Camp Zama introduces strict penalties for over-enthusiastic golfers

Suspensions for sucking? I'd never get on a course here..

LOL!

For an OB, you get a suspension. That's tougher than any golf rules I heard of!

Time to put away Big Bertha and get out the 3 wood.

As in the movie Tincup....use a 7 iron all the way around.

Given that most of the golfers there are actually Japanese, this seems pretty harsh. I bet they don't do the same for Japanese courses. More double standards for US installations in Japan.

Geeeeezzzz, I guess All golfers can't be recreational golfers anymore. If you cant beat Tiger, then get off the golf course. Just wondering, do the people around Zama also want the base relocated? Maybe they use the attacking golf balls as ammonition for thier fight.

I play that course all the time (most recently last Saturday). Both "problem spots" are on the right hand side of the fairway to the 1st hole. Though one has to be a realy bad golfer to send it over the fence, I've seen way too many J-golfers slice it into that fence.

Just wondering, do the people around Zama also want the base relocated?

Nah, too many on-post local hire jobs (more than 20,000) would be lost if Zama were closed down.

Just turn it into a miniature golf course and be done with it.

So no more carpet bombing the locals? Perhaps it is time to give up golf?

Just raise the fence!

The reason the army is there is to protect the golf course. I think they should turn it into a farm, and start selling produce at the back gate and gate four. I never played when I was there, so was stupid to not have joined when I quit my civilian job. Those Japanese nationals that have a membership card can get on base, but me being and American cannot.

Do they police it? How can they prove who hit the ball?

But why the severe penalties? Residents complaining?

Move it to Henoko

"Just turn it into a minature golf course"

That would be the biggest minature golf course in the world! That is a great idea! I love minature golf!

"Just raise the fence!"

Just raze the base, ha ha!

anti base groups and SDP, Coomunist Party are complaining - there were a few incidents where golf balls dropped right by children playing in a park near the base. it is not the local residents complaining but those same people who travel all the way to okinawa are.

But why the severe penalties? Residents complaining?

anti base groups and SDP, Coomunist Party are complaining - there were a few incidents where golf balls dropped right by children playing in a park near the base. it is not the local residents complaining but those same people who travel all the way to okinawa are.

fishy, since when is camp zama located in okinawa? Anyway, raise your game or raise the fence.

Why do some people need to be so hyper dramatic? "Given that most of the golfers there are actually Japanese, this seems pretty harsh. I bet they don't do the same for Japanese courses. More double standards for US installations in Japan" Those "Japanese" golfers should consider themselves lucky to play at the quality and challenging course on Camp Zama for a fraction of the price they would pay at a Japanese commercial course. I'm quite certain this policy was mandated by the local government whom Camp Zama leadership bends over backwards to appease. BTW...There are 2000 local jobs and not 20,000. Sorry, I lived on Camp Zama for 6 years so I felt a burning need to correct this. Camp Zama has a very delicate footprint in the community and is a model of how to have a relationship with the host nation.

bicultural-

fishy, since when is camp zama located in okinawa? Anyway, raise your game or raise the fence.

no no, many of those who protest against the military bases in okinawa actually travel all the way from honsyu, and there are many of those who protest in front of zama as well and those are the ones (the same ones who travel all the way to okinawa) are complaining about golf balls along with SDP and Communist Party.

Wow, I thought the existing nets were pretty high (15-20m) & that you'd have to try to get a ball over them. The only area where balls routinely went into residential areas was an on-base (i.e., U.S.) housing area (don't think the Japanese are complaining about that). Maybe they've removed some of the nets &/or the Japanese golfers have started using Big Bertha clubs & hyper-balls. As I recall it was mostly Japanese players on the course (Japanese workers in my office would even occasionally take leave to go play golf).

"Over-enthusiastic" golfers. I love it! If I had a slice so bad that I'd be hitting houses (ok, who am I kidding? I DO have a slice that bad), the description of me wouldn't be "over-enthusiastic". It would be "Wondering why I even PLAY this @#*&%!! game!"

Come on!!! This happens everywhere near a golf course. I have a friend who lives near one and once got a ball through his windows. This never got into the news!!!