Ethicist illustration by Michael WaraksaA 12-foot net wouldn’t be muchhelp against a pop-up slice.ment from putting a wind
farm off the coast of his
Trump International Golf
Club in Aberdeenshire. He
not only lost, he had to pay
the government’s court costs.
Manasquan River is in the
fascinating position of being
the venue that produces the
wayward shots going into
Dana’s yard while arguing
he shouldn’t have the blight
of a net in his yard to pre-
vent it from happening. But
before we’re overcome with
empathy for Dana, consider
this: Anybody who buys a
property adjacent to a golf
hole—especially 200 to 250
yards from the tee on the
right-hand side—has to have
some idea of what they’re in
for. After all, the OG of golf
properties, the Old Course
Hotel at St. Andrews, has
been shrugging off incoming
fire from the Road Hole tee
for 50 years.
The Ethicist’s solution? The
club, town and Dana should
lay down their weapons and
make a deal that works for all
sides. The club foots the bill
for taking down the net and
replacing Dana’s vulnerable
windows with shatterproof
panes should they get hit
(a far less-expensive propo-
sition than the route clubs
like Winged Foot have taken
when they straight up bought
homes that proved to be too
close to play). If Dana doesn’t
agree, the club should be free
to put up its own net adjacent
to Dana’s, but cover it with
(outward facing) advertise-
ments—like the Green Mon-
ster at Fenway Park.
Sometimes you have to
fight fire with fire.ro
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ba
rr
et
t
Figuring it was better to
ask for forgiveness than for
permission, Ron Dana put
up the 130-foot-wide net in
2018 without securing any
permits from the town. Pre-
dictably, neighbors who had
their views of the course and
the river disrupted howled
in protest, and they put up
an online petition that has
gotten more than 200 sig-
natures. The club came out
against the net as an eyesore,
too, saying it detracted from
the riverfront view members
enjoy. Both groups pressed
the town to assess Dana for
violations of various building
and permitting ordinances,
which it did in 2019, saying
he broke rules limiting the
height of fences in Brielle to
no more than 12 feet high.
Dana responded by re-
questing a variance for his
net to be exempt from the
fence-height rule on the basis
that a 12-footer wouldn’t be
much help against a pop-up
slice. The town zoning board
was unsympathetic and
denied the variance. Unde-
terred, Dana refused to take
down his net—so the town
and the club sued to force
him to remove it. Dana coun-
tersued, and the parties are
now faced off like the Night’s
Watch and White Walkers in
“Game of Thrones” just be-
fore the dragons get involved.
The wall is still up, the neigh-
bors are aggravated, and
there’s about to be a big fight.
The dispute is one that
would make a property de-
veloper question his or her
capitalist bona fides. On the
one hand, those with more
libertarian leanings would
say people have the right to
do with their property as they
please. On the other, every-
body is a libertarian until
something they don’t like
goes in next door and could
tank their property values.
Just ask Donald Trump. He
fought for nearly five years
to keep the Scottish govern-arekyoukorksomeonekyoukknowk k
involvedkinkaktricky,kamusingkorkjustk k
plainkstrangekgolfksituation?k▶Tell us about it, and the Golf Digest Ethicist
might write about it in an upcoming column.
To submit, describe your issue or send a news
link to [email protected].askkgolfkdigest
QkI once caddied
for a player
whose club
unintentionally
touched the
ball and caused it
to move in some
loose sand off
the fairway.
He shot one short
of the course
record. What’s
my obligation as
a caddie?
Should I have
called it out?
philip scargill
melbourne, fla.
AkIt’d be difficult
to pipe up in a
situation like
that, but, yes,
you should have
told your player,
and he should
have applied
the penalty. In
a tournament,
your player would
be subject to
disqualification—
see Rule 1.3b(1)
—if the player
deliberately
failed to apply
the penalty and
if the Committee
learned of
the situation.