Torrey Pines ‘Drive-Bys’ Are Teeing Off Motorists

When the driving range at the Torrey Pines Golf Course was shifted a year ago to a grassy new spot parallel to North Torrey Pines Road, golfers rejoiced.

The old range had been a soggy cow pasture.

But the boys in Risk Management at San Diego City Hall soon began groaning about the new range. A tall net notwithstanding, damage claims began to mount as motorists complained about slicing balls breaking their windshields and denting their hoods.

The drivers were harassing the drivers, you might say. There’s even an arch term for it: Torrey Pines drive-bys.

“The errant golf ball is not an unfamiliar item when a golf course is next to a roadway,” said claims manager Jerry Johnson. He started authorizing payments the day the range opened.

Consider the possibilities, if even the tiniest fraction of balls go awry.

On a busy 15-hour day at the range, upward of 25,000 balls are airborne. And North Torrey Pines is no chump road.

North Torrey Pines connects Del Mar and La Jolla. People who drive Porsches and BMWs and know the definition of liability and tort use North Torrey Pines Road.

Balboa Park Golf Course had a similar problem, but things are better now. The Torrey Pines problem has been particularly stubborn.

Maybe it’s the sea breezes; maybe the golfers can’t swing straight. Nobody knows.

Several cures have been tried. The tees were moved south; the tees were moved north; the tees were realigned; the net was hiked to 60 feet, tapering to 40.

A consultant from Tustin has been hired. One idea is to hike the net even higher, but it’s unclear if the Coastal Commission will approve or if the supporting poles can handle added height.

The latest city stratagem requires driving-range employees to have both golfing acumen and tact.

Employees have been told to size up which golfers look likely to have incurable slices and then gently suggest that they move as far from the road as possible. Don’t ask how I know this.

A Double Licking

If conversation starts to drag, here are two suggestions:

* Gunther Gebel-Williams, who arrives in San Diego on Tuesday with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, has suffered more than 500 stitches in four decades as an animal trainer.

A dozen or so were needed when a tiger draped around his neck took a swipe at him during the filming of an American Express commercial.

* Is designer ice cream finished? Gelato expired? Haagen-Dazs dead?

The latest rage on the North County coast is a Dairy Queen that opened last month in Solana Beach. The smart set from Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe is enjoying its exotic recipe: ice milk.

Holy Bat Conservation!

Update: Bat Conservation International, urging compassion for the misunderstood mammals, is now part of the battle over bats roosting at Olivenhain Town Hall.

A BCI official and a state bat specialist toured the hall last week, tiptoeing through ankle-deep guano. After the bats migrate, the Town Council plans to spend a $138,000 state grant to seal up the walls and roof.

Meanwhile, BCI wants to cool fears that some of the bats may be rabid and has offered to do tests on any dead bat found in Olivenhain.

Just keep the bat carcass in the refrigerator until a BCI member can pick it up, the group says. So far, no takers.

An ‘A’ for Ambitious

There are 189,600 public school teachers in California.

So naturally State Schools Supt. Bill Honig on Friday picked Sharon Rogers, late of La Jolla Country Day private school, to serve on a new task force to “help shape California’s elementary schools in the new decade and the next century.”

Is the politically ambitious Honig trying to benefit from the public support for Rogers since the March 10 bombing of her van? Heavens no, says a spokesman.

Honig asked Rogers to join the task force “because he feels this is a good time for educators to stand up for each other.”