Nova Scotia couple wins small victory from golf course over errant balls

A couple from Timberlea, N.S. has won their legal battle with a local golf course.

When Julia and Anthony Fletcher bought their home in 2007, it backed onto a wilderness area. Ten years later, that wilderness became the fairway on the fourth hole of the Links at Brunello on the outskirts of Halifax.

The Fletchers soon found themselves experiencing a slice — or perhaps a hook — of golf life.

Errant balls kept landing in their yard. In 2019, one hit the side of the house and cracked some siding. Then in the fall of 2020, a ball sailed over their home and landed in their driveway, denting their truck.

Brunello made changes to the fourth hole in 2021 and again in 2022 to make it less likely that balls would stray onto the Fletcher property.

But they're not alone. Other neighbours near the course have been bombed by balls, although they haven't taken legal action.

Adjudicator visited property

The Fletchers took their case to Nova Scotia Small Claims Court for a two-day hearing in February.

Before that, adjudicator Eric Slone visited the property to get a bird's eye view of the problem.

"It is apparent that the risk of an escaping golf ball can be, and has been, reduced to low numbers but will never be zero," Slone wrote in his decision.

"There is no shortage of bad golfers, and even good golfers make bad shots."

Slone said the risk could be reduced further by putting up larger nets, but there is both a cost and aesthetic consideration to that move.

"Knowing as it must that some damage is foreseeable, I believe the Defendant is liable in negligence and possibly in nuisance for that damage," the adjudicator wrote.

He awarded the Fletchers $1,643.70. They say most of that will go toward repairing the dent in their truck.

Anthony Fletcher says he'll try to repair the siding himself.

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