Major Ice Damage to Northen Michigan
Most golf courses are recovering well, some escaped completely from damage
By Tom Lang
Every now and then, Mother Nature throws a curve ball at the men and women who are caretakers of our beloved golf courses – and most often, those crews and superintendents knock the ball right out of the park.
A devastating ice storm rocked northern Michigan in late March, causing the loss of power for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. Three and four weeks later there were still pockets of no power.
Tree damage is still being assessed. Most roads are now clear but there’s still work to be done, according to a report from WOOD-TV out of Grand Rapids, which said: “More than 1,500 miles of road have been cleared in Northern Michigan after a major ice storm, the Michigan National Guard said in a recent social media post. More than 870 soldiers and airman were deployed as part of recovery operations and worked alongside first responders and agencies.”
Josh Richter, Boyne’s Sr. VP of Golf Operations told me: “It’s been really great to see the community rally as a whole. Places like ACE Hardware having equipment ready and figuring out ways to run on generator power and get things people needed like tools and chainsaws. Getting a generator running at the market the first couple of days in order to have food and water. Gas stations figuring it out. I was extremely impressed how the community as a whole supported one another.”
Reports from various golf properties like Boyne, the Gaylord Golf Mecca, Belvedere, Walloon Lake and Shanty Creek in late April are very positive, especially under the circumstances.
At Treetops, power was lost for six days and Internet for 10.
“We were fortunate that no buildings were damaged,” said Treetops GM Barry Owens. “However, we did experience a sizeable amount of tree damage, which amounted to the loss of tree limbs throughout the property. The golf courses were not damaged, and turf conditions are excellent. Various tree debris has been moved out of play and is being removed as we speak. That will be an ongoing task throughout the summer.”
“We have determined that Mother Nature is a golfer who struggles getting off the tee, so she brought some limbs down for better recovery shots,” he quipped. “As you can imagine, she also likes good views—so with her help, the views are even more spectacular at Treetops.”
Treetops is a member of the Gaylord Golf Mecca. Sports writer Tony Paul of the Detroit News reported on April 18 that “all of the 17 golf courses that make up the Gaylord Golf Mecca were impacted by the March 29 storm, some of them much harder than others, but golf officials in the area expect most of the courses to open pretty close to on time, in the first week of May… The storm impacted millions of trees across the multi-county area, and tens of thousands of trees at the golf courses, just across Gaylord.”
Gaylord Country Club (public) may have seen the worst of it. The same Detroit News piece reported comments from the head pro there:
"I've been there for 17 years, grew up in Gaylord, and never have seen a storm anything like this widespread," said JT Aude, head golf professional at Gaylord Golf Club. "I was in town for the straight-line winds in 1998. I was at Treetops then, and it lost a lot of trees. But (that storm) was a path. It wasn't the whole county, or counties. There are so many counties that are affected (by the ice) and so many people affected. It's just crazy. Pretty much all the trees on the golf course have some sort of damage. We're hoping to save as many as we can."
Christy Walcott of the Gaylord Golf Mecca marketing team said: “Spring cleanup will require more people, machinery and effort than usual this year, but courses are still opening on or near their normal dates. The woods may look a little different, but the tee boxes, fairways and greens are going to be as welcoming as ever.”
Boyne’s three locations are in the Petoskey area. The Boyne Mountain location never lost power, whereas The Highlands did, but only for a few days. But The Highlands had serious tree damage. A friend of mine who lives near there said at first tree damage looked like what you would see on TV after a hurricane.
Boyne’s three locations are in the Petoskey area. The Boyne Mountain location never lost power, whereas The Highlands did, but only for a few days. But The Highlands had serious tree damage. A friend of mine who lives near there said at first it looked like what you see on TV for hurricane damage, minus building damage.
“Our focus as we emerged on the other side of the ice storm was taking care of our team, and understanding that real life stuff was happening – first and foremost people needing access to power and water,” Richter told me. “After taking care of our team, we continued to march.”
Richter said course work at Boyne began in the middle of fairways and worked out to the outer edge.
“Getting our short grass – the tees, fairways and greens cleaned off so we could start the (spring) agronomic practices,” he indicated as one step. “The second half of April we were mowing and spraying, the normal spring preparations.
“The next steps are making sure the golf courses are safe. With our teams and support from our sister resorts, as well as third-party contractors, we’re marching along and making really good progress. We expect to be on schedule opening the golf courses as planned on May 2.”
He also said contractors were brought in with bucket trucks to remove broken and hanging branches caught high in trees, so they don’t eventually fall on people.
Shanty Creek on the other hand was sparred. Lindsey Southwell, director of marketing said: “The ice storm, we call it Ice-Magadan, thankfully missed our resort. There was damage about five miles away, but we were unscathed. We were one of the only resorts that went untouched. A lot of our counterparts had a lot of damage, but thankfully we were able to host over 300 linemen. And I cannot speak highly enough for the hours and energy that those folks put out, because it was amazing.”
Southwell gave some credit to Lake Bellaire as keeping their resort ice free this time because the water may have helped keep the air temperatures slightly higher than other areas.
“It was just a matter of a few degrees that was either a make it or break it,” she said. “I’m not a meteorologist but I have to imagine (the lake) helped us. But it was an unprecedented weather event for northern Michigan in general, and really a long lasting one. Many were without power for 7-10 days, and that was like the norm. Tens of thousands of people.”
News outlets reported that people in no less than 12 counties were affected, indicating how wide-spread the catastrophe reached. One friend mentioned that so many trees were snapping and breaking that it sounded like gunfire in the forests.
Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) shared a photo with MLive that showed a huge area of pine trees with the tops snapped off. It said that “ice-covered red pine trees snapped off leaving stick-like forest in the Pigeon River Country State Forest northeast of Gaylord. Approximately 919,550 acres of state forest land are impacted by the ice storm.”
Walcott added: “The Gaylord Golf Mecca has an amazing partnership and most of our members were able to come together right after the ice storm to share ideas for cleanup, communicating with golfers… Overall, there was a lot of optimism in the room that we’re heading into another successful golf season.”
