Source: The Star Press (Muncie, Ind.)
If you think your yard looks cluttered with twigs and branches, try facing acre after acre of the same mess.
Area golf courses will face that very task in the coming weeks and months as cleanup begins from last week's ice storm that left more than 100,000 East Central Indiana residents without power and many more with stick-filled yards.
'It just looks like the tornado hit again" Albany Golf Club owner Stan Richards said. 'There are tree limbs everywhere."
A tornado wreaked havoc on Albany's golf course 1 1/2 years ago. Because of that damage, Richards said he was surprised by the damage last week's storm caused.
'I would have thought the tornado would have taken care of the weak limbs and trees," he said.
Other golf courses didn't describe their damage as so severe.
'It isn't as bad as we thought," Cardinal Hills Golf Course owner Steve Fehlinger said. 'We have downed trees and downed lines, and it is going to take a little clean-up, but no major damage.
'It is just a mess."
Fehlinger said his course is playable.
'The downed lines and downed trees and branches are in the rough area. This week we are going to get the Bobcat out and pile branches up until spring. That's about all you can do."
Jeff Lorance, manager at DJ's Golf and a member of the family that owns Crestview Golf Course, said there are branches down under almost every single tree.
Lorance also reported that the driving range at Crestview was hit hard.
'The poles for the netting, which stays up year round, got too weighted down and around eight or 10 poles snapped down by the base."
As far as the course goes, Lorance said Crestview is probably playable as well.
'There are a couple of places where you may not be able to take a cart on a cart path," he said. 'But, you could play it if you wanted to."
The Players Club Golf Course will also have to remount its driving range net, according to Tony Lambert, manager of the course.
'We have several limbs down and a lot of cleanup ahead of us," he said. 'We got hit mostly back in the area where there are houses. It is more wooded back in there."
While the ice was destructive, the melting of it didn't seem to bother course operators.
Lorance, who went around taking pictures of the damage for his family who was out of town, said that water damage wasn't a concern.
In fact, each golf course official The Star Press talked to said the same, explaining that they didn't get much precipitation in the last week. Additionally, most courses reported that creeks and rivers that were up had receded quick enough to prevent damage.