Golf club must return land

A four year dispute between Umhlali Country Club and Ballito Gardens has ended with the club being ordered to restructure the infamous 13th hole by moving the fence 11 metres foward onto the fairway from its current position at the foot of the residents’ gardens.

The dispute was taken to the Durban High Court by four homeowners who argued that the land was rightfully theirs, but was allocated as a ‘non-user servitude’ by the developer of Ballito Gardens without following correct legal procedures.

The club said, however, that the land transaction in question was never finalised and that the section of land was registered without the club’s knowledge.

The disputed non-user servitude is an area of land owned by Ballito Gardens, which forms part of the rough on the right hand side of the 13th fairway. This land has been used by golfers playing the course, with many stray balls landing in the residents’ gardens as a result.

The court ruled in April that the land rightfully belonged to the homeowners living next to the 13th hole, and ordered that the electric fence bordering the properties be moved. This will have the effect of narrowing the fairway and force golfers to hit either straight down or left of the fairway in order to manoeuvre the dog-leg approach to the hole.

As part of his ruling, Judge AJ Gordon ordered the bill for this alteration to be borne by UCC and its lawyers.

“The rights of the residents enshrined in the Constitution have been encroached upon,” he said.

UCC president Ian Cat said of the ruling: “We do not want to comment without further advice from our attorneys.”