NUMEROUS veteran, senior amateur and general golf events have been cancelled and countless golf courses flooded and damaged as heavy rain and severe weather causes havoc in the golf industry.
Of course, with many people losing their homes, property, livelihoods and in some tragic cases their lives, golf is not the number one priority. But for an industry in the throes of recovery after two years of a covid pandemic it will be another hard slog.
The east coast of the country has been particularly hard hit with first south-eastern Queensland and now NSW undergoing mass evacuations and flood damage.
Earlier this week golf clubs throughout south-east Queensland were beginning to see the full extent of the damage caused by record rainfall over previous days as floodwaters started to recede. Now the area is being smashed again.
Brisbane received 611.6mm of rain between 9am last Friday to 6pm Sunday to set a new highest three-day total, beating the previous record of 600.4mm from 1974 in records dating back to 1840.
From the Sunshine Coast down beyond the Queensland-New South Wales border communities were counting the cost of a crisis that is being compared to the 2011 floods that the Insurance Council of Australia estimated cost $2.38 billion in damages.
Tony Webeck from the PGA of Australia reported that management at both The Brisbane Golf Club and Carbrook Golf Club believed the damage this time was worse than what they experienced 11 years ago while long-time PGA Professional Tom Linskey estimated he has seen similar floods at Meadowbrook just three or four times during his career.
The rain that inundated the southern areas of the Gold Coast forced the abandonment of the second round of the Tweed Coast Open at Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Golf Club and on the Sunshine Coast clubs such as Maroochy River Golf Club reported previously unseen levels of water across the golf course and adjoining roads.
Webeck reported two of the most recent hosts of ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia tournaments were also been hit hard with Royal Queensland Golf Club and Nudgee Golf Club seeing large parts of their courses go underwater.
Gates are closed. Stay home and stay safe. pic.twitter.com/sWQg5Ut4Oi
— Royal Queensland GC (@RQGOLF) February 27, 2022
Further south the continuing downpours caused the postponement of the NSW Senior Amateur Championship scheduled for Tuncurry Golf Club to the disappointment of all those involved.
In my present location in the Illawarra region south of Sydney a number of nearby courses have already been closed for a week and with even worse falls predicted in coming hours it doesn’t appear they will be open for business anytime soon.
With the ongoing situation we can only hope and prepare, follow warnings and wish for the safety of all.
And our thanks and gratitude to all the state emergency services people and other emergency personnel who are currently putting in so much effort to rescue and keep others safe; and to all the greens staff, club volunteers and others who are/will be working long hours to reclaim our courses.
UPDATE
Keperra Country Golf Club near Brisbane shared the following video of their course during the downpours and there was another showing the aftermath.