The damage from Hurricane Helene is estimated to cost around $ 80 billion. general manager, Patrick Warren.“ The storm was quite powerful. It brought tears to my eyes when I saw the devastation.”
Western N. C. Makes Progress Following Hurricane Helene’ s Path
The City of Asheville, N. C., had invested $ 3 million to renovate its beloved Donald Ross-designed Asheville Municipal Golf Course.
Renovations on the 1927 course, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, started at the beginning of 2023, and the course reopened for play on June 1, 2024. Nobody could have dreamed what would happen only a few months later.
Hurricane Helene swept into this mountain town on Sept. 27, 2024, in a storm that dumped more than 30 inches of rain and caused the Swannanoa River to crest to 30 feet, washing out everything in its path.
Beautifully restored greens and welcoming fairways were now covered in asphalt chunks of the washed-out Swannanoa River Road, along with guard rails, telephone poles, chunks of steel and numerous trees. Transfer trucks could be seen floating down the river.
“ We only had our beautiful 18 holes open for a few months before the hurricane hit,” says the course’ s PGA Professional and
The damage from Hurricane Helene is estimated to cost around $ 80 billion. general manager, Patrick Warren.“ The storm was quite powerful. It brought tears to my eyes when I saw the devastation.”
The Southern Appalachian region had endured three days of heavy rain prior to the storm, and when it arrived— with winds of 106 mph recorded at the top of Mount Mitchell— meteorological bedlam ensued.
The U. S. Geological Survey recorded 2,015 landslides, largely in western North Carolina. At least 175 individuals were killed in Hurricane Helene’ s path, according to the National Hurricane Center, with an estimated cost of damage projected around $ 80 billion.
“ A lot of lives were lost during this tragedy, so you just have to put it into perspective,” Warren says.“ Fortunately, all of the staff here and everybody who is involved with the course came out OK.”
Remarkably, Asheville Municipal was able to reopen its back nine holes on Oct. 28, after extensive cleanup involving city workers and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. The course is now waiting on FEMA assessments and funding to rebuild.
Warren estimates the cost to be around $ 7 million to completely rebuild nine holes at Asheville Municipal. He hopes work can begin this fall, but expects it to take up to two years for the course to return to 18 holes.
Nearby, the Omni Grove Park Inn Golf Course, another Donald Ross creation, was closed for two weeks. The course suffered extensive tree damage due to high winds, but now has 18 holes open for play.
Mount Mitchell Golf Course is still closed. The course’ s website has a GoFundMe page set up for its rebuilding process, as well as to support a staff member who lost his home and several members of his family during the storm.
Broadmoor Golf Links in Fletcher, N. C., was heavily damaged and is closed. Currently, only its driving range is open.
Black Mountain Golf Course, known for its 747-yard, par-6, 17th hole, also suffered severe flooding and is indefinitely closed. All of its course maintenance equipment and its maintenance building were lost in the flood. The course suffered an estimated $ 2 million in damages.
Abraham notes that the record for the river cresting in that area was 37 feet back in 1937. The course, built in 2000, also experienced a flood five years ago, with river water overtaking its 18th hole and part of its 17th and No. 3 holes.
Following the 2024 flood, it took about one week for most of the trapped floodwater to drain out. Within three weeks, eight holes were open for play, and then 10 holes. Since the end of November 2024, the course has operated with temporary greens on holes 8 and 12, with holes 14 and 15 still closed.
Because the storm struck late in the season, by the time the Pete Dye River Course had filed insurance claims and were starting to rebuild and move around dirt, it was too late to grow grass.
Each of the 102 bunkers on the property washed out, so work began to rebuild each bunker. Installed were new drain lines, gravel, liners, sand and resodding around the bunkers. That 3½-month project began two weeks before Christmas.
A company specializing in greens arrived the week before Thanksgiving and began reconstructing greens 8, 12 and 14, which suffered the most damage. Workers tore out old sod, scooped down about 18 inches, installed new drainage and gravel around the drain lines, repacked the sand mix, and then
Asheville Municipal
You could hear the tree branches popping and cracking everywhere and we watched limbs fly horizontally 30-40 yards across the fairways.”
— John O’ Neal, Fincastle general manager
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE COURSES
28 V IRGINIA G OLFER | M AY / J UNE 2025 vsga. org