The sixth green at Carthage Municipal Golf Course will likely play a bit differently the rest of the year thanks to some careless person or persons in a vehicle.

Golf Course Superintendent Kurt Neubert said someone in a vehicle of some kind drove onto the green at the sixth hole and swerved, creating big ruts in the rain-soaked grass and altering the hole for possibly the entire season.

Neubert said he drove by the sixth green at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday and it was fine then.

"I would bet they did it sometime between dark and midnight last night," Neubert said. "You could see the dirt they threw up had dried out a bit, so it had sat out for a few hours. They probably did at least $1,500 damage to the hole."

Neubert said golf course employees had just finished a process called aeration where they inject air into the ground to battle the compaction that occurs on greens and prevents grass root development.

He said the aeration plus three inches of rain that fell on Wednesday night and Thursday softened the ground and probably enhanced the damage caused by the vehicle.

Neubert said this kind of vandalism happens every once in a while. He said in the seven years he's been golf course superintendent, people have driven vehicles on to greens approximately four times. He said all-terrain vehicles have been used to vandalize the course two or three additional times.

"This time, the people apparently came from Morgan Heights Road, crossed a ditch and made one big huge donut," Neubert said. "Fortunately the vehicle had what looks like street tires and that limited the damage somewhat. It's still going to affect play for the entire season probably."

Anyone with information about the vandalism is asked to call the Carthage Police Department at 237-7200.