If Seminole Disappears Saturday...?

[RJ_Daley]

Dave you can get that on some of those front range courses in Colorado, with 60 mile an hour winds or gusts, without the possibility of drowning...  And an altitude boast to boot.  Hell maybe you could drive it 500 yards or pure one 100.  

My own taste in golf and wind has limits, of about 15-18MPH with gusts to 20s.

[rgkeller]

There is no club in the world I enjoy more than Seminole.

And there is nothing that I can see that could replace it.

[Pete Buczkowski]

Seminole will withstand this.  

My question is:  isn't anybody at least a little curious about the possibility of playing while the hurricane is approaching?  60 mph winds!  What could be more fun than that?  If I had a chance (and a certain route to safety immediately afterwards), I'd be out there for sure.  I don't know how fast these things move, or whether there's enough time to get in 9 or 18 when the winds are TOTALLY HOWLING, but darn it, I love a ridiculous, blow you over type of wind!  I'd love to smash a drive 175.  I'd also love to smash one 450.  And rip a 3 iron 100 yards like Venturi claims he had to do at #7 at Pebble.

Shivas,

The strongest winds are unfortunately accompanied by *really* intense Tstorms w/ tornados...the winds prior to those storms are really nothing more than you could get at other locales as RJ mentions.  Just about the strongest safe winds you will get are around 30-40 mph.  Its a great thought but it might end with a Caddyshack moment.  

[S. Huffstutler]

Having just gone through Hurricane Charley, I can tell you for sure that the last place I want to be is anywhere near that hurricane. You would have to have a death wish to want to play golf in those conditions. Once you see trailers and stuff blowing past, you can pretty well rest assured that golf is for another day.

[BigEdSC]

From the "what was he thinking department."

Gaston just passed through Charleston last weekend.  We were home at the time, and I donned full rain gear and stepped outside in the yard to check out my roof to see if the shingles were doing OK.  My father in law suggested that I take my wind gage with me.  Though the gage said 40 mph winds, I think that it was a heck of a lot higher because I've had problems with it before.  As far as trying to swing a golf club in it, imagine standing in front of a fire hose and trying to hit into it.  It's definitely not possible, unless you don't have the rain.  But if you really want to experience the wind, go over to Scotland and Ireland.

But I really hope that everyone in FL fares well.  It makes you really put things in prospective.

[John_Conley]

Shiv:

I played 7 holes at the city course in the afternoon prior to Charley's arrival.  (Hurricane went through at 10:30 pm.)

No, you don't want to be anywhere near these things.

The little precursor that ended my golf was downright nasty - a full eight hours before Charley visited.  There is a "calm before the storm", but nothing other than survival takes precedence.  With literally hundreds of downed trees at each golf course (Tuskawilla, Lake Region, Dubsdread, city of Winter Park... a few examples), you have a greater chance of being pinned under a 60' Laurel Oak than you do finishing a hole.  If a tree looks big to you when it is upright, they are at least twice that size when grounded.  (A corrollary to the "you better make sure you can swim twice as far as it looks" theorem.)

Let's just say you were out of your house for Frances when a storm came through.  How would you get home?  Roads were impassible in my community for anywhere from a day to a week.  Even without power and running water, stranded at home beats trying to walk a few miles to the place where you'd be under shelter without power and running water.

Millions of people are evacuating in advance of Frances.  This may be more like Hugo/Iniki/Andrew and could make Charley look like child's play.

(For those weatherists, the specific point of concern is that the dimensions of Frances are enormous and the storm itself is much slower on the ground.  "Category 3" or 4 or 5 or whatever is a measure of the force of winds.  What separates Frances from the one we just saw is that this is hundreds of miles wide and moving at a ground speed of as little as 15 mph.  Charley came and went in a horrible hour.  This may linger for a day.)

I will not being joining you for any golf while the hurricane is passing through.

The funny part is that in advance of arrival, there really isn't that much you can do.  If you've made the decision to ride out the storm in your home, you really don't have any reasons not to play the day before.  (Of course, local law enforcement has requested that nobody be on the roads for several hours in advance of arrival in order to facilitate their preparations and ensure a safe evacuation for those that did leave.  But I'm thinking if you walked to the course 12 hours before the storm you could play without any problems.)

I'm very worried about this one.

[Mike Vegis @ Kiawah]

I was scheduled to play Crandon Park (nee, the Links on Key Biscayne-site of the Royal Caribbean on the Champion's Tour) the day before Hurricane Andrew blew through Miami.  It was an absolutely perfect day - light winds, sunny and mild.  I was torn.  I finally opted to get batteries and other supplies.  Good choice.  I had fish swimming down my street the next morning and 40' yachts on the other side of my apartment (I lived in Coconut Grove right across from Dinner Key Marina on South Bayshore Dr.).  For the next three months, I had to show my ID to National Guard to get into what was left of my neighborhood...

My in-laws are boarding up right now in Palm Beach Gardens.  They are near Northlake and Military Trail...  It's one of those old cinder block houses that's built like a bunker...

[rgkeller]

It ain't the walls that go, it is the roof - especially old roofs.

[John_Cullum]

I just hope I have enough insurance coverage to rebuild the place. Of course the 10 month $30,000 old dock aint insurable. As John Kerry might say, Que sera sera.

[rgkeller]

I talked to a member of Seminole today who told me that the interior of the golf course was actually below sea level.

If so, with a forecasted ten foot storm surge ....

[Willie_Dow]

My ten oclock prediction says to me the storm will be forced out to sea by a high.  Protecting Seminole.

Anyway, Max Behr will fix all our considerations!

Willie

[T_MacWood]

It is no coincidence Seminole has been spared over the years. Palm Beach has the narrowest continental shelf on the entire coast of Florida--the very narrow shelf prevents large storm serges.

[cary lichtenstein]

I suspect there will be enormous damage to golf courses in Florida. This hurricane with its slow movement, will uproot lots of trees, but worse, the 10 to 20" of rain, much of it salt water, will sit in enormous pools on the courses, unable to drain quickly enough.

I suspect this will kill the grass on many courses.

[TEPaul]

I've got a lot of old friends down along the south east coast of Florida and as much as I love architecture and Seminole if this huricane is so damaging as to turn Seminole into the Atlantic Ocean as rgkeller suggested it could the loss of Seminole G.C. would be one of the least of my concerns!

[Steve_Lovett]

I'm with you Tom...

I was really hoping this storm would follow a normal "up the coast and out to sea" trend.  But - no such luck.

We have been spared in N.E. Florida - so far.  Enough to get 18 holes in this afternoon (south of Jacksonville) in 25-35 mph winds, and no rain.  I hope everyone "weathers the storm" in good order.  Frances has been a great test of patience for us all...  

Now if it would just leave!

[Bill_McBride]

I thought the Panhandle Gulf Coast was going to be spared on this one like we were with Charlie, but now it looks like Frances will go across the Florida pensinsula, go on into the gulf, and make landfall somewhere around Pensacola!  Yikes!

[rgkeller]

Local TV news had an aerial shot of Seminole yesterday.

Looked more like Lake Seminole than a golf course.