Vandals hit golf course

VANDALS are being warned to keep off one of the most prestigious golf courses in the Far North after a number of recent incidents have left ground staff fuming.

The Palmer Sea Reef Golf Course, recognised as one of the best links courses in Queensland, has been turned into a “kids playground” at night and over weekends resulting in multiple reports to the Port Douglas Police.

The sand bunkers on the 18-hole course have allegedly been used as BMX jumps and greens damaged with tyre marks by a group of youths in recent weeks.

General manager Ben Wood said there was also damage to the fencing, and fishing was regularly occurring in the many water hazards, some of which were home to saltwater crocodiles.

“It’s pretty frustrating, they are basically just riding their bikes all through our course,” he said.

“Through our sand bunkers and around the course, which is not ideal for the curators and everyone that works hard to keep the course in good condition.

“They are riding through the greens on pushbikes. Luckily it’s not motorbikes or anything like that, but they are leaving rubbish on the weekends.”

Port Douglas’s other course, the Mirage Country Club, has had similar incidents occur in recent years.

The Palmer Sea Reef – designed by the late Michael Wolveridge Thomas Perrett – is regularly ranked in Australia’s top 100 courses, with the grounds maintained to championship standard all year round.

It has massive fairways, 89 bunkers, huge greens and tricky mounds, and is the country’s only tropical links-style golf course.

Mr Wood had a simple message for the suspected vandals.

“We just want it to stop,” he said. Meanwhile, Mr Wood said the club was in “great shape” ahead of an expected pumping high season, with southern visitors set to arrive to the holiday village in their thousands.

“Besides that, everything is going really well,” he said.

“We are really looking forward to the next tourist season; we are thinking it’s going to be a busy one.”

Anyone noticing anything out of the ordinary on the course can contact 131 444 or call Port Douglas Police on 4087 1999.