HELENE RECOVERY ON COURSE | Golf's Battle Back After The Hurricane
- Dooner
- Nov 16
- 15 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
You may have seen the images. Hurricane Helene took lives, it took property, it took towns. It reshaped the geography of river valleys all throughout Western North Carolina, East Tennessee and prior to that parts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Damage estimates put this storm at more than seventy-eight BILLION dollars, making it the seventh-costliest hurricane since they started tracking such things in 1980.
That was a shade over thirteen months ago.
Morgan Freeman said it best in his final soliloquy in Deep Impact (do we really need to say SPOILERS AHEAD? The movie is almost thirty years old. If you've not seen it by now, you probably won't!). Addressing the world after an asteroid impact, Freeman (as President Beck), says:
We were left with devastation.
The waters reached as far inland as the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys.
It washed away farms and towns, forests and skyscrapers.
But, the water receded.
(Many) were lost, and countless more left homeless.
But the waters, receded.
Cities fall, but they are rebuilt.... rejoice in what we have been re-given.
Our planet. Our home.
So now, let us begin.
Eerie. Had we not told you that was a movie quote about an asteroid impact in the Atlantic Ocean and not this storm, would you have known the difference? Maybe, maybe note, but...
The waters receded.
Indeed the waters did recede, but the path to rebuild is still ongoing. Make no mistake. Our home - our Southern Appalachia - is still healing. So much progress has been made that in places, had you not known a disaster struck, you might not notice anything out of place.
But as the kids say, #IYKYK.
As we shift gears to talk about how the golf industry has dealt with this once in a millennia event, know that while this is a game, it is still the livelihood for hundreds across the region. Golf is their family business, same as a buried farm or a flooded storefront. More than that to many, golf is home. Golf is an escape. Everyone needs one of each, so we're going to shine a light on a few stories we've come across in the past year - stories from our neighbors, old friends and new. Stories in which you can find an escape and rejoice in what many have been re-given.
To them, we say thank you and we continue to wish you the best. This story is for you.
HELENE
This was not a once in a lifetime event. Far worse in fact. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officially categorized it as a 1-in-1000-years rain event, but other reports pushed that to be as severe as a 1-in-5000-years. And of course it was not isolated to one river or creek, but inundated hundreds of square miles.
As has been made well aware, this storm wasn't just a Hurricane - or the remnants of it - that did the damage, it was the three day precursor rain event that saturated the ground ahead of Helene that set the stage for disaster.
This piece would be days long if we covered every course in the region. For that reason, we are focusing on three North Carolina mountain courses that experienced the brunt of the storm. Those three courses are Kenmure Country Club in Flat Rock, Hound Ears Country Club in Boone and Broadmoor Golf Links in Fletcher just minutes south of Asheville.
The graphic above, and many others like it you will see down the page were pulled from a terrific resource that NOAA compiled into a "story map" of Helene in Southern Appalachia. To view that dramatic research and imagery, please click here.
KENMURE
Starting off with the southeastern most NC mountain course (above the escarpment), Kenmure is a private club located in Flat Rock, just north of the SC border. The course sits primarily in a flat spot on the valley floor, providing for a rare walkable experience amid its neighboring ancient peaks and slopes. We're kicking things off at Kenmure because, ironically or not, our visit/round kicked off our golfing year in late-January and gave us the inspiration for this piece.
King Creek and its tributaries played a prominent roll in the design of the course. There are fourteen creek crossings (on the entire property, not necessarily limited to the field of play), providing both a drainage mechanism for the course and strategic obstacle for player. While the water here didn't rise to the levels it saw in other places, due mainly to its high seat on the watershed table, it wasn't immune to the effects.
Steel culverts that sat beneath vehicular roadways were washed away like a Styrofoam coffee cups. King Creek spilled over and eroded its banks. Thankfully, save for a trying experience for certain, no homes or human life were harmed. By the time we rolled in the last week of January, the culvert had already been replaced and creek banks rebuilt.
A few greens needed to be cleaned up and a few bunkers had to be reworked, dropping in the need for just a few temporary greens. But for a course to look like this after an event like that, was remarkable!
Thankfully, Kenmure had replaced the old grass teeing grounds with covered Top Tracer bays on a concrete slab, complete with screens and lounge areas behind, allowing for a flexible new entertainment amenity for the club.
It's easy to see how this vision will be a gathering space for years to come. Competing in a golf-rich private club environment, amenities like this will come in handy.
For more information on all things Kenmure, including membership and stay & play opportunities, as well as wedding/event venue information, please visit kenmure.com.
HOUND EARS
At an elevation of 2900 to 3000 feet, Hound Ears is one of the High Country's courses that's closest to sea level. By comparison, the courses just south of it play in the 3600' - 4200' range. One even plays up over 4900' as the highest course in the country East of the Rockies. Playing at the "lower" altitudes can give you some great long views.
The flipside is that being lower in the watershed means more water can and will come your way in an event like this. Especially if you're surrounded by water on nearly all sides like Hound Ears...
With the Watauga River roaring to the North and spilling over its banks onto the 11th, 10th, 1st & 2nd holes, Lance Creek was backfilling itself.
With no where for the slower moving water to go when it met the Watauga, it pooled.
And pooled... And pooled...
At its crest, fourteen of the eighteen holes at Hound Ears were completely submerged. Golf course and property aside, this was very much a life and limb situation unfolding. Thankfully people like Allen Storie, Hound Ears Golf Course Superintendent, were at the ready to help people out of harm's way. Using some of his own personal equipment, he and others helped pull people through the storm.
Trent Bouts, editor of the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendent Association's Magazine did a wonderful story on Allen. We encourage you to read if you have the time.
If you're in a situation such as this and you get to the point that you can start working on the golf course, where do you start?
Thankfully Hound Ears had a couple people already in the mix that could not just pitch in and help, but lead the effort to redo the golf course.
Thankfully, golf course architect Kris Spence had already been up to Hound Ears a few times before the storm to work on some course improvements. He'd been retained by the member-led golf committee to embark on a plan to redo the entire course tee to green within the next three years.
When Helene receded, the opportunity to do nearly all of it in one shot presented itself.
Thankfully again, golf committee chair and Hound Ears resident member Danny Young was already there. Danny has not just operated golf courses for most of his life, but also built them. There was a time he even worked with the late-Mike Strantz on projects like Caledonia, Stonehouse and Royal New Kent. Needless to say, Danny is our kind of people!!!
Now retired, Danny wasn't exactly looking to work on golf courses anymore, but this one - and this time - made it impossible for him to ignore.
Young started ordering things like sod while Spence started wrangling up a crew to head up the mountain and get to work. Within two weeks, they got into the mud and debris. Within a couple months, something resembling a golf course began to reshape.
By the club's traditional Opening Day on April 25th (High Country courses close for the winter here due to the low temps), twelve holes were ready for play. By May 21st, the course was fully open.
Inside of seven months, Storie, Spence, Young and others completely rebuilt Hound Ears' golf course for the better. River and creek side greens were elevated above the 'normal' floodplain to protect against a future water event. Storie, also in command of the club's Watauga River maintenance and world-class trout fishing reputation, rebuilt retaining walls for the same purpose.
These photos were taken one year and three days post-Helene. Remarkably, nearly all the turf you see in the photos below was submerged at that time. (Click or tap any image to enlarge)
Only a couple improvements remain this offseason for the highest points of the property (holes 4-5-6 will get a remodel bringing the 1960s George Cobb design more in line with the rest of the updates Spence deployed). We're excited to get back up there and see how that comes together over the coming months. When we do, we'll add photos to this space.
For more information and updates on Hound Ears, please visit houndears.com.
BROADMOOR
At its zenith, the French Broad River crested more than ten feet HIGHER than ever previously recorded. The same effect that occurred at Hound Ears with the Watauga occurred here as well. The FBR was moving so fast that, in the aftermath, the 4th hole was one of the 'cleanest' pickups since it ran adjacent to the river. Short of the large tree debris, mud never settled there.
Cane Creek was a different story entirely, backing up against the fast moving torrent of the FBR. With nowhere to empty, it created 'Lake Broadmoor'. Due to its location at the bottom end of the Asheville Regional Airport runway, lots of curious passengers turned human drone cameras gave us this view one week after the storm...
Somewhere underneath more than a foot of mud, silt and standing water was Broadmoor Golf Links. If you were the person in charge of this property, what would be your reaction to seeing this for the first time? Quit? Cry? Pray? Formulate a plan to start digging out on the long road to recovery?
Zeke Cooper is the man who had to deal with those emotions and make those decisions.
Zeke is an entrepreneur and hotel developer. He's leasing the golf course property from the airport authority on a 50-year term so that he and his company, DreamCatcher Hotels, can execute plans to build a hotel adjacent to the clubhouse. He was just a couple years into managing the course when Helene laid those plans to waste. Or did it?
Unlike the aforementioned two courses which are both private clubs, Broadmoor relies on its 30,000 annual rounds for it's cash flow. There are no Danny Youngs living on the course. No private membership base to raise capital via assessment. Broadmoor employed a small team around forty-five local folks, many of which would not have a job for sometime even if the course came back down the line.
None of this mentions that the maintenance building was a total loss as well, which included all the equipment needed to care for the course or help dig it out. The cart storage area under the clubhouse looked like a tornado ran through it instead of a flood.
Having the pleasure to get to know Zeke a little bit over the past month, we can say we felt those same emotions as he recanted his personal Broadmoor journey. A couple weeks after the storm, there was a moment where Zeke was finally able to see a clear path through the mud and debris.
"Kemper Sports manages the course for us," Cooper explains. "They sent an insurance adjuster out to survey the property damage. We drove out towards the fourth tee and just couldn't go any farther because of all the downed trees on the 4th fairway."
"I just flat out asked him, 'what do you think?' His replay was, 'Zeke, this is a disaster. But you're going to be ok.'"
Standing out there with him on that exact spot (less than a mile away from the point noted on the flood map & chart below, Zeke said, "It felt like the first time in two weeks I had been able to take a full breath."
It's times like these where we have to remember that God has a plan. We aren't supposed to know the what's, why's or how's. We simply have to let Him go first and have faith to follow. Faith can be defined has belief without evidence. Zeke now had the evidence to back up his belief that Broadmoor could be saved.
Not only saved, but drastically improved. Vision quest activated!
When a couple of golf course architects started posting photos on Instagram of the cleanup process getting underway in Fletcher, we couldn't have been more excited to follow along.
Enter Justin Carlton and Lee Marshall, co-owners of Carlton Marshall Golf Design. With the benefit of literally thousands of trees having been ripped from the ground, CMGD had the opportunity to work essentially from a blank canvas with few restrictions.
NOTE: You may have seen CMGD's work all over social media this year and not known it via the 'Bucket List House' in Pinehurst!
"We had 46,000 square feet of bunkers," Zeke calculated, "so insurance paid a claim for the equivalent 46,000 square feet of bunkers. We just spread it around more efficiently and let Justin and Lee do their thing shaping the new look."
In addition to the new and artistic bunkering style (huge upgrade BTW!), they also had the chance to fix one of the more suspicious @design_disasters we've come across.
The back nine plays in a loop on the easternmost corner of the course. While the 10th and 11th holes weren't terrible, they were nothing to write home about either. The 12th on the other hand was a certifiable #DesignDisaster.
This three-shot snoozer featured a choked drive short of a tributary of Cane Creek at about 175 yards, leading to an even less exciting 175 yard layup around the dogleg, before doglegging back the other way with a 125-130 carry over the lake.
According to Cooper (and verified by Google Maps), you would have never known Cane Creek ran up the left for two-thirds of the hole. Here is a virtual play-through from GoogleEarth (click to enlarge any image):
Too many trees then. Not anymore. Cooper floated the idea of reversing the loop to CMGD.
"We had lost the original 11th green in the flood. Totally stripped away. Insurance was going to pay a claim to replace one green. Lee and Justin looked at modelling and came back excited that it could work if we swapped the 11th green and 12th tee locations."
Just like that, "Cooper's Corner" was born.
The old 12th became the new 10th, a great risk/reward par-5 with a diagonal tee shot over the lake that makes the green reachable in two for the longest of hitters. The new 10th green is protected by a bunker left, but with the added playability of chipping areas right and rear leading right up to Cane Creek, now in plain sight thanks to Mother Nature's tree removal.
The short par-4 11th plays back up within its same corridor, but to the old 10th green. The creek was cleared, regraded, and flow regulated, leaving a difficult approach where trouble awaits on any haphazard swing.
Finally the 12th was shortened to a par-3 playing to the old 12th green, just from a straight shot in from the lake bank. This also allowed for expansion of the range. We'll get to that in a minute.
And as if all those changes don't pique your interest enough, maybe knowing Broadmoor intends to employ just one fairway cut from cart path to cart path. You've got all the ingredients for improved pace-of-play, scoring, course conditioning and most of all, FUN!
Throw in the extras - a revamped clubhouse with new pro shop and club gripping station, a great bar and restaurant and dueling golf simulators to complete the vibe inside. Outside, we're talking about an expanded target range and even more surprises coming very soon down the line.
Oh but wait, there's more! A new 20,000 square foot bent grass putting course. Need a drink, a snack or a meal while you're hitting or putting? No problem. Food and beverage service will run it out to you!
UPDATE 12/3/25 - Broadmoor releases plans for Top Tracer Range featuring covered bays, drink & food service, heaters, party chalets to rent with your bay and LIGHTS to carry the party on well after the last putt is holed on the course. Here are some renderings of the covered bays for both day & night:
Of course, the hotel is on the way as well, with a groundbreaking in Spring 2026 and opening Summer 2028. What a hang this place will be!?!
Broadmoor just announced that the clubhouse, bar & restaurant AND driving range will open on December 4, 2025! The course is growing in nicely and is expected to be ready to go in May or June of 2026. The putting course will open sometime in between when it's had to time to root and be able to withstand the traffic.
While 'Broadmoor' was retained in name, this is an entirely new place with a vision for a successful future. We see no reason why the now named Broadmoor Links won't become the most popular public golf destination in Western North Carolina. A new logo - featuring everyone's favorite fantasy pet, a river otter - now accompanies some great new merch and the course's fresh vision.
(Fun Fact - a family of river otters actually calls the course home. They have been seen and filmed a number of times during construction and apparently can often be found frolicking in the new waterfalls around Cooper's Corner! As always, please do not feed the wildlife.)
Enjoy a few final looks at Broadmoor with about six months to go until opening day!
For more information on Broadmoor Links, please visit broadmoorgolflinks.com and follow them on your preferred social media channels.
OTHER AREA COURSES EFFECTED
Some courses took a direct hit, some took a glancing blow or maybe just lost some trees. Others might have been spared. There is no rhyme or reason to it. The story is not limited to just the three courses above, so we felt compelled to give a brief mention to a few others - most of which we've visited in the past. We wish all of you the best!
The Waynesville Inn & Springdale Resort are places where we are not just fond of the courses, but even more so of the people that make those places so special. Waynesville had just gone through an incredible transformation from run down property to waiting list membership and emerging destination status. Helene rerouted at least one creek and spilled over all the rest, necessitating another shutdown and rehab job.
Springdale was no stranger to such an event, having been devastated a few years prior by the remnants of another rogue hurricane right after a rehab. We detailed their earlier experience in recovery in depth here.
We're happy to report that both courses are in full splendor and for all purposes seem to have had a wonderful year. Go stay and play with them! You wont regret it and it matters!
Asheville Muni and Black Mountain, home to a pair of Donald Ross routings, have only reopened nine holes apiece. The flooding at the former and the wind at the latter have left both in search of funding for repairs.
Elk River Club in Banner Elk was similar to Hound Ears in flooding. With vehicular infrastructure crippled, it's private airstrip became the only way in or out for supplies in the days of need and emergency response. The club used the opportunity to execute portions of their master plan, thus renovating the entire course soup to nuts. It looks fantastic and will reopen next May with the rest of the High Country area clubs.
Sadly, there is still one course that has yet to embark upon any golf course recovery projects. Mount Mitchell Golf Club plays along the South Toe River and took as bad a hit as anywhere we've seen - golf course or otherwise.
The Army used the first fairway as a landing spot for search and rescue helicopters. The fine folks that own the course used their restaurant to feed as many as they could and gathered supplies for distribution to their isolated community.
As for the course, it's grim. They haven't posted to Facebook in over a year. The Google Street View car made a pass by the course in September 2025 and confirmed the course is - at this time - returning to nature. This course was once awe-inspiring, playing at the base of the tallest peak east of the Mississippi River. It's checkerboard fairways and snow white sand popped beneath the dark, forested slopes of the Black Mountains.
Here's a few shots we pulled from the course's Facebook page along with a Google Earth view of the flood damage.
A look down the 18th from a round in April 2016 versus Google's Street View back up the same corridor in Sept. 2025
This was a long one. It could have been a lot longer. If this was two or three chapters in a book, we likely left three times that on the cutting room floor. If you're from outside the area, we hope this sheds a little light on why you should continue to care about the recovery of Southern Appalachia. Not just on the course, but everywhere. If you are from here and lived these stories, we hope it brought a little light to your day and shows you that better days are coming.
For REJOICE, the waters receded!
So now, let us begin.
Sincerely Fores,
Your Golf Crusade
Take us home, Morgan...
Hurricane Helene Golf Course Recovery
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