Virginia Golfer Nov / Dec 2017 | Page 33

North Florida golf courses rebound following two destructive hurricanes by LISA D. MICKEY A PAIR OF HURRICANES in the last two years have kept Florida golf courses busy with repairs and renovations, but the end result has rendered improvements that golfers will find pleasing this winter as they head south looking for a few rounds. “It took a while to pick up the debris, but now it’s as if it never happened,” said Chris Harder, director of golf at Plantation Bay Golf and Country Club in Ormond Beach, Fla. “Everything is where it needs to be and it’s just perfect.” Harder’s 45-hole facility, located in the southern range of North Florida’s collection of top courses, endured 11 inches of rain and flooding after Hurricane Irma swept through the Sunshine State in September. Plantation Bay lost about 50 trees in that storm on its Prestwick course, Club de Bonmont course and nine-hole Westlake course. N OV E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 17 | V I R G I N I A G O L F E R 31