Slow to recover

Even though Walker Sory’s situation is grim, he’s counting his blessings. Sory, the golf course superintendent at Golf Club Audubon Park in Jefferson, La., says the course is in pretty bad shape because of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent clean-up efforts. Even though the course didn’t flood, there’s a lot of debris and fallen trees, as well as damage to some of the greens caused by machines used to clean up debris.

Hurricane Katrina left many courses on the Gulf Coast unplayable.

“We didn’t get the flooding water you saw on TV,” he says. “We just had regular hurricane damage. There’s debris everywhere.”

Because of the lack of power cause by Katrina, the greens had no irrigation for two weeks.

“I just got back to work this past Monday (Sept. 19),” Sory says. “We have power to pump water, but we lost a lot of grass, and many greens are hurting because the tree companies that were doing work for the city ran over them – 20 percent are bad.”

In addition to the lack of irrigation, the dryness of the course worsened because it hadn’t rain for two or three weeks after Katrina.

Sory says there still are massive piles of debris that the tree companies left and he isn’t happy about the damaged greens.

“I appreciate them helping to clean up the debris, but I don’t know why they had to run over the greens,” he says.

Aside from the debris, Sory says the sewer system isn’t functioning, and there’s little water pressure. Also, there’s no power in the maintenance facility because it’s on a different electric grid than the pump house and the clubhouse, which also has power.

The course was a staging area for the military, National Guard and various fire departments during the Katrina aftermath relief effort, according to Sory. He says one of his employees didn’t evacuate during the hurricane and was living in a cart barn until the military took him in and fed him. The employee was able to get water on the greens after the hurricane to help keep the greens alive.

With no revenue, the situation is bleak for Sory. He and his boss need to decide soon how much to renovate the course.

“I have two options,” he says. “I can overseed, but if I do that, the condition of the Bermudagrass will worsen. The other option is to grow it back in next spring. The best thing to do is grow as much Bermudagrass as I can. I will have to resprig some greens and do some patching and plugging.”

Sory wonders how much to spend renovating the course because there’s a chance there won’t be any tourism when the course becomes playable.

“It’s a catch-22,” he says. “And if this next hurricane hits us hard, it will set us back even more.”

Even with the efforts to repair the damage to the course, its reopening date is still uncertain.

“In my mind, we should try to get the course playable as quickly as possible,” Sory says. “Maybe we cut green fees in half to encourage people to play to generate some revenue. The lack of revenue is serious because we’re solely based on revenue from tourism. If we don’t have that, I won’t have a job.”

Nonetheless, Sory is resolute.

“We want the city to come back, and we’ll be a part of that,” he says. “We will be back, but I don’t know how we’ll do it. People that come to the city to rebuild it will need some rest and relaxation, so maybe they will come play golf.”

However, Sory is thankful because he has a property to go back to. Other superintendents and clubs aren’t so lucky such as the New Orleans Country Club and the Metairie Country Club. Both were completely under water. He’s also grateful that his home, about 10 miles from the course, sustained minimal damage from the hurricane.

Sory and his wife, who’s also dependent on tourism because she worked in a hotel in New Orleans, don’t want to move from the area. His wife is in Houston now because the hotel management company she works for relocated her there temporarily.

“I have a job and a home, but for how long?” he says.

The course still is closed, and Sory’s 14-man crew has been sliced to three. GCN