POSTSCRIPT : Mind Game Is Only Par for Course

Like a scene from a David Lynch movie, there was something a bit off-kilter about the post card-perfect homes lining Avenida Santa Margarita.

People walking their dogs would suddenly dive behind trees. Houses were decorated with chicken wire. Residents stepped out their front doors ready to duck, heads swiveling warily from side to side.

For years, the residents along Avenida Santa Margarita have endured a barrage of golf balls from the 12th tee at the San Clemente Golf Course--the second busiest in the Southland, with 122,000 rounds played annually--that they say shattered windows, dented cars and drove people to cower behind shrubbery.

Late last year, they took action: One homeowner filed a claim against the city-owned golf course, and others showed up at City Council meetings to complain.

The council’s response--to change the direction of play on the 12th hole--only served to inflame the golfers. In February, graffiti was scrawled near the hole asking that tee shots be aimed at houses owned by those doing the most complaining.

But all it took was a couple of minor adjustments on the course to restore peace on Avenida Santa Margarita, whose residents figure that the number of errant shots leaving the course has been reduced by at least 50%.

And six months later, their lives are returning to normal.

Jim Morgan once said that nobody wanted to visit him because of the danger of being smacked by a golf ball. He doesn’t hear those complaints anymore.

Things were once so bad that a ball smashed through Herman and Vilma Hagemann’s picture window, landing on a dining-room table where the Hagemanns were serving dinner.

Now, Herman Hagemann says, he can digest his meals in peace--he hasn’t suffered one broken window in the 19 weeks since the changes were made.

One golfer, Steve Prospero of Santa Ana, who frequents the San Clemente course on weekends, says he feels better about playing the 12th hole since the changes were made.

“Hell, it made me nervous to shoot that hole,” he says, lining up a drive on the 12th tee. “Yelling ‘fore!’ don’t cut it when some lady’s out watering her front lawn with her back turned toward you.”

The solution to the problem, devised by the city golf staff, was stunning in its simplicity.

The staff used psychology.

Like most games, golf is largely mental once the basics are mastered. On the 12th hole, there was no incentive for golfers to aim away from the houses, which parallel the right side of the course and are where a natural slice from a right-handed golfer would end up.

The new plan gives them plenty of reasons to fire away to the opposite side of the fairway.

Trees were planted near the street--more as a psychological barrier for the golfers than anything else--and screens were placed a few feet to the right of the tee, a further incentive to aim left.

Finally, the sand trap on the left side of the 12th fairway was removed, giving golfers more of a chance to . . . well, to do the right thing.

“A group of golfers came over the other day to say they were sorry about the whole mess,” Morgan said. “It’s nice to get along with your neighbors.”