Their home sat about six feet above the level of the course and had a block retaining wall on the course side. There were stairs leading down from their home to the fairway with a locked gate at the bottom. One morning my mom was getting dressed in her bedroom when she was startled to see a man in her back yard just outside her bedroom windows looking for his golf ball. This guy had to scale the wall or climb over the gate to get to the yard. That's trespassing.

To me, living on a golf course means I accept the chance my home could get damaged by a golf ball, but it does not mean I accept people tromping over my back yard to retrieve a ball. Think about this. You may be one person going into the yard, but you are seen by other golfers doing this, so it must be OK, right? And you're not the only one on this homeowner's lot that day. Multiply that by the number of days people are on that hole every year. I wholeheartedly agree with the policy prohibiting retrieving a ball from private property. It is not unique to TV.

I don't think my wallet will be coming from my pocket if that's what you mean. I would apologize if I saw the owner, though. Sorry if that offends your sensibilities.

Mikeod, Thank you!
We have golf front on Palmer. Good news is we are lined up with tee boxes and very few balls come into our yard.
Yesterday I was sitting in my birdcage having a drink. A golf ball hit the bird cage and scared me to death. Ball landed in my yard and I thought what a terrible drive, went straight right but at least I got a golf ball.
Then with me sitting and watching, all 4 in the party came into the yard to look for the ball. I have a great deal of landscaping with white rocks. Also the golf course has evergreen trees and tall grass protecting my yard and house. I just sat there in shock like I was watching an Easter egg hunt. They looked everywhere, found it and waved bye to me. Hope it was a good ball!
Our house is all windows in the back. The wife and I often don't have enough clothes on for the uninvited guests all over our yard!!!! I hope most golfers don't trespass into yards.

I live on a course and have no real problem with a golfer retrieving a ball a few feet into my property. However, the other day a golfer was looking for his ball in my newly planted landscaping right next to my birdcage. When I confronted him with it, he said he was looking for his ball. I told him that it was no longer his ball and that it was now mine. He got the message and left my property.

Most golfers are very polite and respect the privacy of homeowners. However, a few months ago, I was sitting in our lanai (which we had enclosed with glass sliders), when a woman walked over from the course right up to the windows, cupped her hands over her eyes to see better inside and proceeded to look around the room. When she saw me sitting there, she gave me a smile and a "thumbs up" as if I should feel complimented by her approval of my house.

If I were to live on a golf course, I'd expect that from time-to-time, my house would be hit by an errant ball and even a window might be broken.

I would also expect that I might hear golfers shouting "Nice shot!" or saying things like "Darn it, I shanked it."

I'd expect to hear lawnmowers at dawn, huge sprinklers going on at all hours, those machines that roll the greens, etc., etc., etc.

All of the above are part and parcel of living on a golf course. And no, I would neither ask nor expect a golfer who hit the ball that broke my window to pay for the broken window.

Last summer, btw, I played at Mallory? and one of the houses had a sign that said "Please feel free to retrieve your ball." Nice attitude, that.

I live on a golf course and have found that guys like your golfing buddy are playing from the wrong tees. They should move as far forward as possible.

What is perplexing to me is the attitude some have concerning the penalities befalling residents who have chosen to buy a home on a golf course.

By demeanor and tenor what I hear some say is you deserve what you get. It is like saying to a woman you got raped because of what you wore. what did you expect.

People buy on a golf course for myraid reasons. And while they are aware of the potential for an errant ball it doesn't mean that they deserve the ridicule, bad behavior, tresspassing , foul language, golf carts driving on your property or someone who hits a ball from your yard, which by by the way means they don't even understand the rules of the game.

If player feels no obligation to pay for damages then I trust that player also understands the phrase "my yard my Pro VI."

If the best in he world can hit an errant ball then it is understandable someone playing in TV will hit an errant ball. it has nothing to do with skill or whether a player is playing from the wrong tees, Playing from the wrong tees is in part an attempt by golf admin to get people to play faster now that TV is overcrowded. But it isn't the wrong tees that are the problem its the socialization and lack of playing ready golf creating the backlog.

The Golf Admin has the starters give players all the rules yet I have never had one of them explain that it is considered tresspass to retrieve a ball from someone's yard. Why?

Once again there is no legal obligation by a golfer to pay for damage, unless there is a court case that contradict state law and or a rule offered by the golf course to accept such liability.

Hit them well and enjoy

Thanks...
 

...to all the ethical people who left a note on my windshield over the last 44 years I have owned automobiles when they dinged my bumper or the side of my car and offered to pay for the repairs. Every car have ever owned has been bumped and or dinged and no one EVER left a note or offered to pay for damages.

It appears to me that people have "ethics" when they are in a foursome and their friends are watching, but not when they are alone in their automobiles.

I'm just sayin'...

Well, we have all got one, opinion that is. So like with politics and religion, since we will never agree, we must rely on the law or rule of HOA. My etiquette will never be the same as the next guy.

OH, heres my opinion:

I would try to contact the owner and explain/apologize after my round of golf. No slow play remember. If he/she was polite, I would attempt to come to an arrangement that would satisfy both of us. If the owner became irate, I would simply walk away without one more word leaving the owner to HIS PROBLEM.