Woman arrested after using golf cart as weapon

Look both ways before you cross in front of a golf cart.

A 41-year-old "visibly intoxicated" woman was arrested last week for purposely hitting and dragging another woman 15 yards with her golf cart, according to news-journalonline.com of Daytona Beach, Fla.

A passenger in Pearce's golf cart told deputies Pearce was behind the wheel when she noticed Boylan. The witness told police that Pearce said, "Oh, there's the (expletive) . . . I'm going to run her over," and, then, she drove the cart straight into Boylan.

Another witness saw Boylan being dragged and ran alongside the cart, trying to engage the brake until the cart finally stopped, the sheriff's report states. Boylan told deputies Pearce cursed at her as she lay injured on the ground, and then Pearce fled in another golf cart.

After Boylan was taken to Florida Hospital Flagler to be treated for her injuries, deputies found Pearce "visibly intoxicated" at her home, the report states. Before she was arrested, Pearce claimed Boylan had walked in front of her golf cart and, then, asserted to the deputy that he would've done the same thing had he been in her shoes, the report states.

Pearce was arrested and charged with aggravated battery.  She was released on $5,000 bail.

Judge asks jurors: 'Do any of you play golf?'

Golf fans with a nose for politics will want to pay attention to the retrial of David Safavian, the former White House aide who has been charged with corruption and obstruction of justice, and linked to imprisoned lobbyist and golf-junket planner Jack Abramoff. Jury selection for the trial began yesterday and "besides the typical questions about fairness, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman also asked jurors: 'Do any of you play golf?'" the Washington Post reported.

Friedman wasn’t looking for a fourball. He was, we can assume, trying to weed out any golf nuts who might not see the harm in one of several charges Safavian is facing: concealing facts about the lavish and now-infamous golf trip that Abramoff arranged for Safavian and seven others to St. Andrews in the summer of 2002. Safavian was originally convicted of that charge, among others, in 2006, but it was thrown out on appeal. He was re-indicted in October.

Safavian doesn’t just love golf. His addiction appears extreme. Here’s how Talking Points Memo called the action in his 2006 trial:

First, [prosecutors] say Safavian lied in order to go on that golf trip to St. Andrews, Scotland with Abramoff, associates and lawmakers. Second, they say he loves golf so much that he was susceptible to Abramoff's seductions: "dangling" the prospect of working as a lobbyist at Jack's firm, “where [Safavian] could make a great deal of money, and play a great deal of golf...” (TPM also procured a copy of Abramoff’s itinerary for the Scotland trip, well worth checking out if you’re planning a junket of your own.)

Opening statements for the new trial are scheduled to begin Dec. 9.

Schwarzenegger wants golf tax in California

Ask a former bodybuilding governor where to find some extra money and it’s no surprise he picks on the club-swinging girlie men.

Facing a $11 billion budget deficit, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a state golf tax. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that details of the plan are murky, but it sounds like a sales tax on greens fees.

The trouble is, golfers still don't know exactly what they're fighting because the proposal is written so vaguely. It says: Effective February 1, 2009, the sales and use tax rate will be applied to appliance and furniture repair, vehicle repair, golf, and veterinarian services. That rate would be 8.75 percent if the governor's proposed three-year sales tax increase of 1.5 percent also is passed.

Of course, the golf industry in California, and elsewhere, is struggling, as are most industries these days, and some in the business claim golf is being singled out as “a rich man’s sport.”

“I think it's a cheap shot,” said Rex Cole, general manager and director of golf at the Cottonwood Golf Course in El Cajon. “It's the wrong time right now. Golf courses are really struggling; golf professionals are struggling.”

If things get really bad, maybe Cole can ask the governor for a bailout.

Baby found on California golf course

It’s been an odd and tragic few weeks in golf. In Oregon, a kid in a golf cart plowed over a referee in the middle of a high school football field. In Louisiana, a girl died after her brother hit her in the head with a golf ball.   

And now this. Monday at Butte Creek Country Club in Northern California, an abandoned baby was discovered during a tournament.
 
"Redding resident Bobbi Lee said she was on the course watching her daughter play golf in a tournament when she spotted something blue under a tree between the 12th and 13th holes," the Chico Enterprise Record reported.

She went to investigate and found the boy, whose name isn’t known, sitting upright in a flowerbed with his arms and legs folded.

'He wasn’t crying; he wasn't making any noise at all,' Lee said. 

The baby was unharmed and wearing a blue sweatshirt adorned with "Tigger," the Tiger from Winnie the Pooh. The local sheriff's office reported that a relative had been found but did not provide further details. The baby's parents have been located, and the mother, who left the baby at the course, has been transported to a correctional facility for evaluation.

The infant was examined at a local hospital and found to be healthy, and has since been in the care of Butte County Children's Services.