News

Golf course goes hog wild

Print this story | Email this story

Golf has been called a “gentleman's game,” with a reputation for civilized play and beautiful courses, but recently a group of selfish pigs -literally - have been ruining the game for everyone at the Crystal Falls Golf Course.

The course, located on Crystal Falls Parkway in Leander, has become the hunting grounds for bands of feral hogs, who have already caused an estimated $6,000 to $8,000 worth of damage.

“It's not funny out here,” said Nancy Carufel, who was playing the course on Thursday. “It's devastating to this course.”

Biff Johnson, city manager for Leander, said feral hogs are a common nuisance in Central Texas, causing problems for residents and farmers all around the area. At Crystal Falls, they have been digging up the turf while looking for grubs. Hogs also like soft soil, which is abundant on a golf course. Most of the damage was done during a three day period starting after the rain on Monday.

Wayne Slaton, superintendent for the course, described the damage by comparing it to a rotary tiller coming through the grounds.

“I've never seen anything that bad from animals,” he said. “Those rascals are hurting what we worked so hard to make nice.”

Slaton said while he has been tempted to create his own version of the movie “Caddyshack” - complete with dynamite and heavy artillery - he is limited both by city regulations and his own moral compass.

“The only thing I can do is scare them off,” he said. “We don't want any unnecessary suffering for the animals.”

After turning down several offers from irritated golfers/hunters, Slaton is starting to set up traps around the grounds. One trap, located just off the grounds, has been up for about 10 days, according to course manager Grant Collyns, but has yet to catch any animals. Collyns said he wasn't sure what will happen to any hogs they catch, but he would let anyone willing to pick them up take them.

“We're still trying to figure out what we are going to do,” he said. “We're not going to sell them or anything like that.” Though he did admit they would most likely end up on someone's dinner plate.

Despite all the damage to the grounds, neither Collyns nor Slaton thought the hogs would be a danger to course patrons unless they were cornered. Collyns pointed out that, depending on the cycle of the moon, the hogs have only appeared between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m., when the course is empty.

“I've only seen them twice and they were running as fast as they could away from me,” said Slaton.

The problem should go away on its own, according to Slaton. He said after a brief freeze Thursday morning, there was no additional damage to the course. The freeze likely reduced the number of grubs in the ground, giving the hogs no reason to root in the soil.

“Luckily the food source is going away,” he said. “Once the food is gone, they'll move on.”

E-mail amy@hillcountrynews.com

Reader Comments