Canton, North Carolina — Buddy Lawrence grew up on tobacco farms in eastern North Carolina, surfed the Atlantic Ocean, and spent nearly 40 years in the golf industry along the Tar Heels coast. So he’s seen his fair share of nasty hurricanes over the years.
When Lawrence took the job in 2019 as general manager of the Springdale Mountain Golf Resort in scenic and peaceful Heywood County, about an hour west of Asheville in the western mountainous region, he said: You must have imagined dealing with more severe weather at the twilight of your golf career. .
The struggling resort appeared to be heading in the right direction under new owners, the father-son duo of Springdale Golf Partners LLC’s Zhang and Rex West.
(Photo: David Droschak)
Springdale is a beautiful golf course, with the Front Nine traversing the picturesque valley of the eastern fork of the Pigeon River and the Back Nine rising up to 3,200 feet and offering mountain vistas, including the famous Cold Mountain. I can. A groundbreaking ceremony for the new clubhouse was held in May 2021. With a new slogan, ‘Relax, Recharge, Restore Soul’, life seemed to be going well.
On the afternoon of August 17, 2021, a microburst occurred as part of the wreckage of Tropical Storm Fred, relaxing in and around the resort. An estimated 21 inches of rain fell in just two hours.
“When the owner called me and asked how I was doing, I said, ‘Biblical,’ but he laughed at me,” Lawrence says of how the historic flash flood was connected to the small town of Courso. I look back 15 months after taking the lives of six people around it. “Then he started seeing the pictures on the news and it was really bad.”
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When it started to rain, Lawrence got the golf staff home safely. Having lived in the community and witnessing the devastation firsthand, he was left behind. From one perspective, some holes in Springdale on the front nine are only a pitching wedge from the river bed.
“The river was rising about a foot a minute for about 10 to 15 minutes,” says Lawrence. “I didn’t realize how bad it was until I saw LP gas tanks and fuel oil tanks floating. The next thing I saw was clothes and dressers and furniture. And I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Then I saw a car pass by and debris from the house, so at that point I knew this was really bad. There was nothing. “
(Photo: Jeremy Boone)
In some places, water levels are as high as 7 feet above previous records. Crusoe was the hardest hit of several heavily damaged towns.
Meanwhile, golf course manager Jeremy Boone had returned from Nashville, Tennessee, and met with Lawrence the next morning to inspect the extensive damage to the golf course.
“We looked at each other and said, ‘Where do we start?'” says Boone. “With the amount of rain we got, there were no holes without some kind of damage, whether fallen trees, debris, or bridges were washed away. Only a few cart tracks were washed away. All All the sand in the bunkers had to be replaced Some are probably in Tennessee There was a log on the golf course There was a fridge on the 5th green Rescued a 12 inch trout It’s in a puddle I was swimming back and forth in the carriageway, so I got a five-gallon bucket, rescued it, and threw it back into the creek.”
The Atlantic hurricane season officially ends on November 30, but the chances of storms are greatly reduced this month as water temperatures cool on the east coast. In 2022, Hurricane Ian was his only one, and it was a deadly Category 4 hurricane.
The American Association of Golf Course Managers provides assistance to members with personal damage caused by natural disasters, not golf course damage. I am applying for support from the fund.
“We expect much more in the coming weeks,” said GCSAA Media Relations Manager Mike Strauss.
However, most, if not all, natural damage to golf courses is your responsibility and can be very costly. For example, cleaning at Springdale cost an estimated $500,000, with another $200,000 in lost revenue while the course was closed for his 45 days.
According to NOAA, more than 300 hurricanes have hit the continental United States since 1851, and just under a third are classified as Category 3, 4, or 5 “major hurricanes.” A total of about 120 golfing Florida, including 37 major hurricanes.
Florida is followed by Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina, all of which are about half of Florida’s total and are usually less severe.
(Photo: Jeremy Boone)
A spokesman for the National Golf Foundation said, “So, generally speaking, it’s about as far away as a major hurricane hits somewhere in the continental United States every other year.” “When it comes to Florida, which leads the US with more than 1,200 golf courses, there is no doubt that it will have a greater impact on the golf industry. It could also be very, very different: replacing non-salt water tolerant grass, redoing bunkers, replacing infrastructure from clubhouses and maintenance facilities to on-course bridges and bathrooms/ Rebuilding.
“The reality is that in storm-prone areas, there are facilities that account for these unforeseen weather events in their annual budgets and additional premiums on insurance policies.”
For example, Springdale lost all six of its golf course bridges, making cleanup logistics even more difficult.
Officials believe a large 200-foot-by-200-foot culvert near the Blue Ridge Parkway clogged during the storm and burst, allowing water to flow down the mountain into a fork in the river and surrounding roads. increase.
“The region experienced two tropical storms in 2004 that moved through very slowly,” says Lawrence. “And when a hurricane hits the coast, the water usually rises slowly. It was a devastating event with one big wall of water.”
(Photo: Jeremy Boone)
With the games opening nearly two months after the August 2021 storm, West Family has donated half of the profits (about $45,000) to the community by December 25th.
“As you know, last August we were beginning to see the fruits of our labor. Things were much better than before. And the flood kicked us in the teeth. It was like, it was two steps forward and we were really back, really hard,” says Boone. “If we didn’t have the money and the passion for what Rex wants Springdale to do, these repairs would have been going on for years.”
For weeks, Boone and his crew, with the help of members and some residents, picked up rocks that had drifted into some fairways and put them into buckets for tedious cleanup work.
“It was heartbreaking, but six people lost their lives, their homes were washed away, and people I knew personally lost their homes, so it was very easy to see the whole picture.” says Boone. “I kept a low profile about what happened to the golf course because there were more important things than the golf course. I couldn’t even go home at night.”
Boone saved a photo of the day, a reminder of how uncontrollable weather can affect people’s lives.
“I still have a screenshot of Red Blood’s radar right above the golf course,” he says. “I kept checking on my phone, but it didn’t move, it was just red. Now, whenever it rains for a long time around here, people get nervous.”
“I started in the golf business in 1988 and have never seen this level of damage in my 30+ year career. I feel sorry for you.”
