Page 17 - GBC Magazine Winter ENG 2023

play, Jeff Collingridge, Director of Golf’s weather app alerted him of a thunderstorm watch that went into effect. That quickly escalated into a thunderstorm warning and after viewing the radar and the sky, he told all league players to sit tight as they were not allowing play. In about 10 minutes this changed to golf ball size hail that was slamming off the clubhouse windows, doors, roof, and patio.
After the storm stopped, Collingridge went for a drive to assess the damage, at which point he noticed the damage to the greens. It was as if 1000 golfers hit balls into every green and did not fix their ball marks. At this point, it was determined that they would need to close immediately and remained closed on Friday to repair the damage done to the greens. Sutton Creek’s Superintendent and grounds crew started the repair by
rolling, topdressing, rolling and adding fertilizer. They also did more work on Saturday morning, and finally, they were able to re- open for business.
“The clubhouse and cart barn weathered okay in the storm with only a few shingles coming off the roof. Unfortunately though,” Collingridge said, “everyone that had a car in the parking lot received excessive damage with dents to roofs, hoods, tunnel covers and one car having a windshield smashed.” After talking with some customers a few weeks later, Jeff learned some car estimates were coming back with $18,000 dollars in damage. As for the club’s expense, the big hit was losing the $20,000 day in revenue on Friday.
Jeff concluded, “Luckily no one was hurt in the aftermath, as all golfers and staff were inside at the time of attack. My advice would be
to take these storms very seriously as they can create severe damage to property, and they pose a severe threat to human life. Early action to remove golfers to a safe place is better than putting them in danger. I would rather overreact and if the storm misses us at least everyone is safe.”
A few hundred kms away, London’s East Park Golf Gardens also experienced an extreme and frightening weather event during the 2023 summer. Alon Shatil, GM and Co-Owner shared, “One afternoon in late July, there was a forecast of potential thunderstorms and as we usually do, we were watching the radar for both our waterpark/activity side as well as the golf course. Around 3:00pm, it started to rain. We checked the radar and there were no tornado or severe weather alerts, but a thunderstorm watch
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Golf Business Canada 17