Somebody’s going to get killed.

It’s just a matter of time, warns Ajax homeowner Mike Campitelli, showing a pail full of golf balls as proof. He’s collected 200 of them from his Roberson Dr. backyard since May.

Campitelli lives beside Riverside Golf Course, or Hole 5, to be precise. His property, and that of two other homeowners, is in the line of fire when badly hit balls veer to the right off the tee 35 metres away.

His wife, Laurie, has been grazed on the shoulder, his 15-year-old daughter was almost struck in their swimming pool, and his father-in-law suffered a big bruise to his upper left arm just days after heart surgery.

“Can you imagine if the ball had hit my heart?” John Messina says of the mishap last summer. Campitelli’s young nephews now wear helmets when they come for a swim.

“This is a life-threatening situation,” says the furious father of two teenagers who’s been fighting for a solution for two years. “Are they waiting for one of my kids to get killed?”

It’s an easy fix, says the owner of a waste disposal company, as tree branches crackle twice from errant balls during a reporter’s visit. A net installed alongside the tee blocks would stop the balls’ trajectory into residents’ yards, he says.

But a spokeswoman for the nine-hole course disagrees. “There’s no easy fix,” says clubhouse manager Deborah Sewell-McConomy. “We are working toward a solution, but it takes time.”

She lists size, design and location of the net, along with bylaw and environmental issues. After “many, many meetings” with officials from the town, which owns the land and leases it to the golf course, it’s impossible to predict when everything will be resolved, she says.

The town has approved installation of a net but points out that consent is needed from the developer who owns the sliver of land between the homes and golf course. Spokesman Stuart Green says Ajax is only acting as mediator and it’s up to the warring parties to work things out.

Campitelli and his next-door neighbour Cynthia Pavletich, who were told to expect the “occasional” ball when they bought their homes, say course owners advised them to go after the golfers.

“It’s ridiculous,” says Pavletich, who’s had several windows broken and retrieves an average of six balls a day from her garden. “Am I supposed to jump over a fence at 7 o’clock in the morning to chase after a golfer?”

She and her family only venture out at night for fear of being hit.

Campitelli, who’s about to launch a lawsuit, has resorted to blaring a recorded message, complete with sirens, warning golfers to please be careful of people nearby.

“It’s driving them crazy. Now they’re so mad they’re aiming directly at the house,” he says, adding he called police last month after five balls were deliberately fired at his “dream home.”

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He wonders why there’s no buffer zone, a detail the town confirmed from the plans for the subdivision built this decade. But Sewell-McConomy points out the 27-year-old course was there first and residents should expect stray balls.

Riverside’s website advises that “driving accuracy is a must.” But both sides agree there must be a lot of bad golfers out there to misfire the hundreds of balls collected on Roberson Dr.