Barefoot Resort director of golf course maintenance John Hughes doesn’t study advance weather forecasts these days.
It can be frustrating and plenty of work remains following an early fall unlike any other during Hughes’ 13-year tenure at the four-course resort. Fall at Barefoot Resort started with more than 30 inches of rain in 30 days.
“It’s not a half-inch here or a half-inch there,” he says. “It’s three inches, four inches at a time.”
If hosting 340 golfers, including many of your colleagues, represents a respite, then Hughes and his crew received one Monday when the Carolinas GCSA hosted its annual golf championship on the Fazio, Love and Norman courses. The presence of the Carolinas GCSA event on the resort’s calendar served as motivation during some challenging October days.
“We love it,” Hughes says. “We look forward to it. It kind of gives us something to push toward to make everything right and then kind of take a breather afterward. It’s pretty neat.”
Golf is a $2.7 billion industry in South Carolina, according to a report released by the South Carolina Golf Course Owners Association in 2012. With more than 100 golf courses in a tourist-heavy 60-mile stretch, Myrtle Beach is responsible for a big chunk of that total. When the weather cooperates, popular courses such as the ones at Barefoot Resort are brimming with fall activity.
In short, Hughes and his crew were pushing water at arguably the worst possible time. The water reached places Hughes had never seen it touch such as wooded areas surrounding maintained turf and cart-path tunnels. The courses quickly reopened following each significant rain event, a testament to determined work by the 60-member crew and quality course drainage. “The course has handled it pretty well,” Hughes says.
Hughes hasn’t received an opportunity to trade soggy stories with other Myrtle Beach superintendents. But he knows neighboring crews experienced similar plights.
“We have been trying to keep after we got here,” he says. “I haven’t been able to reach out that much, other than asking somebody, ‘Do you have any water over there?’ It’s been tough for us finding a place for more water to go.”
Hughes adds “it’s going to take some time” for parts of the courses to return to their pre-dousing condition.
Monday represented an ideal day for Hughes and his crew. The temperatures were in the mid-60s and not a drop of rain hit the resort.
Guy Cipriano is GCI’s assistant editor.