Pete Dye River Course before( left) and after the storm( right). |
Pete Dye River Course |
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE COURSES |
contoured and shaped the greens. That work was completed the week after Christmas, prepping the greens for new sod, which Abraham expected by late March.
Some of the course’ s fairways also had to be resodded, replacing large sections of turf on holes No. 3, 11, 12, 14, and almost the entire fairway and rough on No. 15. The flood also washed away some cart paths.
“ Once it’ s all done— and at the mercy of the weather— we’ re shooting for the second half of April before we’ re back up and running, and by late April when we’ re at our full potential,” Abraham says.
The price tag of the damage and the repairs at the Pete Dye River Course is expected to reach between $ 1.5 and $ 2 million, reports Abraham, who notes that the course is managed by McConnell Golf in Raleigh, N. C., a company with 18 courses in its portfolio.
“ They were a huge lifesaver through all of this and they have been instrumental in helping us get up and running again,” he adds.“ They filed the insurance claims and our crew’ s job was to get the golf course up and running as fast as we could and to keep the restaurant and golf shop open.”
Tazewell County Country Club in Pounding Mill fared better than most in southwest Virginia. And while the Clinch River is nearby, general manager Bryce Farris said their worst damage was from
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Fincastle |
a rain-swollen pond that overflowed and spilled down the course’ s No. 2 fairway.
“ We got lucky that we didn’ t have much impact at all with flooding and that the storm didn’ t do too much to the course or the surrounding area,” Farris says.“ It only took us about a week to come back.”
Fincastle Golf Course in Bluefield wasn’ t as fortunate, with most of its damage coming from wind. The municipal facility owned by the Town of Bluefield suffered extensive tree damage on a day that brought eight inches of rain and 70 mph winds that howled from 8 a. m. to around 1 p. m.
“ You could hear the tree branches popping and cracking everywhere and we watched limbs fly horizontally 30-40 yards across the fairways,” recalls John O’ Neal, Fincastle’ s general manager.
Fincastle lost a number of large trees, including one that crashed onto the 17th tee box, but the course was blanketed with limbs and smaller branches— mostly on the front nine holes nestled within a valley. The back nine is built on the side of the East River Mountain and was largely protected from extensive wind damage.
“ It was really the tale of two golf courses,” O’ Neal adds.“ The wind was probably 30 mph stronger in the valley.”
Facing a massive cleanup, John O’ Neal turned to his son Hunter O’ Neal, Fincastle
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’ s director of golf, to come up with a plan. Both Bluefield State University( of West Virginia) and Bluefield University( of Virginia), as well as the local team from Graham High School, all played out of Fincastle as their home course. Hunter reached out to the teams’ coaches to see if their players would help with the cleanup.
And for four consecutive days, some 32 players from the three men’ s and women’ s golf teams collected and hauled away tree limbs and debris to clear the course alongside Fincastle’ s grounds crew.
“ Being a municipal course, we’ re very community based,” says Hunter O’ Neal.“ We give the local school teams full playing privileges and range balls at no cost, so this was a way for them to help us when we needed help.”
“ They knew that the sooner the golf course was open, the sooner they could get back out there,” John O’ Neal adds.“ They were in the middle of their fall season and they still had tournaments to play and they weren’ t getting to practice.”
The storm also knocked out Fincastle’ s power for five days, and knowing its restaurant’ s frozen food would not last, the course fired up its gas grill and fed the volunteer helpers and local first responders. Some of the moms from the high school team brought breakfast items each morning.
“ I guess some good came out of it,” the elder O’ Neal points out.“ We fed people, did a lot of work and five days later, we were playing on our course again. We also were able to reschedule Bluefield State’ s fall tournament, so the kids saved their golf season.”
While roads were washed out, trees were down everywhere and nobody had power in Bluefield for almost a week, Hunter says the town showed a willingness to pitch in to help each other and to help Fincastle reopen.
“ When things like this happen, you learn more about your community and how they can support you,” he adds.“ Our whole town was affected by the storm, but it really brought people together.”
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