Comeback Course
Glenrochie Country Club continuing to be revamped following
a devastating storm more than two years ago | by Joe aVenTo
t
JOE AVENTO; INSET: FILE PHOTO
The storm took the
trees from Glenrochie
Country Club, but
it couldn’t take the
membership’s spirit.
The golf course at the member-owned
club in Abingdon suffered severe damage in
April 2011 when tornadoes swept through
southwest Virginia. More than 400 of
Glenrochie’s trees were destroyed. In the
aftermath, the tree-lined holes on the original
nine looked more like a field strewn with
broken and shredded toothpicks.
A little more than two years later, the club’s
members have a course they’re proud to
own. And General Manager Ben Abel says he
knows where the credit deserves to go.
“Our members have been great,” says Abel,
who also serves as the club’s superintendent.
“We’re doing very well. I’ve been here for
37 years and I know the people, so I knew
we’d be OK. We’re sort of like family, and
everyone has been very supportive.”
Knee-high fescue now lines many of the
fairways where trees once stood.
The rough is thick?? ?–too tangly in many
places––but the plan is to thin it out and
make it playable. Stan Zontek, a legendary
USGA agronomist, was on site to lend a
helping hand before he died last August.
He suggested a three-year plan to allow
the fescue to become established before the
thinning began. It’s a plan the club is going
to implement.
“We want to get it to where it’s wispy, like
the British Open, where you can find your
ball and play it,” says Jake Spott, Glenrochie’s
head PGA professional. “We’re definitely not
there yet.”
Without the trees making the fairways
seem so tight, many of the tee shots don’t
have the same intimidating feel they once
did. But with the thick rough as the new
defense, the course, which hosted the VSGA
Women’s Amateur Championship in 1999
and 2002, is actually more difficult. New
fairway bunkers were added in several places
as well. The storm didn’t affect the course’s
best feature: its fast and tricky greens.
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After a tornado in
April 2011 left the golf
course in shambles,
the membership has
regrouped and the
layout has a new look.
The damage came mostly on the original
nine, designed by Alex McKay and opened
in 1958 on land where a girls’ camp once
stood. Before the storm, thick groves of
trees made each hole seem like a course of
its own. Today, you can see just about any
hole from any other. The newer nine, laid
out by Dan Maples, opened in 1989. It has
a more open feel and the storm didn’t do
much damage to that parcel.
COLLECTIVE REBUILD
Getting to where the club is today was
an arduous process, but one the members
embraced when faced with the challenge.
“Everybody just jumped in,” Abel said.
“We had members bringing equipment in.
We had members bringing saws in. We had
work days and we had 30 members using
saws and equipment.”
Once the enormous cleanup task was
completed––damage was estimated at more
than a half-million dollars––the renovations
began. In addition to the revamped rough,
about 120 new trees were planted. The club
also formed a foundation where members
could donate a tree in honor or memory of
friends or family members. A plaque in the
clubhouse holds the names.
“Our members have been very, very strong
throughout the process,” Spott says. “They’ve
been very supportive. They got a new pro
and a new golf course all at the same time.”
Glenrochie is Spott’s first job as a head
professional. He was
hired before the
storm, but arrived
shortly afterward.
“I told him ‘If you change your mind,
I understand,’ ” Abel says. “It was tough
on him. When he got here, it looked like
World War II. But he stayed and has done a
good job. He’s a good young man.”
Spott got quite a jolt when he arrived for
his first day on the job.
“There were three massive humps of
damaged trees,” he remembers. “There was a
wood chipper the size of a semi-trailer. It was
literally a disaster zone the first three or four
months I was here.
“I’m a young head professional. It’s my
first head professional job and I was excited
about it, and I knew that we had some
challenges. Then you throw in half a million
dollars worth of storm damage ... it’s hard to
grasp that. It’s really been a challenge, but it’s
only made me stronger. I think it’s made our
membership appreciative of what they had
and what they have.”
While Spott hears about the “good ol’
days” of tree-lined fairways from time to
time, he says just about everybody involved is
looking forward.
“I still drive in each day and look at
the grass and think ‘We’ve come a long
way,’ ” Spott says. “I think people are proud
of Glenrochie again. It’s definitely a new
chapter; no doubt about that.”
Author Joe Avento is a sports reporter for
The Johnson City-Press (Tenn.) and a
regular contributor to Virginia Golfer.
September/OctOber 2013 | Virginia golfer
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8/30/13 8:37 AM