Golf courses ready for the season despite damage from Fiona

They may look different than they did before post-tropical storm Fiona, but P.E.I. golf courses are ready to swing their way into a new season.

Some are already open as April draws to a close, with more opening soon.

Members of the Stanhope Golf and Country Club suffered an especially hard blow that late-September weekend, when the clubhouse caught fire during the storm and was reduced to a pile of rubble.

"After the clubhouse was pretty well down, I took a walk around the golf course," said general manager Merlin Affleck. "Every fairway I went to, I said, 'Oh my God, the trees that are down.'

"Then I looked down to see 16 fairway and 13 green submerged in water, and wondered what that would be like afterwards. But everything turned out okay."

The work of cleaning up the fallen trees started the Monday after the storm and has continued ever since.

Affleck said they are aiming at an opening date of May 4, with one mobile unit holding the pro shop and office and another serving as a member lounge. They will also have mobile washrooms, and a food truck.

It was a shock to see the fire, and the storm, after getting the place to where we wanted it to be​​​​​/—Merlin Affleck, Stanhope Golf and Country Club 

"It was a shock to see the fire, and the storm, after getting the place to where we wanted it to be. It was devastating," he said.

Planning a replacement for the clubhouse will be the next item on the agenda once the course is up and running, he said. 

Some holes 'completely different'

At Glasgow Hills Golf Club in New Glasgow, P.E.I., the cleanup from Fiona continues, with a goal of opening the course by May 19.

"The biggest thing is trees. We had thousands of trees down," said general manager Woodrow Bishop. 

"Golfers don't tend to stay in the fairways. They hit their balls in the woods. So [we're] making sure that there's no worry of trees falling on anyone out there.

"There's added expenses. We're hopeful that our insurance companies will help us out with that side of it," Bishop said.

"But ultimately you can't really focus too much on that. You need to be able to get open again, get open safely. So that's what we're focused on."

'Some better views'

Bishop said returning golfers will notice some changes at Glasgow Hills. 

"They'll probably have some better views, because there's a lot of trees down, and it's opened up some vistas.

"I guess 'glass-half-full guy' says there's going to be a lot better views out there. They're going to see a lot of changes. There's holes that look completely different than they did this time last year."

Bishop said while the focus is on getting the course open safely for this season, the full recovery will take years. And he's hoping this season will live up to 2022 when it comes to the bottom line. 

"Last year was a record year leading into Fiona. I think had Fiona not happened, it probably would go down as one of the best years ever for us."

'Pure devastation'

At the Belvedere Golf Club in Charlottetown, repairs are underway thanks to extensive water damage as well as fallen trees.

"It was pure devastation. We had trees down everywhere, a lot of damage to our building here," said general manager Jeff Affleck. 

"The flat roof on our building blew off in the storm. All the drains blew off as well.

"The Tuesday after the storm, we took an immense amount of water into the building and we had to tear everything out — ceilings, flooring, some walls. So that was the challenge as well."

Affleck said the repairs to the grounds and the building will cost more than $1 million. They're hoping insurance will cover most of the repairs, but Belvedere has also applied to the Red Cross for some disaster relief. 

"Our biggest area would have been between our 12th and 13th hole, where we figured we lost 80 per cent of the trees in that one area," he said. 

"We had to get a company come in with an excavator and a bulldozer. Our only choice was, because we were running out of places to store extra tree debris, we had to bury it in the ground where it was."

As with the other courses, Affleck said Belvedere golfers will see some changes when they return this spring.

"We've lost a lot of trees that were north of 120 years old, so they're going to be missed greatly. There's going to be some different views for our golfers out there."