While most golf properties are now open or reopening within the next week, the front nine and pump house are submerged in saltwater at Country Club of Charleston (S.C.), while TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., saw 18 inches of rain and 200 downed trees, and Worthington Golf Club in Bonita Springs, Fla., is 60% underwater and expected to stay closed through November.

Lowcountry golf course operators took a hit from Irma in the form of lost rounds and lost revenue, but many of them expected to be up and running less than a week after the hurricane. That is not the case at the Country Club of Charleston (S.C.), however, where the huge storm surge covered most of the front nine in saltwater, the Charleston-based Post and Courier reported.

“We got killed,” said Director of Golf Hart Brown.

Superintendent Paul Corder told Brown the water was at least a foot higher than when Hurricane Matthew hit last summer, and texted photos of waves breaking on the fourth fairway. Brown said the greens on No. 1 and No. 8 were completely submerged and “the rest of the greens on the front side came close. It was a solid lake all the way across to No. 18,” the Post and Courier reported.

“The worst thing is that we got saltwater in our pump house and it got into our pumps,” Brown said. “They are broken. And we got some saltwater in several of our control panels. We rely on our ponds for our irrigation water and now all the ponds are brackish.”

Once irrigation pumps are operational they can switch over to the Charleston Water System to get some freshwater on the course. As a result of Irma’s visit, the Senior Azalea golf tournament scheduled September 27-29 has been cancelled, the Post and Courier reported.

“I don’t know when we will open up. We’re hoping for the best but I have no idea,” Brown said.

Across the harbor at Patriots Point Links in Mount Pleasant, S.C., Brad Parker said all 18 holes were to be open this weekend, but it will take a few more days to get the practice range reopened. The course had 30 to 40 trees uprooted during the storm, the Post and Courier reported.

On the Isle of Palms, S.C., Wild Dunes Resort Director of Golf Jeff Minton said both the Links and Harbor courses had reopened. “The only major issue we had was the back tee on the 17th hole of the Links Course suffered erosion pretty badly and we will have to rebuilt that tee. The rest of the course fared pretty well,” Minton said.

Brian Gerard, Director of Golf at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, said the resort’s courses also fared well and were only closed for a few days for cleanup. The Plantation Course at Edisto also was flooded, according to its Facebook page, and while cleanup is underway there is no word on reopening, the Post and Courier reported.

Terry Sedalik, executive director of the Charleston Golf Course Owners Association and the South Carolina Golf Course Owners Association, said most courses are back up and running and some only closed for the day of the storm, the Post and Courier reported.

See photos here.

In Florida, TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach reported that 18 inches of rain fell on the property, with 200 trees lost on the Stadium Course and 100 at the Valley. The Tour issued a statement on Wednesday that said it did not expect any damage to affect the 2018 Players Championship, which will be played May 10-13, the Jacksonville, Fla., Florida Times-Union reported.

Three of the area’s most historic private courses also had significant tree loss. Sawgrass Country Club lost about 100 trees, mostly on the east nine holes, the Timuquana Country Club lost around 75 trees, and San Jose Country Club lost around 40 trees—with three of them along the 18th hole falling down on San Jose Boulevard before they were cleared, the Times-Union reported.

“Relative to someone having a tree put a hole in the roof of their home, we’re doing fairly well,” said San Jose General Manager Rocky Staples. “It’s hard to pinpoint when we can get the trees cleared because there are only so many tree-cutting companies and they’re all out clearing trees off our roads and people’s homes. We completely understand that priority.”

Irma was the fifth hurricane Timuquana superintendent Alan Brown has experienced at a golf course. He was in South Florida during three hurricanes and has been at the Westside course for Matthew and Irma, the Times-Union reported.

“They’re all different,” he said. “You never know how bad one is going to be or how lucky you might get. The tough part is that you may have been working on a year-long project at your course, and one hurricane wipes it all out.”

Brown said it was a team effort at Timuquana. In addition to his staff of 19 workers, there were another 40 club employees helping clear debris—the professional staff, food and beverage workers and even some club members. No courses reported structural damage to clubhouses, the Times-Union reported.

Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla., is hosting the LPGA’s CME Group Tour Championship in two months, then the PGA Tour’s QBE Shootout a couple of weeks after that. The damage isn’t to any extent to disrupt those events, although most of the line of huge trees guarding the entrance and onward have been flattened, the Naples (Fla.) Daily News reported.

“We had some significant tree loss throughout the property,” General Manager Kevin DeDonato said. “We’re bringing in a crew to clean that up. We’ve got a great staff that’s been working real hard to get the place up and running. We plan to reopen next week but we don’t have a date yet.

“The Gold Course (used for the two tour events) is going to be in great condition just like it was beforehand. It’ll take a couple of weeks to get all of the trees cleaned up. We’re committed to getting that done and making the place look great.”

The Black Course, which is being renovated, still is expected to reopen on time November 1, the Daily News reported.

Quail Creek Country Club in Naples, still reeling somewhat from 13.5 inches from the disturbance that created some flooding, had the first United States Golf Association event in Collier County history postponed Tuesday due to Irma. The Women’s Mid-Amateur, which was set for October 7-12, will be rescheduled, the Daily News reported.

“We are waiting for the USGA to come down and ride the course with us,” General Manager/COO Don Hunter said. “A couple of our issues are we have electric pumps that remove water from the property and we do have a diesel pump. We are down as how much velocity we can get off the courses. It’s just a matter of how long it takes to drain before we can really ascertain things. We had some pretty strong turf health going into the storm.”

Hunter said there were lots of trees down as well, but the long-term prognosis will have more to do with the water removal or drainage. He estimated it’d be another month before either course there could reopen, the Daily News reported.

Like Quail Creek, Worthington Golf Club in Bonita Springs, Fla., was already hit hard by the tropical disturbance, with the layout in the midst of a renovation that took another hit from Irma. Head professional Don Tracy isn’t sure yet when the renovated course will reopen, other than it won’t be on the November 1 projection, the Daily News reported.

“Unfortunately 60 percent is under water,” Tracy said. “On Tuesday, I couldn’t get to my pro shop. I got there (Thursday). I still can’t get to the pro shop with my car. There’s no power. I had to get to the maintenance shed and followed our superintendent’s buggy.

“It’s sad. I feel really, really bad for the membership. I hope they can be patient.”

Stoneybrook Golf Club in Estero also had lots of tree damage, along with something a little different than some other places. “We had some pretty heavy erosion on a couple of holes with bunkers. We lost the majority of our sand integrity,” director of golf Jeff Nixon said. “We may have natural bunkers for the season.”

Reflecting the varying degrees of damage that courses are facing, three others in Lee County are reopening this weekend or sometime next week. Old Corkscrew Golf Club in Estero came out relatively unscathed, despite the eye wall to the east of the eye passing close by, the Daily News reported.

“If it weren’t for (no) power, we’d probably be open right now,” Old Corkscrew’s Mark Iwinski said. “I’ve got to give credit to (superintendent) Brad Caporini and his crew. We tackled it as soon as we got out.”

There were only 20-30 trees down, but pointed out there are not a lot of trees in the interior of the layout. “If you went out there, you’d almost scratch your head, going ‘What hurricane?'” Iwinski said.

Verandah Club reopened Whispering Oak, one of its two courses, on Saturday, along with its River House restaurant. Old Orange is tentatively scheduled to reopen on September 23, the Daily News reported.

“The biggest thing is we had at least 14 inches of rain,” General Manager Jay Severson said. “They were all overflowing. The golf courses drain well. We had large lakes basically on both golf courses that have now subsided. Employees from the golf house have been working on the golf course. It’s been a big team effort by (superintendent Jake Wentz) and everybody.”

Fort Myers (Fla.) Country Club had just four inches of rain, but had 200 trees damaged, City of Fort Myers director of golf Rich Lamb said. “I’m going to say 100 are pretty easy fixes,” he said. “We probably have 20 older, mature trees, and in most cases they’re not in play, that took a real severe hit and they’re going to have to be taken down and cut up and destroyed.”

Lamb was hoping to have the front nine opened Monday, and the back by the following weekend. At Eastwood Golf Course, the city’s other club, where a renovation was going on, received seven inches of rain and affected 50 trees. Lamb said the dilemma is how long to wait so the renovated holes aren’t damaged while the affected trees are removed. He said the back nine is “at least seven days” from reopening, the Daily News reported.

Alico Family Golf in Fort Myers said in an emailed release it had “minimal cosmetic damage.” The Forest, which is located near the flood-ravaged Island Park neighborhood in south Lee County, did receive additional damage from Irma after dealing with flooding from the tropical disturbance, but General Manager Matt Gaudet is optimistic, the Daily News reported.

“We’ve got our fair share of cleanup ahead of us,” he said. “Many hands make easy work and we’ve got a great workforce here. We’ll be back to normal before you know it. It’s amazing—when you have tragedies, you really get to find out how incredible your staff is. You get so bogged down with the monotony of day-to-day work.”

River Hall Club in Alva had over 250 trees down, head professional Jim Feipel said. He said the earliest staff is looking to return is September 25, and there currently is no power, so that makes it hard to peg when the course can reopen. In Collier County, Hideout Golf Club, had some tree damage and some water, director of golf Shawn Ward said, but hopes to reopen by September 27, the Daily News reported.

The Quarry will remain closed for a scheduled maintenance September 18-22, then reopen on September 23. While getting the golf course ready was a priority for General Manager/COO Bob Radunz, so was his staff, some of whom suffered great loss, the Daily News reported.

“It’s the long-term impact on our greatest asset, our employees, is what we’re trying to focus on now,” Radunz said. “How do we rebuild their lives and get them housing?”

Many stayed at the clubhouse and are still doing so, and some are staying with members. “Our members have been extremely generous in giving their time in the debris cleanup and in donations of water, food, bedding, generators,” he said.

As for getting the golf course ready, Radunz credited superintendent Rodney Whisman for his advanced planning, including having debris equipment ready to go ahead of the storm to quicken the clean-up. Other than trees missing, the clubhouse area looks unscathed. “Psychologically, it makes a big impact,” Radunz said. “It’s an important piece of the recovery effort.”

The club still plans to host the South Florida PGA Section Assistants’ Championship on October 4-5, the Daily News reported.

The Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club, which reopened just under a year ago after a renovation that included Jack Nicklaus as a consultant, may not reopen until the end of the month. “It’s a mess, but it’s a superficial mess,” General Manager Jason Parsons said. “Unlike the tropical disturbance, we have no massive flooding issues. We have issues, but most of our issues are relative to limbs and trees.”

The club does have power, and the website will be updated regularly as far as reopening. “We’re lucky Naples isn’t under water,” he said, referring to the forecasts of Irma making landfall as a Category 4 or 5. “This is ugly, but this is ugliness that’s repaired in one season. It’s nothing what it could’ve been.”

C&RB’s Chef to Chef newsletter featured a blog post about how Kelly Greens G&CC in Fort Myers, Fla., survived the hurricane, and other Irma reports by C&RB can be found here and here.