KWES NewsWest 9 / Midland, Odessa, Big Spring, TX: newswest9.com | Wild Hogs Tearing Up Ward County Golf Course

Wild Hogs Tearing Up Ward County Golf Course

By Sarah Snyder
NewsWest 9

They're not golfers, but they've been spending a lot of time on the greens. 
    
Wild hogs are changing the landscape at the Ward County Golf Course. 

It's got folks in Monahans talking, and costing owners a pretty penny.

"It's a huge problem we're facing right now," Chad Thummel, Superintendent of the Ward County Golf Course, said.

"We've had an ongoing hog problem for 10-12 years," Ward County Golfer Gene Brown, who has been golfing at the course since 1989, said.

Over the past two weeks, wild hogs have been searching for grub worms, pushing their snouts under the sod and flipping it over.

"They know there's water here, they found something they like, so they've been getting after it," Ward County Extension Agent Arlan Gentry, said.

"They basically went from one tee to the next tee, and they've done some significant damage," Thummel said.

The Ward County Extension Agent says the wild hog population is growing statewide.

"That's a little out of the ordinary," Gentry said. "They don't really like people, of course they're mainly night-timers. They come out at night and do their damage."

Folks in Monahans say it's been two years since the last time they saw so many hogs. This time, they've discovered 15 on the golf course.

"I don't know if they've moved on, or if they'll ever move on," Thummel said. "I think they're always going to be looking for a food source."

And it won't be cheap to fix. So far the damage is estimated at about $10,000.

"We've been lucky so far in terms of where the damage is occurring," Brown said. "We're lucky none of our specialty grass has been damaged."

"They like what they found here and they certainly did some damage!" Gentry said.