Ball from Golf Course Cracked Windscreen

Ponsonby on 02/06/2025 - 20:04
Last edited 02/06/2025 - 21:11 by 1 other user

Driving late today past a Sydney golf course, a ball came over the wire fence and cracked the windscreen. We did not see who hit the ball but went to the golf course just as they were closing the office - while they were non committal about liability, they handed over a public incident reporting form.

There are lots of online comments about golf courses denying liability or delaying or refusing reimbursement, and of people having to resort to xCAT to get reimbursed by the golf course if they do not want to claim on their comprehensive insurance

Any advice from others who have experienced this would be appreciated - we do not have a lot of time to fight the golf course or their insurers but would prefer not to claim on our comprehensive motor insurance policy (which includes no excess windscreen claims). This is because of the inevitable effect a claim will have on future premiums, even in no fault circumstances.

Automotive Windshield

Comments

      • biiiink on 09/06/2025 - 19:25

        no that's my point. it literally could be argued in court.

  • BartholemewH on 04/06/2025 - 16:53

    Hassle the golf course, if they don't come to the party, claim on your insurance. Worth having windscreen cover, I have seen windscreens up to $3500 on passenger vehicles (including camera recalibration etc).

  • Jase83 on 04/06/2025 - 18:56

    The golf course in my street is extremely open and willing to pay for any damage caused by stray balls. I get the odd one on my front lawn every month or so, but no damage personally yet.

  • Pork Hunt on 05/06/2025 - 09:46
    +1

    The course I play at has a register on tees where balls have a possibility be hit onto a road. Members are required to record their name and time for any ball that goes onto road. This is a private course and so the process is self-policed by the rest of the group and adhered to nearly all the time. This register would almost certainly be ignored at a public/social course. The member is not held liable, it just helps the club sort out the legitimacy of an insurance claim.

    No experience with how easy it is to get the money out of the club. They always tell us that insurance costs play a significant part of membership fees so I'd be pissed off if they were making it difficult for members of the public to recover the cost of their damage.

  • Muppet Detector on 05/06/2025 - 13:34

    If a golf course was automatically liable for any harm caused by golf balls that left the grounds of the golf course, then why are entire estates built which specifically feature golf course frontage?

    If the golf course was in fact liable for escaped golf balls, wouldn't it make sense for them to build fences between the golf course and those houses?

    How do you think those people with golf course frontage would react if the golf course decided to build some big ass fence in between them some day?

    Other principles include does anybody have a duty to prevent (or minimise) harm, and why that duty was assigned to them.

    A residential property may have a boundary on a canal, the ocean or a river (among some). That same property may also have a dam and a swimming pool within its boundaries.

    Out of all those bodies of water that a residential property may have, it is only the swimming pool which must be fenced.

    The dam/canal/river/lake/ocean etc can be 2 metres away from the swimming pool, but there is only a requirement to prevent entry to the swimming pool. You do not have to prevent entry/fence off any other body of water.

    The reasoning for this legal quirk is very similar to why the golf course isn't usually liable for what escaped golf balls do.

    NB* in Qld, you are required to fence 8 seater spas in or above ground, but I don't think you have to fence turtle enclosures or outdoor fishponds and bird baths. You might have to, but I've never found anything to support this.

    We did fence and mesh the outdoor turtle enclosure, but that was to protect the turtles from external predators including birds and toads.

    • Protractor on 06/06/2025 - 17:09

      New to the story at hand? Have you heard,yet?
      OP was in a broom broom car on a dual carriage way.

    • biiiink on 12/06/2025 - 17:19

      The duds here are too pea brained to understand your post

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