You could blame everyone involved really. City should have seen this coming when they approved the course. Developer should have seen this coming when they were building the homes and worked something out with the course. If the course owners knew ahead of time where home lots were going to end up, they should have designed differently. The home buyers should have known their yard was going to be a target.
Stupid human tricks
At that point they could have either bought the land or reset that tee.
They chose to do neither.
When it became a problem they could have reset the tee.
They once again did not chose to do that, instead they whined to their members who then, in a very predictable move, decided to target the house.
People who do not bother to read about the case seem to think it was an occasional thing. It wasn't.
Didn't need to be this way.
Be a good neighbor, fix your screw up everybody could have been happy except the lawyers.
Now that the tee is reset it is an occasional thing but no one is happy. Except the lawyers. Who got nice large fees.