ARI SHAPIRO, host:
While just about everybody is focused on Tiger Woods, there are legions of other golfers out there dusting off their clubs for a round or two before the end of the holidays. And if you happen to be playing on a course that's surrounded by houses, NPR's Rob Sachs has this advice.
ROB SACHS: Just the other day I heard this unfortunate golfing story from my cousin Todd Sachs.
Mr. TODD SACHS: I think I was 12 at the time, clearly not a good golfer but trying to improve my game so I was having a round by myself. I'm at the T, I hit a shot.
SACHS: And then things got costly.
Mr. SACHS: I hit it 30 yards straight and then it turns a sharp left and goes about a 100 yards to the left. Just a wicked golf shot, and then all of a sudden I hear this enormous crash.
(Soundbite of glass breaking)
SACHS: Unlucky for Todd, and yet even more unfortunate for the homeowner who had just lost a sliding glass door. The whole affair brought up an interesting question though, was Todd's horrible shot just a fluke or is this a real hazard for those who chose to live with a fairway view? I decided to call someone with a little bit of golf know-how. Sixty-two-time PGA Tour champion, accomplished course designer and fabled lemonade and iced tea drinker, Arnold Palmer.
Mr. ARNOLD PALMER (PGA Tour Champion): It is something that is an occasion, but rarely really happens to the point of causing any real serious problems.
SACHS: Well, that's what Arnie might say, but Jack Guida who lives by the ninth hole of the Emerald Isle Golf Course in Oceanside, California has a different story.
Mr. JACK GUIDA: I would say we get hit at least once a day.
SACHS: Guida says he takes every precaution available to protect his house from errant projectiles.
Mr. GUIDA: I'm concerned about my grandson who plays, sometimes he comes over and he wants to play in the backyard and I often make him wear a bike helmet.
SACHS: So, clearly, it's a hazard to live by a golf course but should it be a financial burden as well? I asked Emerald Isle's golf pro Jeff Sampson.
Mr. JEFF SAMPSON (Professional Golfer, Emerald Isle Golf Course): The golfer's ultimately responsible.
SACHS: Aha.
Mr. SAMPSON: If you can catch him.
SACHS: Oh. While Jack Guida's exterior armament has been successful in keeping his own house safe, he once had to chase down an 18-year-old guy who smashed his neighbor's window. In both cases, Todd and the 18-year-old kid paid up. Well, in Todd's case, his parents forked over the few hundred dollars in repair costs. Many times, it's the golf course's residents who are stuck with the bill. Jack Guida says homeowners need to be realistic.
Mr. GUIDA: You don't want balls to hit your house, don't live on a golf course.
SACHS: As for not hitting that horrible T shot in the first place, I wonder what would Arnold Palmer do.
Mr. PALMER: The advice I would give them is go see the local pro, so they can hit it straight.
For NPR News, I'm Rob Sachs.
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SHAPIRO: This is NPR News.