FARMING MATTERS: Please don’t play golf in farm fields

Most people enjoy the countryside responsibly, but there are always those who don’t think, or perhaps don’t care, about the consequences of their actions.
Bucket of golf ballsBucket of golf balls
Bucket of golf balls

There is a difference between public land that we can all enjoy freely and private farmland that is used to grow food for the nation.

Farms are not theme parks available for everyone to use as they see fit. Farms are workplaces, just like factories , schools and offices.

No one would consider it a right or acceptable to wander into a factory, school or office and take out a few golf balls to practice their swing.

But some people seem to think that farmer’s fields are great places to improve their game.

Just last week my husband picked up 70 golf balls from a grass field situated behind a row of houses and gardens. One of the occupants (perhaps more than one) had clearly been practising their swing from their garden, shooting balls into our field.

I don’t know how much golf balls cost, but to just hit them into a field and not bother to collect them seems to be a terrible waste of money.

But aside from that, if we had put livestock into the field and they ingested the balls, hidden amongst long grass, it would cause untold damage. The balls are also a hazard for machinery, and this is why my husband checked the field before starting work. Because this is sadly a situation he has encountered before in fields.

Would these people shoot golf balls into their neighbour’s gardens and expect their neighbour to be happy about it?

Why I wonder do some people consider it acceptable to fill our fields with their golf balls?