What are the worst cases of erosion GCA types have seen on famous or well-known golf courses? In Canada, Crowbush Cove lost a dune in a storm, and obviously Montrose and Dornoch have significant problems, as do Pebble and Cypress. What other courses do people know that have had real issues they've dealt with or are dealing with?

Does not apply as links golf, but, didn't Trump National in LA lose its entire eighteenth hole because of a landslide?

They had to rebuild for I don't know how many millions of dollars....  Knowing Trump, it must now be the most expensive hole in the world...

YP

That hole alone cost $64,000,000 or 64 million dollars to rebuild.

I think the course was 250 million dollars to build...

Rob,

I've been doing research on Stanley Thompson's Green Gables course at PEI. It seems 3-4 of the best holes in Canada were lost only 5-6 years after the course opened, in 1939.

Thompson routed these lost holes through the dunes, just down the coast from Crowbush. As you know, the north shore of Prince Edward Island gets pounded by storms, especially in the winter. The dunes ridge at Green Gables has shifted some 3 kilometres inland since Thompson's original course there opened for play.

I was at Crowbush the past spring, and looked at the massive and expensive operation that was underway to recreate and stabilize the dunes lost there last winter. Too bad they couldn't have done the same at Green Gables in the early 1940s. We'd probably be talking about Green Gables in the same breath as Highlands Links.

Ballybunion has fought erosion on the old course for many years.

Some of the holes on the Ocean course at the Olympic Club have already fallen into the sea, I believe. Their wonderful little par three course is at risk.

Robert,

Paul Daley's "Links Golf" dedicates an entire chapter to the issue of coastal erosion and details the methods by which these clubs have remedied the problem. Courses highlighted are; Ballybunion (losing 18,000 sq.ft. of turf in a single 1973 storm), Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, Rosslare, Donegal and Montrose.

TK

I would suggest researching Portrush. The Valley course is below sea level and the fifth hole nearly gave out. Various sources of support including government funding and sale of overseas memberships.

Rob,

I have a copy of Daley's book, "Links Golf: The Untold Story". Would be glad to send it to you--just say the word.

td

Gary,

Isn't that the 6th hole at Sutton Bay? I had heard that the course had suffered a couple of these slippages, and as a result had lots of irrigation repairs to make. Does this have anything to do with the drought in the midwest?

TK

I think I do own it -- but it isn't in my library at the moment. Shouldn't lend my books out, I guess!

This isn't a picture of erosion; can you name the course and the problem?  It hurts me to post a picture like this, but it's interesting to see the challenges that are out there.  RJ, you can't answer right away.  

Something very similar happened to the 10th hole at the Valley Club of Montecito years ago.  The land above the fairway slid down on top of the fairway.  The hole is much changed as a result.  Some very awkward lies result in the normal landing area, leading to difficult shots to carry the barranca 170 yards in  front of the green.

Scott

This is OT, but what do you know about North West GC?  I've driven by it many times but never played.  Looks interesting enough, but I've never had the time.  Is it worth stopping by next time I'm in the area?

Rich

Sheringham loses parts of its cliffs regularly and it will not be long before its most scenic part has disappeared.  Cliff falls at Nefyn suggest that part of the old course will have to be abandoned in the near future (hence their building spare holes).  Rhyl was a full 18-hole links course of some stature before the war (it held big professional events with the likes of Henry Cotton, the Whitcombes etc) but lost a huge amount to thye sea during the war, then to the sea wall constructed to prevent any more of that happening, and some to holiday homes and leisure facilities for the non-golfing.