Category Archives: Todd Mullen

Golf balls! It’s raining golf balls!

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There is no end to it. Cloudy, sunny, windy, calm. If it’s golfing weather, that means golf balls will be raining down on my house, property, and hapless guests who come to visit me. Not even pets are safe. 

I own a home along the 11th fairway of the Cove View Golf Course in Richfield, Utah. I’ve been living there for eight years. It’s a beautiful spot (see photo below from my yard looking across the 11th fairway and up into the mountains).

But it’s not as idyllic as it may look. I’ve been in a constant battle with both the course and the city since I bought the place over being barraged on a daily basis by golf balls.

View from my backyard of the 11th fairway at Cove View Golf Course, Richfield, Utah. A beautiful spot if there wasn’t continual bombardment by golf balls.

I’m on the right side of the fairway, about 150 yards up from the tee box. Apparently that’s a perfect landing spot for sliced balls.

The golf balls started raining down. And didn’t stop. It almost never stops — only if the weather is too inclement for golfers to be out, or it’s dark. 

My garage doors — and they are not standard-sized garage doors, they’re enormous, and big enough to accommodate a tractor trailer — have been destroyed and need to be replaced. That, however, won’t solve the underlying problem. That would be like treating someone suffering a compound fracture with a band-aid. It’s not going to get better. You’re not addressing the root cause of the problem. 

So here we are. Eight years after I bought the house, eight years of being literally hammered with golf balls, and the problem still persists. When I initially bought the home, golfer traffic at the course was relatively low. An occasional golf ball would be the problem. However, in about 2020, things picked up on the course. The number of golfers grew; the errant golf balls got more intense. 

Nothing the golf course or the city is doing or has done has resolved this problem. They’ve placed nets up; they’re not high enough. They moved the tee box on the 11th up, shortening the hole from a par 5 to a par 3; my other neighbors started to complain, so they moved the tee box back to it’s original spot. The logic for doing that? “Well, Steve’s gonna sue us anyway, so …”

Attorney’s letter sums things up nicely

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In a letter to Richfield City Mayor Bryan Burrows, Richfield City Admin/Recorder Michele Jolley, and PGA golf pro at Cove View Golf Course Todd Mullen, an attorney representing me has laid out the eight-year-long struggle I’ve been having with trying to solve the ongoing problem of me, my house, and property being pelted with golf balls on a regular basis. 

The Jolley Letters — Not so Jolly, #1 — Steven A. Hansen, are you an attorney who gives legal advice?

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Click on image above to see full-size, legible copy.

My attorney has been given letters written by Michele Jolley related to correspondence regarding my ongoing issues with Cove View Golf Course, its management, the city of Richfield, and its various decision-makers, specifically current Mayor Bryan Burrows. (See one above.)

The “Steve” she is referring to in the letter is not me; it is Steven A. Hansen, CEO of UtahTrust.gov. I suppose Michele, who is the Richfield City Admin/Recorder, must have asked for and gotten some answers from Mr. Hansen regarding how to deal with me and my ongoing complaints about being in a golf course firing zone with inadequate protection for my house, cars and property, which are bombarded daily with amateur golfers’ errant golf balls. 

I’ll break down the letter shown above briefly for you: 

Uh-oh. I guess that doesn’t look good for me. They, “don’t want to set a precedent for future complaints.” 

The letter is replete with typos and misspellings, as you can see by reading it. Ultimately, it appears it doesn’t bode well for me, because Cove View Golf Course PGA Pro Todd Mullen figures I’m going to sue them anyway so just move the tee box back to its original position. 

Let me tell you, the complaints will not stop until this matter is successfully resolved, and I no longer am bombarded by flying sliced golf balls hitting my house, my cars, my visitors’ cars, and even me. The only time this barrage stops is at night, when the course is closed and there are no golfers about. This is a beautiful place to have a home; but I shouldn’t be held hostage during daylight hours by all these golf balls flying about, which can cause some significant damage. And money — like putting up netting that is ineffectual, or offering to replace my damaged garage doors (a significant cost) — doesn’t matter. It won’t bring an end to this happening. 

Jolley Letter #2 — Michele Jolley, your letter is clearly libelous; I will be seeking clarity as to where you got your information

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Point of Clarification to the letter of July 2, 2025 seen below: This is an open letter to Michele Jolley — Ms. Jolley, you need to get your facts straight. You’re now opening another door in your assumptions and allegations that you threw at me in this letter. You stated that I “threatened to personally sue the mayor and do everything he can to sabotage his re-election campaign.” I can tell you, that at the writing of this post, I am currently seeking legal opinions to find out if I can sue you for libel, and Brian Burrows, Cove View Golf Course PGA Pro Todd Mullen, and Mike Jorgensen, personally, for a multitude of things. That’s not a threat, that’s a promise. As to sabotaging his re-election campaign, you’d better be able to prove that (all I have to do is tell the truth; truth is not sabotaging), because I said nothing of the sort. As for the $1.3 million for my home, the actual offer was for $1.25 million for my home and the lot next door. That number is supposed to be reflective of the costs to reconstruct my house exactly as it already is. 

Click on image above to see full-size, legible copy.

Several months after that first letter that my attorney and I were able to see, a second letter was generated by Michele Jolley, Richfield City Admin/Recorder (shown above), asking for further help regarding my situation. (See initial letter in separate post.)

The letter again was to Steve Hansen of UtahTrust.gov and also was copied to a UtahTrust.gov consultant, Josh McKell. Mr. McKell is a consultant working on the “Risk Finance” team at UtahTrust.gov. Perhaps this kind of issue has been of some concern to other golf courses around the state. That’s just speculation.

In reading the letter, it’s clear that Michele and all involved are in CYA mode — and all the adults in the room know what that is.

Richfield, Cove View Golf Course, and the course’s PGA pro, Todd Mullen, seem much more interested in the CYA aspect of their conflict with me rather than actually resolving the conflict.

They’re worried about liability and lawsuits, not fixing the problem.

Here’s my note to them: fix the problem. Then you won’t have to worry about liability and lawsuits and “risk finance” issues.

 

Drunken Behavior and Ineffective Cove View Golf Course Marshals

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Surprise, surprise, amateur golfers drink while playing.

You know what this leads to: over-exuberance either when playing well, playing poorly, or especially when encountering golf course residents when those amateurs try to retrieve an out-of-bounds (OB) golf ball. And especially when that golfer has just bombed a house. Which happens on a nearly daily basis at my house along the 11th fairway.

The drunken behavior of golf course patrons fan be astonishingly crude. And vulgar. And what usually happens? Nothing.

From what I’ve seen during my 8 years living along the 11th fairway is that there is no oversight by golf course marshals — if there even are any. These golfers are not held accountable.

From what I’ve experienced — and this is anecdotal — it seems like Cove View Golf Course has a hard time hiring marshals and keeping them once they’ve been hired. It seems like they are mainly leaning on volunteers. These “marshals” may spend the day driving around the course, but do nothing to enforce golf course rules, etiquette or behavior of golfers.

Things need to get tightened up at Cove View Golf Course.

Living adjacent to the Cove View Golf Course in Richfield comes at a cost — I paid for half of the cost of the initial netting …

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Failed & torn netting along the 11th fairway at Cove View Golf Course next to my house.

When I initially bought my home, along the 11th fairway of the Cove View Golf Course in Richfield, Utah, the golf course player traffic on its fairways was relatively low. 

An occasional errantly hit golf ball would be more of a nuisance, not the kind of  problem it’s evolved to be. 

Then, about five years ago, in about 2020, activity picked up on the course; the errant golf balls got more intense; they grew from a nuisance to a steady barrage.

At that time, the Richfield Mayor was Dave Ogden. He was an absolutely wonderful man to deal with. He was resolution-oriented, unlike current Mayor Bryan Burrows, who seems to have an arrogant attitude towards outsiders — such as me, a “Move-In” as they sometimes refer to me.

Mayor Ogden was so kind and wanted to be so helpful, that I agreed to pay for half of the cost of the initial net installation to try to help protect me and my property. 

We got them installed, but by 2021, those nets were destroyed. (See photo above)

Porch pirate pilfering golf balls from my porch, 7-18-2021.

In addition, the behavior of the people on the golf course got increasingly worse. As you also will see from the two pictures above, people became bold and brazen in their conduct. I’ve said I’m no golfer and I don’t know much about golf etiquette, but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t include stealing golf balls that were sitting on a resident’s porch. Yes, as I’ve documented from these  photos taken on July 18, 2021 (at right, and below), it became so bad that people were coming onto my front porch to steal golf balls I had collected that were sitting on my outdoor furniture. These weren’t treats that I was setting out for Halloween trick or treaters. 

It looks like an adult sent this young boy to be the thief that day. 

Porch pirate: getting away with the goods.

When Mayor Burrows took over, he haphazardly listened to me and put up poles and nets that were too short and not wide enough. After several text exchanges with him and Cove View Golf Course PGA pro Todd Mullen, it was clear to me that my words were falling on deaf ears. It was more important to Richfield Mayor Burrows to take care of the people who lived and could vote there, rather than the “Move-Ins” like myself who were part-time residents. 

Mr. Mullen and Mayor Burrows clearly made their decisions to cater to voters as seen in this letter below, written by Michele Jolley:

It’s amazing that Mr. Mullen, is not only a PGA pro, but also an expert in legalities. He made the decision after my neighbors complained that he should restore the 11th tee to its original location, because, as the letter states, I would be suing them anyway. 

Unthoughtful assumptions by unthoughtful people. Again, catering to locals and voters. 

As I have now learned, Mr. Mullen is moving on to work in the church full time. I say good riddance.