Golf courses across the CSRA make recovery shot after Helene
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Tee times at golf courses across the CSRA began booking up months ago, just a few months after Hurricane Helene reshaped Augusta’s landscape.
We paid a visit to a few of the more than 30 golf courses in our area.
Each step into the Palmetto Golf Club is a step further back into golf history.
“This is Bobby Knowles’s walker track jacket,” said Tom Moore, director of the Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken.
If you like golf and you like history, Moore says the Palmetto Golf Club is the place to be.
The club was founded 50 years before Augusta National Golf Club.
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“The reason you’re traveling to see Augusta, to see the tournament, is that a lot of the founding at Augusta National were Palmetto ,” said Moore.
Moore spent more than three decades as the director of golf at the country’s oldest original operating 18-hole golf course.
Six months ago, Hurricane Helene nearly rewrote history at the course.
“We had about 150 trees down, but not many of them were in play,’ said Moore.
Liz: “When you came out and saw the damage, what went through your mind?”
Moore: “We have a big mess to clean up. In some areas, we are still working on cleaning up.”
The clock was ticking for the 30 other clubs in our area.
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“It was a lot of tree damage, but the biggest thing was debris,” said Robert Padgett, golf course superintendent for the Reserve Club at Woodside. “It was an average of about ten trees a hole.”
However, despite the odds piled up against them, Augusta’s golf community hit a hole in one.
We asked Moore if he had any tips for people who want to come out there to play.
“Keep it under the hole because if you knock it over the green, it’s going to be a long day,” said Moore.
Proving champions are made both on and off the green.
Plan ahead if you want to book a tee time for next year, Palmetto Golf Club books up by the Super Bowl.
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