Calling All Florida Golfers

[bobfoster]

This topic occurred to me due to another thread. Most of us have probably been following the devastating hurricane that is nailing Florida today and tomorrow. I've been watching it on the news, and on a lot of webcams (I'm currently house hunting in Florida). 

 

Florida simply is the cornerstone of golf in the USA. America has around 9,000 courses. Florida alone has around 1,300 of them - by far the most of any state. There's a lot of courses there, and a lot of golfers playing them (including many on WRX). Just though I'd throw this out there to our Floridian friends here. Get some local knowledge. So, if you live there, what's your sitch? Did you get affected? Did your local courses sustain damage?

Edited September 30, 2022 by bobfoster

[elwhippy]

Watching the devastation on TV. Absolutely frightening. I hope all WRX members, their families and friends, are safe from harm. 

[Dr. Block]

I couldn't believe the surge took out sections of the bridge to Sanibel and the Captiva islands. Not that I'm an expert, but I would think those bridges were engineered to handle any sort of surge a hurricane could throw at them. It must have been something biblical. 

 

My thoughts are with you my Florida Golfwrx brethren. I hope you are safe and healthy, and I hope you come through this thing without your lives being disrupted too badly. 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Dr. Block

[Murphy76]

I have spent a fair amount of time staying at Ft. Myers Beach, and the destruction is unreal.  

So sad to see so many landmarks/bars/restaurants I used to frequent are destroyed.  

 

 

[golfortennis]

I've been in touch with people from Treasure Coast area, and it's not as bad as most places in the state.  Lots of rain, so the courses are closed a bit, but otherwise nowhere near the destruction.

Edited September 30, 2022 by golfortennis

[idrive]

22 hours ago, bobfoster said:

This topic occurred to me due to another thread. Most of us have probably been following the devastating hurricane that is nailing Florida today and tomorrow. I've been watching it on the news, and on a lot of webcams (I'm currently house hunting in Florida). 

 

Florida simply is the cornerstone of golf in the USA. America has around 9,000 courses. Florida alone has around 1,300 of them - by far the most of any state. There's a lot of courses there, and a lot of golfers playing them (including many on WRX). Just though I'd throw this out there to our Floridian friends here. Get some local knowledge. So, if you live there, what's your sitch? Did you get affected? Did your local courses sustain damage?

 

Sadly, the folks you're addressing are the ones that most likely don't have any power. Many with no internet access.

 

Thoughts and prayers for those affected and for those about to be....

[sabram]

I live between Tampa and Orlando. Glad to be inland. Lots of rain and wind, but my neighborhood didn't flood. It's path came very close to us, but by the time it reached us, winds were "only" 75 mph. The course in my development is sprigging new greens I think they got washed away. Our elecricity was out for about 40 hours as was internet, but both are back now. The coast and those just south of us got it bad though

[596]

I'm in Lakeland. We were supposed to see a direct hit. But the eye stayed more south and missed us by about 30 miles.  We had lots of high winds but only about 5 inches of rain.  40 miles south had 19 inches of rain.

 

Our power never went out but lots of people in Lakeland did lose power.

 

My house hangs over a lake. The water came over the seawall but didn't reach out foundation.

 

Our course was closed Thursday and Friday. Not sure about damage there. They opened today

[RichieHunt]

I moved out of Florida over a year ago (sadly). But I still get information from my old golf club (Orange Tree).  The 'loop' is holes 16-18 that surrounds a large pond.  the 18th fairway and green were completely submerged by water, but this morning they were both drained.  First hole (par-5 with the green settling in a low lying area) took one of the biggest hits.  Several members have volunteered their time to help out.  Bay Hill is less than a mile away and I'm waiting to hear about its status.

 

My dad lived in Port Charlotte during the winter (he lives in NY during the summer).  He lives off one of the waterways.  He originally made plans to come down this past Friday, but obviously he put them off.  He was then going to come down on Monday, but decided to wait until the power comes on.  He had a neighbor tell him that they were told it would be 2-3 weeks before they get power.  My dad worked for power companies for 40 years and said that *might* be true, but that's generally the typical line they tell linesmen.  He did say that getting power on residential areas is a low priority.

 

My dad's gf owns 2 houses in the same development.  The house that they live in is apparently okay, but the house that they rent had the roof torn off.  I was planning to visit my dad the week after Xmas, but that is seriously in doubt now.

I'm horrified to just think what Ian did to Fort Myers Country Club.  They put in a lot of work and money to restore that Donald Ross design and were making great progress.  It's got to be a complete disaster now.

 

I haven't heard about the Melbourne side, maybe @markheardjrcan fill us in.  I do know that the Kennedy Space Center was planning to re-open today.  I also know that New Smyrna Beach got hit hard with winds and flooding.

 

 

 

RH

 

 

 

[Jim53]

I am also in Lakeland, we are on the Northside and had some gust that seemed to be in the 80 mph range but the steady 50-70 from about 10pm till 2-3 am was annoying.

My sister is in Ft Myers and came out well compared to others, no flooding and got power back already while 1- 2 miles away is is destroyed, amazing how with these storms being a couple of miles away and the lucky side of the storm is the difference between total a total lost and livable damage. 

My friends and I play the local muni's so nothing fancy and we can play tomorrow at one of the better drained courses, it is short but its golf.

[markheardjr]

Melbourne side got next to nothing. The eye went over us but we barely got any rain at all and just some gusty winds, maybe 45mph peak. We had one old oak tree uproot in my neighborhood but just some branches, Spanish moss and twigs down around the roads/city. I think most courses in East/Central to SouthEast Florida were already open this last weekend.  I think Habitat in Grant Valkyria closed their back 9 which always floods.

 

Kissimmee got hit pretty hard, haven't heard about places like Celebration or Royal St. Cloud. There is a golf club youtuber that flips used clubs they find at pawn shops and stuff that did a driving tour around Celebration the town and stopped at the course parking lot. Hole 1 had ponds in the fairway with ducks. 18 looked ok. 

[Warrior42111]

I think it very hyper local on what happened. I live just north of Melbourne, as mark said not much rain, but certain areas still flooded a decent amount.  I played both Friday and Sunday, the two courses had 9 holes closed, You could  see raised water levels, but we also were very saturated by the time Ian came. 

 

As for the surge on the SW coast from the keys up they hit all time high surges since measuring began. It was a monster, with the direction the hurricane came it literally sucked water out of Tampa bay and through it back to the SW coast. 

[RobotDoctor]

My wife and I moved to Palm Coast this summer and Ian was our initiation Hurricane. We got a mix of heavy rainfall and light rain along with TS winds.  The storm surge did some damage to Flagler Beach Pier, taking a bit more it it off.  Severe erosion of several beaches.  Localized flooding but nothing like areas of the west coast of Florida.  Some uprooted trees and some damage to houses.  The house we’re renting while our new build is completed sustained no damage or flooding and neither did our new build.  Our new build is apparently on high ground here (24’).  My wife and I get a chuckle out of that since we moved from Colorado.  Thoughts and prayers to anyone who were and still are affected.  
 

Edited October 6, 2022 by RobotDoctor

[4bees]

On 9/29/2022 at 10:29 PM, bobfoster said:

This topic occurred to me due to another thread. Most of us have probably been following the devastating hurricane that is nailing Florida today and tomorrow. I've been watching it on the news, and on a lot of webcams (I'm currently house hunting in Florida). 

 

Florida simply is the cornerstone of golf in the USA. America has around 9,000 courses. Florida alone has around 1,300 of them - by far the most of any state. There's a lot of courses there, and a lot of golfers playing them (including many on WRX). Just though I'd throw this out there to our Floridian friends here. Get some local knowledge. So, if you live there, what's your sitch? Did you get affected? Did your local courses sustain damage?

I spent my college years in Central Florida (Lakeland) and now I reside in Jacksonville.  If you are looking for perfect weather, really anywhere is great.  South Florida is brutal in the summer months (more so than anywhere else), but absolutely perfect every other time of the year.  Now you sacrifice that with the hurricane threat which will always impact South Florida no matter what.  Central Florida is not really Florida to me, especially Orlando.  Its Disney, its tourism, its people relocating from NY (lol).  I would stay away unless you like traffic.  Northern Florida, to me, is the best place to reside.  Of all the hurricanes I have been thru down here, Jacksonville area seems (knock on wood) to not get hit hard at all.  The way the jet stream pushes everything off the coast and the way this inlet is, it makes it difficult for us to get hit.  Watch now that I say this we are screwed.  

 

There is plenty of golf on the first coast here.  Great courses, challenging ones, and budget friendly.  My pick would be up here and not because I am biased but a realist.  Florida is an animal when it comes to weather.  And I choose the North.