Duncan Park golf course vandalized
Published 7:42pm Tuesday, July 21, 2009NATCHEZ — The week of the Bill McKinney Memorial City Golf Championship is supposed to be a great time for golf in Natchez.
Unfortunately, someone decided to try to play spoiler. According to Duncan Park golf course superintendent Greg Brooking, someone with a hand sprayer sprayed some kind of insecticide or weed killer on the greens at hole numbers 8, 9 and 13 sometime Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. Brooking discovered the damage when grass started turning brown early Monday.
And it was the 13th hole, where the vandalism started, that turned out to be most damaged of the three affected greens. The greens are the areas of smooth, very short grass immediately surrounding the hole. They are the part of the course that is most manicured.
“Fifty percent of the green on 13 was sprayed. He tried to kill the green on 8 and 9 as well. Whoever did this knew the City Championship is this weekend,” Brooking said.
Brooking also said he thought the vandalism was pre-meditated and that behind the green on No. 13, the person also sprayed the word “LOSER.”
He added that he could clearly see what parts of the greens were sprayed and what parts were not.
“Someone had a vendetta against me, the course, the golfers or the city,” Brooking said. “Charlie Daniels, a member of the Duncan Park Golf Course, is offering a $500 reward for any information leading into an arrest.”
When Brooking discovered the damage Monday he sprayed the affected areas with a activated charcoal spray — a substance used to counteract the weed killer. Brooking said it would be approximately two weeks before he’ll know the true extent of the damage.
If the spray was Roundup Weed and Grass Killer or a similar product, the charcoal spray should have helped, Brooking said.
Depending on the extent of the damage, Brooking will take one of two routes to correct the problem. He can grow the grass that is still alive across the damaged areas. This process would be free, but would take valuable time, he said. It would likely be October before the greens would be back to normal.
“The course would be less than perfect for months,” he said.
The other option would be to remove the damaged grass and soil and re-plant grass or sod. The cost of such a project including labor and machinery would be approximately $6,000, Brooking estimated.
Mayor Jake Middleton, who visited the damaged holes Monday, said he was hopeful Brooking’s work had saved the grass.
“Those greens looked so good (last week),” Middleton said. “They looked better than they ever had, and it’s a crying shame that someone would come out there and ruin it.”
