Sometime between Monday and Thursday, the clubhouse’s wall was smashed in before a green ammo box containing green fees was stolen.
While he couldn’t confirm the exact time the offence occurred, president Tim Ewert labelled the act as “frustrating”, saying it only added to the strain the club has been put under due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am not entirely sure exactly when it happened, I was notified by a regular green fee player on Thursday,” Ewert said.
“I know there were people playing on Sunday and it was fine then.”
Ewert wasn’t aware of the exact amount taken, but speculated is was somewhere between $50 and $100.
But the money isn’t the issue.
It is the act itself.
As a completely independent and community-driven course, any sort of damage is left up to its volunteers to fix.
“It just sucks that someone would do this to a small volunteer-driven club,” he said.
“That money helps us maintain the course and provide fuel for the tractor, and now we will have to repair the wall.”
Last week’s burglary wasn’t the first of its kind, according to Ewert.
“We have been broken into in the past and there are alarms,” he said.
“However, because they didn’t actually break in the alarms weren’t triggered.”
Like most courses of its stature, Murchison Golf Club was put through a fairly rough patch due to COVID-19.
Things were looking up, until last week’s undignified act put a dampener on everything.
“It was pretty tough in that we were allowed to start originally, but the volunteers pulled together to get things started. It seemed like we were finally getting somewhere.
“At the end of the day, it is a blatant lack of respect for a community-run club.”
Ewert encouraged anyone who had information about the container’s whereabouts to come forward and phone him on 0478 753 607, Shepparton Police Station on 58205777 or Crime Stoppers on 1800333000.
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