The Port Aransas, Texas, property was severely damaged by Hurricane Harvey, but officials have begun to implement a recovery plan that includes improvements to provide better protection against future storms, as well as new amenities and features to create an “entertainment facility.” The course is expected to reopen to golfers in April 2019.
It has been almost a year since Hurricane Harvey ravaged the Texas coast, and golfers still are missing at the Palmilla Beach Golf Club in Port Aransas, Texas, which remains closed, KRIS-TV in Corpus Christi reported.
The storm resulted in damage that was more severe than first thought, causing Palmilla Beach officials to head in a new direction as a recovery plan was formed, KRIS reported.
The club, with its coastal backdrop, provides the only links course in Texas with such a view, KRIS reported. “It’s a championship golf course, an Arnold Palmer design, and we played about 23,000 rounds a year out here,” Gregory Carr, the property’s asset manager, told KRIS.
Hurricane Harvey brought a lot of sea water onto the course that proved difficult to remove, Carr told KRIS, and once the waters receded, the damage was more significant than expected. The greens were deemed a total loss and the course’s irrigation system was also lost.
Facing a huge rebuilding effort ahead, Carr told KRIS that Palmilla Beach started to not only think about restoring the golf course, but making it better.
“We brought in our land planners,” he told the station. “We brought in architects. We brought in Troon Golf to help us plan the facility of the future.”
When restored, Palmilla Beach members’ and guests will benefit from new amenities and features that will be added to create an entertainment facility and help the club appeal to a wider market, Carr told KRIS.
The property is also keeping future storms in mind as it rebuilds, after falling victim to Harvey, Carr added.
“We saw some vulnerabilities with the storm and some of the floods we’ve had the past few years, so we will make significant improvements on the golf course that will help drainage and such as we go forward,” he said.
Work on the newly designed course started about two weeks ago, and play is expected to resume April 1, 2019, KRIS reported.
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