A golfer steps up to the tee box, places his ball, and surveys his surroundings. Licking one finger, he sticks it in the air and notes a slight south-easterly breeze. Factoring in this information, the angle of the fairway, and the sheen from his plaid polyester pants, he grips his driver and eases it back behind him, preparing to swing. With the velocity of a freight train and no follow-through whatsoever, he shanks the ball out of sight and to the far right, where it collides with a lovely stucco home situated near the ninth hole.

Over the course of the house's life, it may be struck many times by stray drives and chips. One homeowner recently posted on a golfers' forum that his home — situated along a fairway — had been struck 93 times during a six-year period. He did not live in the house but rented it to a tenant, and the property managers did not report the damage to him. He discovered that the house was dotted with holes left by errant golf balls when his tenant's lease expired. He filed a claim, and an adjuster came to inspect the damage. The estimated cost to repair the damage was $143 per hole. The adjuster stated that each golf ball-induced hole must be filed as a separate claim with a separate deductible. With a $500 deductible, which would be applied to each claim, this insured was left without any coverage.

The insured felt that it was absurd that each instance of golf ball damage should require its own claim. However, unless one person stood in front of his home and purposely drove golf balls at his house, the damage occurred over a period of time and was likely caused by a series of wayward shots and not just one consistently horrible golfer with a penchant for hitting this particular house. In other words, they are all separate events.