Tramview Mobile Home Park residents worried about golfers next door

The residents of Tramview mobile home park are worried about their safety after someone in their community was hit in the head with a golf ball. The community sits right next to Cathedral Canyon golf club.

Shattered windows, dozens of dents, even a large hole in the wall. All the result of wayward drives at the Cathedral Canyon golf club. The course shares a border with the Tramview mobile home park. Jim Blancett lives in the 55 and up community, and collects dozens of golf balls each month. He saw his neighbor get hit in the head with a ball last week, damaging his vision, now Blancett worries about his own safety. “I don’t want to die today or tomorrow, even though I’ll be 80 in June,” said Blancett.

Blancett and the manager of the park, Steve Caudill said golf balls flying over into their park is a long-standing problem. He also says it’s a problem he’s tried to fix in the last year and a half. “Just trying to say hey, what can we do, met with the golf people,” said Caudill. “And they put up a small net that won’t do anything.”

Residents at the mobile home park say the nets only catch about 60% of the golf balls hit their direction. Cathedral Canyon Golf Club sent us this statement:

“We will continue to meet with representatives of the Tram View Mobile home park. We installed netting around the tee area that substantially reduces errant shots. Nonetheless, we have been informed some balls are still hit into the park. We take this seriously and are further reviewing potential solutions, notwithstanding power poles and tree lines which make additional netting difficult.”

While laws about liability concerning a golf course are gray, the course’s attempt to put up nets and protect the park may keep them out of hot water.
“That owner of that course has a duty to ensure that the premises is not only safe for the participants, the golfers but also do adjoining property owners as well,” said Robert Gilliland, Jr., a real estate lawyer.

The other major hazard in the case is that the mobile home park sits in Cathedral City, while just a chip shot away, the golf course sits in Palm Springs. That’s why the state got involved. Assemblyman Manuel Perez and his team are trying to resolve the issue, and want the golf club to put up nets. “The issue again is a health care issue,” said Greg Cervantes, a representative for Assemblyman Perez. “We don’t want residents getting hurt and hit by balls. And it could result in a fatality, that’s our biggest concern.”

The other major question is who had their property first. The mobile home park was established in the 1930s, before anything around them was built up.