WATERTOWN — The giant golf ball at the course in Thompson Park returned Tuesday afternoon.
“It wasn’t there when I went out and then I went out again, it was there,” golf course manager Jordan Northrop said a few minutes after its return.
For weeks, the missing golf ball sign was a thorny issue for some city officials. The ball was removed by former Watertown Golf Club owner Michael E. Lundy and then taken to Ives Hill Country Club on Flower Avenue West as an April Fools’ prank.
Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith wasn’t amused and threatened to have Mr. Lundy arrested.
On Tuesday, the golf ball was placed in the exact spot where it was taken at the city’s newly named Thompson Park Golf Course.
“No one saw it returned,” Mr. Northrop said. “Don’t know who brought it back.”
The ball no longer displays the Watertown Golf Club logo, however. It’s been painted over.
The city purchased the Watertown Golf Club for $3.4 million from Mr. Lundy in January. The purchase has been a political hot potato, mainly over its price.
At the time of the property transfer, there was some confusion from city officials regarding who owned it.
Mr. Lundy was convinced it was still his, while Mayor Smith disagreed.
In recent weeks, the interim City Attorney H. Todd Bullard sent two letters to Mr. Lundy demanding that it be returned.
Mr. Lundy’s attorney, Michael Young, wrote in a statement Tuesday that the issue with the golf ball “was resolved” after many negotiations between him and Mr. Bullard.
Mr. Lundy never intended to sell the golf ball and purposely left it off a list of hundreds of items included in the purchase asset agreement, Mr. Young wrote.
Looking back, the agreement also should have included items that the city wanted to retain, he added. If that had occurred, the misunderstanding could have easily been avoided, Mr. Young wrote.
Under the agreement, Ives Hill Country Club owner P.J. Simao was paid $850,000 in exchange for reducing his course to nine holes, making the Thompson Park links the only 18-hole golf course in the city.
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