Bill Pushak and his staff at Moody Gardens Golf Course on
Galveston Island prepared for the worst as Hurricane Ike churned in the Gulf of
Mexico, growing into a massive but weakened category 2 storm. Many of the golf
courses surrounding the Houston area expected just slight damage, comparable to
what they experienced during Hurricane Rita just three years ago.
By the time Ike finally passed, his waters receded and the damage was accessed, the wide swath of destruction cut by one of the costliest hurricanes in recorded history had affected everyone to different degrees, leaving some thankful it wasn't worse and others surprised by the storm's impact.
When asked if his golf course had dodged a bullet, Pushak, Moody Gardens' general manager and director of golf operations, emphatically said, "Absolutely."
As the storm approached those in charge of golf course operations, including Pushak, definitely had a sinking feeling, and not just because the water levels in the city were rising.
The former Galveston Municipal Golf Course had just been transformed courtesy of a two-year, $16.5 million renovation project that gave the struggling course reason to believe it could be one of the best in Texas. The brand new Moody Gardens, designed by the Jacobsen-Hardy Golf Course Design Firm, debuted in early June, just more than three months before Ike came ashore.
But the golf course's somewhat sheltered location on the inland side of the island toward the West Bay, away from the seawall abutting the Gulf of Mexico that was featured on countless national television broadcasts during coverage of the storm allowed it to escape catastrophic damage.
Moody Gardens was finally able to re-open on Saturday, Oct. 18, but not without weeks of cleanup. Pushak said crews started clearing the course three days after the storm and it took two weeks of tireless work just to rid the course of the debris created by Ike. Everything including boats, canoes, a swing set, a back porch, mattresses and family photos, which served as unfortunate reminders of the irreplaceable items and people lost to the powerful storm, were cleared primarily by manual labor.
At High Meadow Ranch, located north and slightly west of Houston proper, the hurricane destroyed more than 200 trees and left the facility without power for almost two weeks. Getting power back on and phone lines working was a significant problem across the region, not only in Galveston where the direct hit is still causing communication issues; a message posted on Moody Gardens' Web site to announce the re-opening of the course explained to potential customers that phone lines might still be down and encouraged them to just show up and they'd get on the course.
As High Meadow Ranch general manager Cody Spivey drove the mile and a half from his home in Magnolia to the golf course on the Saturday morning following the storm, he knew things would be bad judging by the scenes he passed along the way.
"It was worse than I expected," said Spivey about the condition of High Meadow Ranch in Ike's wake. "We didn't expect the amount of downed trees and destruction. It affected everyone, from the coast to here and north of here."
High Meadow Ranch didn't re-open until Tuesday, Sept. 23, which left the golf course with no revenue for 13 days after what Spivey described as a phenomenal year.
"It was the best year we've seen in a long time," he said. "This was quite a big setback.
Courses to the east of Houston and the northeast of Galveston were greatly affected by Ike's winds and rain. At Chambers County Golf Course in Anahuac close to 280 trees were ripped out of the ground. Evergreen Point in Baytown lost 225 trees. North of Evergreen Point, Goose Creek Country Club lost over 100 trees and still wasn't playable as of mid-October. On Goose Creek's 8th fairway alone, seven oaks were knocked to the ground.
"This pile is not like the one at your house," general manager Rudy Sangston said of Evergreen's debris pile. "It's more like one made by 100 houses."
Newport Golf Club located in Crosby, also northeast of Houston, may have also been hit by a tornado. Some trees fell over and others were sliced in half because of the fierce winds and needed to be cut down. In all, the course estimates it may have lost as many as 500.
Some courses escaped without much damage, and one even found the storm to be beneficial.
Redstone Golf Club, site of the Shell Houston Open, suffered a lot of downed trees and debris, but most of the lost trees were out of play and won't affect the layout.
Wildcat Golf Club, which can be found just south of Reliant Stadium, is primarily a links layout and didn't start out with many trees the storm could damage thus avoiding much of the trouble the others faced.
When the Houston Chronicle visited Longwood Golf Club on Oct. 1, the newspaper's review team found a well-maintained course. Longwood, located in Cypress, northwest of Houston, estimated it lost fewer than 100 trees compared to numbers like 500 the others counted as damaged.
"With the hurricane, it actually improved the condition of
the course," director of instruction, George Guidry, told the Chronicle. "Between the rain and lack of
play for five days, I haven't seen it look this good."
In addition to lost revenue generated strictly by rounds of golf, courses lost out on functions that had been scheduled at their facilities.
Events, meetings and conventions planned in the days and weeks following Ike were most likely moved out of town. Courses like Moody Gardens and High Meadow Ranch each reported losing out on a lot of social events like banquets, golf outings and weddings.
Pushak, who knows the importance of tourism to his golf course and Galveston's economy in general, said was eager to get the course up and running and bring people back to the area.
"It's tough, a lot of meetings have gone elsewhere for business but we're anxious for them to come back long term," he said. "I work for a great company; it's like a big family here. I think there is light at the end of the tunnel."
