Overnight driver tears up Lahti golf course, damage could last into summer

A car left deep ruts across more than 200 metres of the practice area at Lahden Golf, a golf course in Lahti, during an overnight drive from Friday to Saturday, Yle reported. Iltalehti was the first to report the incident.

Juha Ruponen, the course’s chief executive, said he could not yet estimate the cost of repairs. With the grass no longer growing, workers will probably have to remove soil along the damaged stretch before reseeding it or laying new turf.

If the area is reseeded, the damage could remain visible for almost all of next summer. New turf would allow a faster repair, but the area would be temporarily closed, and the work would be more demanding and expensive, Ruponen said. The course will repair what it can this autumn, with the rest left until spring.

Ruponen said the course had experienced similar vandalism two or three times in the past decade, though previous incidents were smaller. He said similar damage occurs at a golf course somewhere in Finland every summer.

Ruponen plans to file a police report. CCTV footage did not capture the car, and the course has added cameras. He is offering a reward for information that leads to the driver being caught.