Storm Éowyn has left golf clubs across Ireland battered and counting the cost of significant damage to courses.
Tree-lined parkland layouts were particularly badly impacted by the storm which hit the island last Friday, bringing winds that reached a record high of 183km/h.
At Castlebar Golf Club in Co Mayo, club chairman Shane Quigley said he had been a member for 35 years and had never seen the level of destruction the storm had caused.
More than 100 trees were gone, some of them believed to be there for more than 200 years. Many of the trees left have lost their sides or many of their branches. One of the trees fell through the roof of a shed that protects golf buggies, although luckily the buggies survived without major damage.
“It pretty much touched every hole at some stage. I don’t know when we’d be able to open again,” Quigley said.
“It’s tough to see, not only are we seeing our course’s appearance being completely changed, the cost involved in this will be extraordinary to try to sort out. We are only a small club in the west of Ireland, we’re not cash rich by any means.
“The ninth hole, honestly when I saw the damage, I was just heartbroken when I saw the damage there. On that hole alone there are probably 40 trees gone. Spinneys that have been there for years.”
Quigley estimates that the cost of the bill for the damage will be between €20,000 to €25,000. The club is working with a tree surgeon to safely deal with the fallen trees and says members will rally around the club.
Mayo neighbours Westport Golf Club were also badly affected, while clubs further north suffered considerable damage as well.
Rossmore Golf Club in Monaghan was particularly badly with hit with up to 200 trees down, which will lead to a “restructure” of how the course plays and feels, club captain and local councillor Alan Johnston said.
Along the first and seventh holes, a host of trees fell which provided protection from wayward shots and lined the two holes as the architect intended. The sixth, 15th and 18th holes will have significant changes to the eye in the aftermath of dozens of fallen trees.
It will take many years to restore Rossmore to how it was, chairman of the club board John Heffernan said.
“It’s the cost of the clean-up that is the biggest burden on Rossmore Golf Club, and the members. There are substantial costs in cutting all the trees up, removing them, chipping them down,” he said.
“The golf club provides a lot of benefit to senior people who play every day of the week, great for mental wellbeing.”
He hopes to have nine holes up and running by the weekend, but says the full 18 holes will likely be out of action until mid-March.
At Banbridge Golf Club in Co Down, holes five to 11 were badly damaged, with trees needed to be cut up and removed and the course will be closed for at least six days. It was a similar story at Lisburn Golf Club, Co Armagh Golf Club and Clandeboye Golf Club , with the latter tweeting a video of the significant clean-up required.
Many golf clubs are hoping for funding resources to help repair the damage caused by the storm. Reflecting on the damage, Castlebar chairman Quigley said:
“It’s both sides, the heartbreaking side, the financial side. There are plenty of courses just like us that have been badly hit. There are football stadiums and the Connacht GAA dome in the west that have been ruined as well. I just hope that golf courses will get the same level of funding to help sort the cost of removing the trees and the danger involved.
“There is a safety issue to playing golf with all these trees down, and we hope to get funding to replace as many of the trees as possible,” he said. “It’s vital because we don’t have the money for once-off issues like that. It’s a major problem for a small club.”
Heffernan hopes Golf Ireland may get involved to arrange an emergency fund for golf clubs who suffered most from the storm.
“We have to bring machines in, making sure we don’t damage the course when we’re doing that. There are substantial costs, labour too, and it will take six to eight weeks to clean it all up.”
Famous architect Robert Trent Jones jnr said that on golf courses “Trees can function like an instrument. Removing them limits the range of music you can make”.
Golf clubs across the island are left facing the music of the aftermath of an unprecedented storm.
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