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The Statistics are Flying
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Letter to the Times-Picayune 09/10/2001
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We'll take our chances, thank you very much
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Longtime golf pro Stan Stopa is quoted as having said 100 people were hit by golf balls at Audubon Park
in the past 18 or 19 years ("Critics blast Audubon renovation," Sept. 5).
He said that
his cart was hit 25 times and he himself three times. That leaves 72 hits, 75 percent of them of
golfers.
That leaves 18 hits to be shared by non-golfers over the 18 or 19 year period, or
an average one non-golfer per year.
Audubon Park has about 750,000 to 1 million visitors
per year or about 18 million in 18 to 19 years.
Ergo, the chance of getting hit by one
of Stan Stopa's balls is about 1 in a million. But that is only when the non-golfer is actually
on the golf course.
Since at least 98 percent of the non-golfers never go onto the golf
course, their chance of getting hit is more like one in 100 million.
However, that does
not take in the protection of surrounding trees. It is more likely therefore to get the Powerball
than an Audubon golf ball.
Maybe it is goofballs rather than golf balls the public needs to
protected from.
The Audubon Institute is going to spend $3 million to protect the public
from this deadly golf ball danger.
We would rather take our chances and keep the Hurst
pathway across no-mans land.
J.A.W. Aalders
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