It's a case of Pokemon Go away! Trouble is brewing between Melbourne's golfers and Pokemon Go enthusiasts after a council banned the gamers from their course.
Every day and night hundreds of Pokemon Go gamers have descended on the Glen Waverley Golf Course, which has been listed as a hot spot for finding Charmanders and rare Pokemon.
Two security guards in a golf cart and a car are now trawling the greens and fairways 24 hours a day at the course, looking for people people wandering around with their eyes on their phones.
"You see the green light on their phone? That's how you know," Wilsons Security guard Ishan Sanjgh said, as he jumped out and instructed a mother and daughter to leave the course.
He and his colleague threw more than 100 gamers off the course on Saturday.
Golf courses across Melbourne feature prominently in online Pokemon Go hot-spot lists, leading to safety fears and anger in the golfing community.
Glen Waverley Golf Shop duty manager Craig Robinson said the course had seen thousands of people flock to the area in the past month.
At 2pm on Saturday the police were called after one middle-aged male Pokemon player allegedly threatened to assault a security guard in the golf course car park.
Monash Council became the first to draw a line in the sand trap by erecting a sign at the Glen Waverley course on Friday, asking the virtual game fans to stay away.
But by Friday night someone had pulled out one of the signs, Mr Robinson said. It was later found in a dam.
"They're vandalising the golf course, they're pinching flags, they're damaging the greens, and they're disrupting the golfers, obviously," Mr Robinson said.
"There's been verbal confrontations, nothing physical yet but it's only a matter of time. And then there's the loss in revenue - we've had people say 'we're never playing here again'.
"Also we've copped so much verbal abuse in the shop that I don't like working here anymore."
Monash Council mayor Geoff Lake said a large amount of foot traffic was destroying the course, which, together with its sister club in Oakleigh, cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain" each year.
"Having more than 500 people congregating at the course at night has all sorts of worrying issues around wear and tear on the course [as well as] vandalism," he said.
"There have also been complaints from residents who live around the course who are concerned about the noise ... caused by such large groups of people."
Unsurprisingly, for the golfers having people standing over a hole and staring at their phone can be distracting.
"At the third or fourth hole you will see about 30 or 40 people walking across it," golfer Robert Thuraisingham said.
"We shout at them but one day someone is going to get hit. It affects us because we lose concentration, then we get angry and it frustrates us. We pay money to come to the green and they come here for free."
A group of four male Pokemon Go-ers, who had driven from Dandenong to catch Charmanders at the Glen Waverley course, said getting kicked off the course was "ridiculous".
Berwick gamer Andy Whiteside, who was catching Pokemon with his girlfriend, was escorted by guards off the grounds within 10 minutes on Saturday.
"It's the most exercise I've done in months," Mr Whiteside said.
Part of the problem for golf course users is the course is considered public land, as it's part of a reserve.
Mr Robinson said last week he emailed a Japanese company responsible for the Pokemon Go app, with the golf course's longitude and latitude, asking them to remove the Pokemon.
He said he was working with council to determine where the bylaws are. His main concern is that one of the Pokemon Go-ers will be seriously injured by a golf ball.
"We've come close, a few weeks ago a ball ricocheted off a tree and someone was hit in the arm," he said. "My biggest fear is that there will be a serious injury on the course."
The council sign has prompted a number of comments on Pokemon Go's Melbourne Facebook page, with some players saying they will continue hunting despite the notice.
Cr Lake said he expected people to abide by lawful instructions and they would not "stand by idly" and let a "bunch of geeks looking for Pokemon" affect the club.
"Glen Waverley Golf Course is a significant public golf course," he said.
"It is there for the public to play golf on; it is not there for a bunch of gamers to walk around filling their lives with virtual reality fix and having a negative impact on those around them."
Professional golfer David Diaz said he had heard about large groups of Pokemon players descending on the Albert Park Golf Course.
Mr Diaz said there had been no move to ban the game on the course.
"If they want to look for Pokemon, it will be at their own risk of being hit by a golf ball," he said.
Melbourne police have also expressed concerns regarding the number of people criss-crossing the city, engrossed in playing Pokemon Go.
VIA - theage.com.au
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