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Call it Operation Orange. Somebody or something turned all 18 greens of a historic Michigan golf course orange, and nobody knows who or why. The University of Michigan’s golf course, designed nearly 100 years ago by Alister MacKenzie, the same architect behind Augusta National, suffered sudden, unexplained orangeness across every green and its practice putting surface, the Wall Street Journal reports. The course temporarily cut rates for non-university golfers while dealing with the damage. Meanwhile, the university’s public safety division confirmed vandalism but hasn’t released details, citing an active investigation.
Neither rival Ohio State nor Michigan State counts orange among its colors, so that makes the mystery even murkier. The damage reportedly happened on the Fourth of July, though the university didn’t alert the public until July 16. Video reportedly shows someone filling grounds-crew containers with an unknown chemical, but a hoodie and hat made identification difficult.
This isn’t unheard of in the region. In 2023, someone dumped glyphosate on two greens at the private Detroit Golf Club, forcing a re-sod job that cost tens of thousands of dollars just before a PGA Tour event. “It can get quite expensive,” said the club’s director of agronomy, Sam Moynihan. “I hope they catch whoever did it.”