Staats

*830 Plaintiff Carolyn Staats nearly died after being attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets while playing golf on a Yountville *239 course operated by Vintner's Golf Club, LLC (Club). She sued the Club for general negligence and premises liability, but the trial court granted summary judgment against her on the basis that the Club owed no duty to protect its patrons from yellow jackets that came from an undiscovered nest on the course.

We reverse. We hold that the duty of golf course operators to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition includes a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect patrons from nests of yellow jackets on the premises. The measures a golf course operator must take to satisfy this duty may vary, and we do not address whether the Club breached its duty, or whether any such breach caused Staats's injuries. Here, those questions involve unresolved issues of material fact that must be determined by the trier of fact in the first instance.

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In early July 2013, Staats was taking a golf lesson from Jeffrey Dennis, an instructor at the Club. As she prepared to take a shot on the fairway of the fifth hole, she…