It wasn’t until two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina that Bill Daniels, public works director and superintendent of Sugar Mountain Public Golf Course in North Carolina, returned to the course, and saw the downed trees, lost holes, missing cart paths and debris spread all over.
A year later, Daniels is back on the greens, anticipating reopening the entire course before the start of next season.
“Once springtime came back around, we hit it wide open, and right now we have 10 holes open and playable,” he says.
The course sits at 4,100 feet elevation, at the bottom of Sugar Mountain. “Obviously, in the mountains of western North Carolina, we were greatly affected by the hurricane,” Daniels says. The village of Sugar Mountain is located near Banner Elk and Linville in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
When the storm hit, Daniels recorded 37.74 inches of rain over a 72-hour period — with 18 inches of rain during the last 10 hours. The course lost its 16th hole, 175 feet of turf on the 15th hole and about 600 feet of cart path on the fourth hole.
“Our irrigation pond was completely filled with sediment and debris, and all the bunkers on the golf course were compromised and filled with mud and sediment,” he says.
Since Sugar Mountain could only offer a reduced number of holes to customers this year, its opening was delayed for more than a month, finally welcoming back golfers on May 20.
“We wanted to make sure that what we did have to offer was going to be in the best condition possible, and we have a very small crew,” Daniels says. “I’ve got seven men, counting myself, and this crew, … I can’t say enough about them.”
Sugar Mountain isn’t the only course reopening after Helene. Asheville Municipal Golf Course’s back nine welcomed customers in late October 2024, 30 days after the hurricane.
Superintendent Matt Dierdorff says the course suffered damage to its front nine following the Swannanoa River flooding.
“The river cut in there, it cuts straight across 2, 3 green, and straight down 4 and 5 fairways. Took 6 and 7 with it, also. We completely lost 3 green, that’s a large sinkhole, as is 5.”
The storm not only devasted the front nine but also destroyed the bunkers and irrigation system, he adds.
Before Helene, Dierdorff viewed the front and back nine as two different courses. “The front nine was very flat, very walkable, fairly tight, but not a lot of trees or anything. The back nine winds up through the community.”
Pat Warren
, Asheville Municipal’s general manager and golf pro, has worked at the Donald Ross-designed course for more than eight years. He has worked through several changes, but nothing approaching the aftermath of Helene.
“It was devasting. Just never seen anything like it before and never been a part of anything like it before,” he says, “and it was really devasting to see the damage that had been done.”
During the initial cleanup, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers removed 98,000 tons of sand and silt debris from the course. About 45 trees fell, damaging cart paths, Dierdorff says.
After the Flood of 1916, Ross designed the front nine to be constructed on a flood plain; the back nine was built on an elevation in 1927. That elevation prevented it from facing other damage besides downed trees.
In June 2024, the course completed a $3 million renovation to restore the back nine to the original Ross design, which included replacing stormwater piping and redoing tee boxes and bunkers, Warren says.
“Luckily enough, those all withheld the storm, so that was not a waste of money,” he says. “We replaced drainage lines and storm water lines on the front side in a couple of holes and on a couple of holes on the back.”
Dierdorff is planning to use a Bush Hog to clear the front nine once or twice a year to prevent trees from sprouting up; they aren’t being maintained before construction starts.
“It’s starting to grow up in weeds and everything else,” he says. “It’s kind of amazing how nature just rejuvenates itself, but it’s just all weeds right now.”
Because the course runs on city water, it didn’t have “good water” for six weeks after the hurricane and drought that happened before the storm. Dierdorff says this made recovery stressful, but he didn’t let it upset him.
“I wasn’t really concerned about the lack of water because you can’t control it, so you can’t get frustrated about it. “
Both the greens on Sugar Mountain and Asheville Municipal are healthy. Neither course needed to change its greens practices during the recovery.
The two courses are eyeing full reopening dates as early as 2026, depending on how long the construction will take. Both courses are also undergoing renovations.
“It will be a year a since the storm, but we’re making every attempt that we can to get the entire course back open, even though it may not happen this season,” Daniels says. “Definitely by spring of 2026, we will be 100 percent back in operation.”
Sugar Mountain started a bunker restoration project and will replace its culverts, which were washed out, with bridges as well as work on improving other areas. The team intends to build up the stream banks with rocks to stabilize them.
Asheville Municipal expects to begin restoring its front nine as the city hired Ron Forse of Forse Golf Design, Ron Cutlip of Cutlip Golf Design and Biohabitat of North Carolina to redesign those holes.
“There’ll be a lot of things added in, like Ross has swales that go through the course that were taken away at some point and replaced by drains. Those swales will come back, adding in the dry creek beds that helped with storm drainage and stuff like a lot of greens-type storm drainage.”
Dierdorff is uncertain about the timeline for the completion of the construction but is happy with the progress.
The course is also looking into a small project to restore the greens to the original Ross shape and “resodding about six to 10 feet out on the greens surround to give a nice clean border,” he adds.
For these recovery efforts, both courses have received financial aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Daniels meets with a FEMA representative about twice a month to discuss the restoration progress. He considers FEMA a “big help” to the course because the agency will reimburse 100 percent of the repairs.
Warren says the city of Asheville has been directly working with FEMA to discuss the restoration plans and budget.
Daniels and Dierdorff received aid from the Carolinas GCSA’s disaster relief fund. After Helene, Daniels’ home sustained some damage, and he received financial aid from the fund. Both Dierdorff and his assistant superintendent received aid from the organization when the storm displaced them and their families.
“It was really helpful,” Dierdorff says. “We lost all the food in our fridge. We were staying with a friend, so I was driving 45 minutes to and from, as opposed to 10.”
Although Helene brought destruction, the outpour of support renewed Daniels’ faith in humanity. “People just kept bringing stuff and kept bringing stuff. We would load the truck and take stuff out to where it was needed.”
Warren learned how to prepare for a hurricane. Asheville Municipal was able to save some of its equipment, furniture and data from planning for the storm the day before Helene arrived. The restoration taught Dierdorff how to be patient with others.
“I’m not going to say anything because everybody was dealing with something, whether it was a flooded basement or a tree on a house or something like that,” Dierdorff says. “So, just the management aspect of it, you really had to try and understand what everybody else was going through also.”
Daniels became comfortable letting go, allowing contract teams and two construction crews to come on the course and make the necessary changes. He also appreciated the opportunity to work alongside his team of 17 years during the recovery.
“To be out there, side by side, with these guys and doing so much of this work, not necessarily using machinery, but just using your bare hands,” he adds. “Getting out, getting dirty and getting the job done — that’s been the best thing for me.”
By June 2025, the Asheville Municipal tee sheet was filled with golfers playing more than 100 rounds a day, and Sugar Mountain experienced its busiest day of the season.
After seeing golfers return, Daniels became excited to see the complete recovery.
“We just can’t wait to see what we’re able to do with our golf course,” he says, “even if it’s a year from now.”
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