Carolina courses escape
storm's wrath unscathed

By Shane Sharp,
Contributing Writer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Dec. 12, 2002) -- Golf is the last thing on North Carolinian's minds this week as the entire Piedmont recovers from one of the worst ice storms in state history.

More than two million people across the state lost power as ice-coated tree limbs crashed into electrical lines, destroying transformers and sending a large swath of the state into a prolonged blackout.

Some residents were without electricity for more than a week, relying on gas, logs, generators or in some cases, local shelters and the National Guard -- for food and warmth.

The Charlotte metro area, one of the U.S.'s most tree-laden, was rocked by a mixture of freezing rain and sleet that clung to trees and coated roadways. Duke Power, the Queen City's electrical provider, has struggled to reconnect nearly 1.3 million homes to the grid. The entire network was not fully restored until last Friday.

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As North Carolina residents regain some semblance of normality and temperatures climb back to normal levels, a populace historically enamored with the game of golf inevitably will turn its attention back to the fairways.

But the question on many golfers' minds is simple: how much damage have their favorite courses sustained?

The answer, according to golf professionals from Raleigh to Charlotte, should come as a relief to Tar Heel duffers.

"We were closed for the power outage, but we really weren't affected," says Mike Bartholomew, director of golf at Springfield Golf Club in Fort Mill, S.C. "We had some trees down, but they weren't integral parts of the layout. The real damage was up in Charlotte where they have all those old oaks and hardwoods."

Charlotte is home to some of the state's most exclusive private courses, but the majority of daily fee facilities are located outside the city limits. Forty-five minutes northeast of the Queen City in Salisbury, "Winter Storm 2002" had little impact on local courses.

"We really didn't get hit that hard," said Jason Hurst, assistant professional at Crescent Golf Club. "The major problem we are getting into right now is that we have a lot of shaded areas that are still iced over. Right now, we only have eight holes open because of that. Most of the trees that fell over along the cart paths were not in play."

Situated midway between the bustling metro areas of Charlotte and Raleigh is the bucolic Sandhills region and the golfing hotbed of Pinehurst. The area is home to the state's largest concentration of long leaf pine trees as well as some of the country's best golf courses.

The deciduous trees of the upper Piedmont had shed most their leaves by late autumn and their ice-encrusted limbs were considerably lighter than if they had been full of leaves. The evergreen long leaf pines, however, cracked under the pressure of pounds and pounds of ice.

Still, courses around the Sandhills reported minimal damage from the storm.

"The hotel and resort didn't lose power and the courses just lost limbs and trees and those were around the perimeter of the courses," said Stephen Boyd, communications manager at Pinehurst Resort. "I think that was the case at most the courses around here."

Around Pinehurst, and also around the Triangle.

"We got really lucky," said Jim Calcagnie, assistant professional at Lochmere Golf Club outside of Raleigh. "We closed the day after the storm. With the trees that did fall, we didn't have too much trouble clearing the course. It only took us a day to get the debris up. Surprisingly, not too many courses around here got hit very hard."

The statewide tab for debris pick-up has been estimated at between $50 million and $75 million, and property damage to residences could reach $85 million. But North Carolina golf courses, for the most part, got off easy.

"It took us about a day to clean up all the branches," said Boyd. "We feel lucky."

Chip Shots: Pinehurst Resort's No. 7 Course reopened a week before Thanksgiving following a major renovation project headed up by original architect Rees Jones. The course is now open for limited play and will return to normal operations after the first of the year.