High Court has to smooth ruffled feathers between home owner and golf estate

ALLEGATIONS of a nuisance and danger caused by miscued shots on the 12th hole of the Centurion Golf Course were the subject of judicial scrutiny when a homeowner, who lives adjacent to the course, complained that the stray balls landed near his home.

- ZELDA VENTER

Jan Small took the Centurion Country Club and the homeowners association to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, where he asked for an urgent interim interdict against the club from reverting the 12th hole from a par four back to a par five.

Small wanted the interdict to operate with immediate effect, pending the determination of later litigation regarding the subject.

He told the court that the matter was urgent at this stage as he needs to protect himself and others living close to this hole's, life, and property.

The dispute pertains to whether the playing conditions of the 12th hole, par five, created an unreasonable danger to life and property to adjacent fairway homeowners, especially the applicant, from stray shots hit from the tee box, which have a landing zone on or near the applicant's house or other houses in the vicinity.