Terrible news from Golspie

[David_Tepper]

A high-tide storm surge has done terrible damage to the seaside holes (3, 4, 5, 6 & 7) at Goslpie GC, north of Dornoch. The tee box on #7 has been destroyed. There are a couple of pics on head greenskeeper Alexander Macdonald's twitter page. Very sad to look at.

https://twitter.com/AlexanderEmbo

[Jon Wiggett]

We took a real battering yesterday evening David. I know NB harbour has £500K worth of damage and so this sad news from Golspie is not such a surprise but I am sure they will get it back up to scratch by the season begin.

Jon

[David_Tepper]

Jon W. -

I hope you are right. Holes 4, 5, & 6 were flooded during a high-tide storm surge 4-5 winters ago, but the damage this time looks much, much worse.

Any word about damage/flooding around Dornoch?

DT

[John Crowley]

Just saw a photo of the 9th on a club tweet. Flotsam was left on the fairway but it appears the sea receded fairly quickly and may not have done any structural damage. Don't know for sure.

[Jonathan Mallard]

Just saw a photo of the 9th on a club tweet. Flotsam was left on the fairway but it appears the sea receded fairly quickly and may not have done any structural damage. Don't know for sure.

An earlier tweet notes that both courses were open for play with the Whiskey Stableford on the Championship.

Ergo, it couldn't be but so bad...

[Jon Wiggett]

David,

it appears that most of the problem is with debris left by the water so a lot of scraping off material and probably a bit of sanding might be in order. Of course, I would imagine that the see wall will have to be properly checked out and it looks as though the 7th tee (the back one) will need rebuilding) Not heard anything about Dornoch but I will be delivering a load of firewood up at Portmahomack tomorrow so I will pop up the road to have a look if I have the time.

Jon

[Eoin Riddell]

Only the 9th at Dornoch was affected with the storm, most of the debris was confined to the left hand rough, the course was open for normal play today, as David says, Golspie has been far the hardest hit, it is a great shame after all the hard work Alex and his staff have done over the last few years, i am sure they will have it back to normal as soon as possible, Brora has also been damaged but I don't know how bad.

[Bill_McBride]

Sad news, those are all lovely holes.  I hope that excellent greens keeping staff gets it back in good order shortly. 

[Tony_Muldoon]

David thanks for the link. Scary, there must be a lot more clubs worried .

North Berwick’s great 11th green is thought to be at risk.

It seems that there have been a lot of high tides in recent years.  More than has been the case in recent history.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/minister-to-view-damage-to-sea-wall-at-north-berwick-1-2695404

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SePqgXBdHM

[Jon Wiggett]

I was up at Portmahomack yesterday where the 200 year old harbour wall was pushed over by the force of the sea. It is quite incredible what happened there. Didn't get to Golspie though.

Jon

[Brian_Ewen]

Stonehavens sea front took an absolute hammering Friday-Saturday.

Scenes totally unheard of before.

[Mark Pearce]

This seems to have affected the East coast over a long expanse of coast.  At Sunderland 50 anglers had to be rescued when a freak wave hit Roker pier.  We walked the dog on the beach at Whitley Bay yesterday and it had clearly taken a real hammering.  I haven't heard anything about damage to courses in Fife  but do know that a storm a couple of years ago littered debris on the 4th and 5th fairways at Crail Balcomie which has only really this year recovered.

[Brian_Ewen]

Crail posted on twitter this morning that the Balcomie is closed for the next two weeks.

I now see Greenkeepers blog has some pics. http://www.crailgreenkeepersblog.blogspot.co.uk/

[Mark Pearce]

Thanks, Brian.  Those pictures don't look as bad as the storm damage a couple of years ago.

[David_Tepper]

I had a chance to look at the brief video and several pics on the Golspie GC Facebook page. The distance into the golf course reached by the sea water around holes 5, 6 & 7 is shocking. It looked like even the caravan park to the left of the 7th fairway, which must be at least 75 yards from the seawall, was flooded.

     

[Patrick Kiser]

David,

Really really sorry to hear.  I loved that round at Golspie and still remember those seaside holes.  I hope they can recover quickly.

Speaking of recovering, I hope you're feeling better BTW.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

A friend sent these photos of the 1st at Nairn.

[David_Tepper]

Mark R. -

Thanks for the Nairn pics. The opening holes there sit right on the water and are very vulnerable to a high-tide surge. I wonder how Fortrose & Rosemarkie managed in this storm. It is hard to imagine a course more exposed to the water.

DT

[Bill_McBride]

Our golf course at Pensacola was submerged in salt water during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.  We have a new golf course now. 

Another reason to plant paspalum, it's salt water tolerant. 

[David_Tepper]

Here is the current article about the storm in the Northern Times. There are 7 pics of the storm and its damage in the Golspie area, including a pic of the 5th green well under water. The article also mentions the 9th green at Brora was under water for a while. The pics are all too reminiscent of the ones of the New Jersey shore area from Hurricane Sandy a month ago.

http://www.northern-times.co.uk/News/East-Coast-battered-by-storm-tides-17122012.htm   

[Jon Wiggett]

Mark R. -

Thanks for the Nairn pics. The opening holes there sit right on the water and are very vulnerable to a high-tide surge. I wonder how Fortrose & Rosemarkie managed in this storm. It is hard to imagine a course more exposed to the water.

DT

David,

Fortrose & Rosemarkie is not badly effected. It is actually much higher above the Firth than you might think. Golspie pictures are real eye openers though. Maybe the caravan park will consider moving back inland a few hundred yards leaving some excellent links land for Golspie to expand into!

Jon

[Mark Chaplin]

The Environment Agency are currently spending north of £10m strengthening the sea wall at Royal Cinque Ports and the barrier in the town of Deal.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/135503.aspx

[Niall C]

I had a look on the Moray GC website yetserday and saw nothing so suspect that they weren't badly hit. I suspect the two worst hit courses up on that coastline would actually be Spey Bay and Garmouth & Kingston which sit on either side of the mouth of the Spey.

Both courses have lost holes to coastal erosion over the years and indeed a former colleague of mine tells the story of playing Garmouth & Kingston with one of the older members of the club. When they got to the par 5 running along the Spey, the old timer pointed out into the middle of the Spey and said, "see that, that used to be a lovely wee par 3 !".

Niall

[David_Tepper]

Niall -

I saw a picture somewhere on the web yesterday of substantial damage to the harbor seawall at Lossiemouth. I hope the Moray GC courses survived the storm intact.

DT

[Niall C]

DT

The Lossiemouth harbour wall, or at least a section of it has been damaged and inaccessible for a couple of years now but possible there has been further damage. I came back down to Glasgow last Thursday before the storm and won't be back up until the new year so a wee bit detached from whats happening up there. The 14th and 15th greens and 15th and 16th tees are perhaps the most exposed but they are a bit more above sea level than you think so I suspect they will be OK.

Niall