WEST OLIVE, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) — Pine Creek golf course co-owner Chase Kuyers turned to Ottawa County Sheriff’s deputies — and Facebook — when he discovered someone used a vehicle to carve nearly $30,000 in damages to the sixth green over the weekend. First, he called police.
“At first, actually, they thought we were kind of joking, like ‘oh, they just turfed the course,’ and then the cop got out there and he was, like ‘Holy cow, I gotta go back to my car and get some equipment,’” Kulyers told WHTC Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Kuyers’ Facebook post, offering a year of free golf for solving the crime, went viral.
The culprit — Kuyers only described him as a man in his early 20s — confessed on Wednesday.
While no one gets the free golf reward, the vandal is a winner. Under Michigan law, he could have faced up to 10 years in prison or a $15,000 fine.
Kuyers said generous help from area golf course owners — they’re loaning him equipment — will keep the repair costs to about $5,000.
The man who did the damage “is going to have to pay for that,” Kuyers said, adding that he is working with the him on a payment plan.
Kuyers decided against pressing charges, he said, because he is a Christian and has lived a fortunate, if imperect, life.
“I’m not perfect by any means, and I don’t think anyone is,” he said. “And if somebody gets a chance to make a wrong a right, I believe they deserve that chance.”
