However, this time, instead of leaving behind the tire tracks typical of moonlight joyrides on the greens, these hooligans dug up the 14th green, causing at least $8,000 in damage.

Golf course Superintendent Mike Leach called it the worst vandalism he has seen.

“Someone has physically just beaten the heck out of a $30,000 green,” he said. “It was as if someone took a roto-tiller to (it).”

Pacific Grove’s golf course and several others, including the Monterey Peninsula Country Club, were also the target of pranksters six weeks ago, but those capers weren’t nearly as damaging as Monday night’s big dig, Leach said.

“We attributed (those incidences) to the end of the school year-type thing,” he said.

Pacific Grove police Cmdr. Tom Uretzky said the case is unusual because there is not a whole lot of evidence.

He said the incident, considered a felony because the damage totals more than $400, is not part of a greater wave of vandalism across the city.

Golf course destruction seems to happen at random, said Manny Sousa, superintendent at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach. He said his course was not hit.

Sometimes the vandalism can be fairly well planned out, he said. When he was working at a golf course in Northern California, Sousa said, someone cut up small triangles throughout the green like a crossword puzzle.

In the end, Sousa said he is not sure exactly why vandals destroy golf courses.

“They don’t realize that it’s not the golfer that has to go out there and fix it. It is the crew. It falls on us and we have to put it back together,” he said.
Uretzky said an investigation is under way.