Mother Nature can deal a cruel hand to golf course owners and, quite often, a costly one. If you find yourself on the bad end of a natural event, consider the cost-saving strategy employed by the management of Scenic Hills Country Club at the University of West Florida, a daily-fee course in Pensacola.
When a tropical rainstorm powered north through the Gulf of Mexico in late 2014, it did some harsh flood damage to Scenic Hills. There were washed-out cart paths and widespread debris, plus one unlucky green complex, the 13th, which was inundated by the rising and coursing waters of an adjacent stream.
As many course owners and operators could no doubt attest, the problem with something like this emergency green repair is that management could hardly plan for it. Faced with a dilemma, head pro Rick Gorman discussed matters with some leaders of the Scenic Hills men’s association and a plan emerged. On Saturday, January 24, a special golf event called the Rebuild 13 Green Tournament was held, with an enthusiastic field of regulars and also some sympathetic golfers from the area who wanted to help out. Approximately $4,000 was cleared that day, enough to bring a contractor who had the green at No. 13 repaired, revamped and ready for play some five weeks later. The basic problem was solved and some positive word-of-mouth came out of the ordeal as well.
“Everyone involved was extremely excited on the day we reopened the green,” Gorman says. “People take something like this personally—they have a vested interest in it.”
What’s more, one member of the field shot still photos and some video footage of the day’s activities, and created a brief visual collage that was posted on Vimeo to commemorate the ingenuity and good fellowship that came out of difficulty. According to Gorman, even some of the golfers who were new to Scenic Hills and turned out to help a cause have decided to come back and play the course again.
In this era of crowdfunding—when even a new golf ball like the OnCore Evo comes to market through seed money from Kickstarter—the public is ready to dedicate itself to a meaningful and very local cause. You simply need to have the bright idea to ask them.