I agree with Sean. Everyone should have the right to peaceful enjoyment of their property irrespective of whether the neighbours were there first, and I believe that more or less sums up the law in Scotland. Here nobody gains financially out of a dispute and if it goes to court the affected owner is seeking what is termed here as an interim interdict. The interim interdict is in effect a court order preventing the club from any further actions continuing the nuisance. More often than not, that involves the club having to take measures that costs them money but there is no compensation paid to the affected owner, unless of course he is suing for compensation for damage done which I can't remember being done.
As an aside, historical courses such as the Old Course are perhaps less at risk even though clearly the case for getting an interim interdict against many of their holes would be a slam dunk. An obvious example would be the 17th but also the 18th. It's not likely to happen for obvious commercial reasons but that's not to say you might not get some cantankerous old geezer with no interest in golf deciding to be awkward.
Niall
Sometimes I wonder why the US court system can't emulate things like that...... have a finding that you correct a problem, but aren't paying damages, if there really aren't any (like a death, or lost eye) Also, I wish we could have three verdicts in the civil suits (because they will never adopt the loser pays court fees system here) - for the plaintiff, corrections, no damages, for the plaintiff with damages, for the defendant, with no damages, or for the defendant, and a penalty for "frivolous complaint", so at least there would be some chance that a plaintiff could be punished for a frivolous suit.
BTW, for all we complain about lawsuits here, a few years back, we discussed how few real lawsuits there are in the golf industry, but we fear them anyway, due to horror stories. Also, over 50% find in favor of the defendant, and it is much higher here in TX.
May have told this story, but a few years ago a Ft. Worth attorney contacted me as an expert witness in a golf cart accident. Wasn't really interested, but told him I would meet him. I knew I knew him somewhere. After discussion, I realized I was the jury foreman on one of his cases, where a high school student had pulled a chair out from under his client, and years later, she claimed it cost her a dance career, and it was clear from testimony there were other factors. At any rate, we concluded in about an hour that she was due a lifetime supply of Advil, which we calculated at about $5K. This was "Friday afternoon" jury logic, but we all agreed quickly.
That lawyer said he recalled every word I said when he asked the judge to poll the jury. I spoke first and said "you could throw a blanket over all our initial opinions, we were that close....." Judge closed up shop. Conclusion - Texas juries are pretty tough on that kind of lawsuit.