Deja Vu All Over Again: Torrey Vandalized In The Middle Of The Night

What is it about these USGA venues and vandals working in the middle of the night?

Tod Leonard reports on the latest minor incident (thanks NRH for the link), which has prompted officials to install a chain link fence around the third green. Some crime scene tape for the character-free front bunker wouldn't hurt either.

South Course – City Golf Manager Mark Woodward said workers arrived before dawn to find fresh footprints in the dew and heavy heel marks stamped into the surface of the green.

Woodward said a two-word vulgarity was etched in the sand of one bunker, and that several sprinkler heads were broken off. The incident was reported to San Diego police and is being investigated.

The damage to the green was minimal and quickly repaired, Woodward said, and though a Torrey Pines men's club outing that was to begin at 6:30 a.m. was delayed by 10 minutes, several golfers said they didn't notice any problems with the green after they played it.

The incident follows another act of vandalism on the same green about a month ago. In that case, Woodward said, it is believed the flagstick was used to scrape an obscenity into the green's surface, but the effect was cosmetic and was fixed with routine mowing.