The National Golf Foundation, located in Jupiter, Florida, published a story with more details about the damage to golf courses in the Sunshine State and beyond from Hurricane Ian.
Hurricane Ian slammed Southwest Florida on Sept. 28. Many have referred to this region as the “golf course capital of the world” with so many people choosing Naples and Fort Myers to visit or retire to because of all of the outstanding golf courses.
Southwest Florida is also home to high profile professional golf tournaments. The LPGA has its traditional season-ending tournament at the Ritz Carlton in Naples. The Shark Shootout is played annually in December at the Ritz Carlton. And the PGA Champions Tour has a regular stop in Naples every February.
According to the National Golf Foundation report, 1,119 golf facilities were impacted by Ian’s wind and storm surge. That number represents 8% of the country’s overall golf courses.
Almost one in six of those were hit by hurricane strength winds and a number of those, particularly in and around the Fort Myers area, remain closed or partially so.
A look at The Dunes on Sanibel Island
One of those courses is The Dunes on Sanibel Island. PGA club professional Mike Dopslaff and his staff have been working tirelessly doing damage assessment and clean-up, pretty much as soon it was safe to return to the island.
Dopslaff can only access the island by boat because the causeway bridge connected to the mainland was breached in five places by Ian. A temporary fix has been made, allowing power companies and other officials to get on the island to start the recovery process.
In an email to USA Today Network, Dopslaff said his staff is “fired up” and doing a great job and making positive progress.
“It’s been slow going without any motorized equipment, power, running water, bathrooms etc.,” Dopslaff said. “But we are making headway. We have managed to remove all of the flooring from the clubhouse and remove all damaged equipment, food, office supplies etc.”
He said the golf cart fleet took a beating.
“We pretty much have the cart facility cleaned out as far as carts go. No carts are viable and every single cart had frozen brakes from the salt water,” Dopslaff said. “It was a process untangling the carts, pushing them away with locked up wheels and then breaking them loose so we could push them out into the parking lot.”
Not too far from The Dunes is the Sanibel Island Golf Club, owned and operated by Drew Donnelly. Donnelly, like Dopslaff, has been getting a boat ride to Sanibel pretty much every day since the storm. He and his staff are still assessing total damage, including the irrigation system and equipment like the tri-plexes, the mowers used to cut the grass on the greens.
“We just put in new greens, unfortunately,” said Donnelly, who is originally from Michigan and has been in Southwest Florida for 30 years. “They talk about storm surge every hurricane we get and it has never happened, so yes, I was shocked when I got to Sanibel. It looked way different on the ground than the aerial shots.”
How people are helping after Hurricane Ian
Needless to say, the golf course industry in Southwest Florida is going to need some time and money to recovery, especially in the hardest hit areas.
And beyond the damage to courses, there have been heroic stories like Matt Oakley’s. Oakley is the PGA club professional at Worthington County Club in Bonita Springs. He stayed on Fort Myers Beach during the hurricane with his wife. As they faced the danger of rising water from the surge, Oakley saved two neighbors from drowning.
In its damage assessment story, the National Golf Foundation points out that several industry associations have “risen to the occasion” to help:
The Southwest chapter of the South Florida PGA reached out to every affected facility in the region and as many members as they could contact.
• PGA of America President Jim Richerson sent a communication reminding members about the PGA Medical and Disaster Relief Fund. Apply for relief here or call 800 474-2776 to make a contribution.
• The National Golf Course Owners Association and its members have kindly offered support, ready to assist the recovery of anyone operating a course damaged by the storm. Those seeking assistance should click here.
Superintendents who need assistance should contact the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America’s Disaster Relief Fund.
• Erik Matuszewski, Editorial Director for the National Golf Foundation, said in an email to The News-Press and Naples Daily News that the NGF is continuing to hear from courses in Florida about damage caused by Ian.
“Beyond the Sanibel and Gasparilla courses (Boca Grande) hit hard, a few of the ones that we’ve heard of that suffered some significant damage included Kelly Greens, Lexington and Gulf Harbour,” Matuszewski said. “I’m not sure of the extent of these at this point, as much of what we’ve been told is secondhand.”
One of the biggest concerns is the impact salt water that covered golf courses like The Dunes and Sanibel Island Golf Club will have on the turf.
“I know if they had Bermuda rather than salt-resistant paspalum, the damage from the brackish water was more significant,” Matuszewski said. “For the most part, though, it seems that the majority of clubs in the area faced varying levels of cleanup efforts and some infrastructure or structural damage.”
