One of the more unexpected consequences of the Covid era and its restrictions has been a boom in the number of people playing golf.
According to Golf New Zealand, in 2019 there were 105,967 paid up members of the country’s 390 golf clubs. That number for 2025 was 153,665, a remarkable 45 percent increase in just six years. Somehow thousands discovered a useful way to pass all that lockdown spare time was to take one’s frustrations out on a little dimpled ball.
(These numbers don’t take into account casual golfers who pay as they play, a number thought to be around 350,000 each year. Golf NZ reckons half a million of us play golf at least once a year.)
All that means more playing traffic across the country’s courses and, inevitably, more golf balls hit out of bounds into neighbouring properties.
It’s a problem highlighted in a series on Stuff about the Avondale Golf Club in eastern Christchurch. The club has been on the same site for over a hundred years as the suburbs have risen around it. Now it’s a neighbourhood of affordable homes and social housing, many home to young families.
Stuff has talked to a variety of nearby residents, inevitably dramatising the situation with lines like “it’s terrifying when we realize how close it was to our 9-week-old baby’s head. That would probably be fatal. We had a bit of a cry because were just so shocked, so frightened.”
I haven’t played at Avondale for about fifty years so don’t know the exact scenario of where the problem is but I know for certain this is a problem far from unique to Avondale.
For many years in Auckland I was a member at Akarana, established down Dominion Road in 1927 before there was any population of consequence in Mt Roskill. But as in-fill housing packed residences down the left hand side of the 17th and 18th holes, more and more ropey hook shots flew into the neighbours’ backyards, breaking windows and annoying those who lived there.
In 2011 a privately owned nine hole course called Brookfields Park near Palmerston North was forced to close after the organic farm next door complained about the 20,000 golf balls which had been hit onto the farm in previous ten years. In the end a District Court judge ordered the golf course to close because he said the golfing activity “constituted an actionable nuisance.”
In the end the farm bought the golf course.
I now play at Cromwell where properties on the right of the 18th, which used to be a camping ground, are also being regularly hit by flying golf balls with some damage reported. As President of the club we’ve had to take remedial action to try and steer the direction of play away from the boundary.
We also pay to fix broken windows and damage to house walls.
It’s happened overseas as well. The Holyhead Golf Club in Wales had to spend $200,000 to build a new 18thhole to keep golfers away from a local resident’s property after he complained and the local council backed the resident on health and safety grounds.
As I remember, the Akarana the situation was sort of resolved by moving the Out of Bounds line in around 20 metres to change the direction of play away from the fence. It’s essentially what we’re doing at Cromwell and what they’ll have to do at Avondale.
But here’s the rub. The golf club was there years before the houses arrived. Golf has been a popular participation sport in this country since the 19th century and many of our clubs have been on the same property ever since they started. Avondale began in 1919, Akarana celebrates its centenary next year and Cromwell Golf Club has had the same real estate since 1903.
But this is not, according to law, a case of the golf courses having the upper hand because they were there first.
Under the Tort of Nuisance neighbours have a right to “the quiet enjoyment” of their property. Under the RMA though, developers and purchasers of residential land near golf courses must accept some pre-existing effects but the golf club must minimise unreasonable risks.
It’s an argument with fine balance but as was shown in the Brookfields Park case, a judge is likely to favour a home occupier.
Some golf clubs, like Avondale apparently have, might look at selling up and building a golf course elsewhere away from the problems caused by errant shots. But then other neighbours who enjoy the amenity value of living next to a golf course object to it closing down and being developed into yet more housing!
I think that’s called Catch 22.
In the end there’s only one guaranteed solution. Golfers must learn to hit the ball straight.
Yeah right.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
All that means more playing traffic across the country’s courses and, inevitably, more golf balls hit out of bounds into neighbouring properties.
It’s a problem highlighted in a series on Stuff about the Avondale Golf Club in eastern Christchurch. The club has been on the same site for over a hundred years as the suburbs have risen around it. Now it’s a neighbourhood of affordable homes and social housing, many home to young families.
Stuff has talked to a variety of nearby residents, inevitably dramatising the situation with lines like “it’s terrifying when we realize how close it was to our 9-week-old baby’s head. That would probably be fatal. We had a bit of a cry because were just so shocked, so frightened.”
I haven’t played at Avondale for about fifty years so don’t know the exact scenario of where the problem is but I know for certain this is a problem far from unique to Avondale.
For many years in Auckland I was a member at Akarana, established down Dominion Road in 1927 before there was any population of consequence in Mt Roskill. But as in-fill housing packed residences down the left hand side of the 17th and 18th holes, more and more ropey hook shots flew into the neighbours’ backyards, breaking windows and annoying those who lived there.
In 2011 a privately owned nine hole course called Brookfields Park near Palmerston North was forced to close after the organic farm next door complained about the 20,000 golf balls which had been hit onto the farm in previous ten years. In the end a District Court judge ordered the golf course to close because he said the golfing activity “constituted an actionable nuisance.”
In the end the farm bought the golf course.
I now play at Cromwell where properties on the right of the 18th, which used to be a camping ground, are also being regularly hit by flying golf balls with some damage reported. As President of the club we’ve had to take remedial action to try and steer the direction of play away from the boundary.
We also pay to fix broken windows and damage to house walls.
It’s happened overseas as well. The Holyhead Golf Club in Wales had to spend $200,000 to build a new 18thhole to keep golfers away from a local resident’s property after he complained and the local council backed the resident on health and safety grounds.
As I remember, the Akarana the situation was sort of resolved by moving the Out of Bounds line in around 20 metres to change the direction of play away from the fence. It’s essentially what we’re doing at Cromwell and what they’ll have to do at Avondale.
But here’s the rub. The golf club was there years before the houses arrived. Golf has been a popular participation sport in this country since the 19th century and many of our clubs have been on the same property ever since they started. Avondale began in 1919, Akarana celebrates its centenary next year and Cromwell Golf Club has had the same real estate since 1903.
But this is not, according to law, a case of the golf courses having the upper hand because they were there first.
Under the Tort of Nuisance neighbours have a right to “the quiet enjoyment” of their property. Under the RMA though, developers and purchasers of residential land near golf courses must accept some pre-existing effects but the golf club must minimise unreasonable risks.
It’s an argument with fine balance but as was shown in the Brookfields Park case, a judge is likely to favour a home occupier.
Some golf clubs, like Avondale apparently have, might look at selling up and building a golf course elsewhere away from the problems caused by errant shots. But then other neighbours who enjoy the amenity value of living next to a golf course object to it closing down and being developed into yet more housing!
I think that’s called Catch 22.
In the end there’s only one guaranteed solution. Golfers must learn to hit the ball straight.
Yeah right.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
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