Mill Creek Park Golf Course reopening after months-long storm damage cleanup
For the first time in three months, Mill Creek Golf Course has tee times booked for Saturday. The damage from the July tornado has been cleaned up, and at least half the course is ready to go.
From the 18th green on the North Course, looking back at the fairway, it looks very much like Mill Creek before the storm — like a golf course that’s ready to be reopened Saturday morning.
“Well, we wanted to make sure that the quality of the course after the storm was equal or better to than before the storm and we confident that we’ve gotten it there,” said Aaron Young, executive director of Mill Creek MetroParks.
But there are still signs of the work it took to clean up the 150 trees the July 5 tornado knocked over — trees that can be seen piled in various areas around the course.
There’s a wood chipper remaining in the parking lot. The planted grass on 10 fairway, where a tree and stump were removed. The trees that once covered the cart area are gone, and the off colored shingles on the clubhouse corner where a tree fell on the roof.
“Repair of the turf, repair of some of the greens, some of the fairways and then ultimately some of the cart paths,” Young said.
Only the North Course will open for now. The South Course lost 500 trees.
“South Course is still ongoing. As most people know, the South Course is a bit wetter than the North Course. And with the help of Mother Nature, we don’t know we’re going to get there this year,” Young said.
As far as the money lost at the golf course.
“Those calculations are still ongoing. When you say lost, I mean we’ve lost revenue, and we’ve had some additional costs associated with cleanup that weren’t budgeted for,” Young said.
Mill Creek Golf Course is approaching 100 years and has always been known for its abundance of trees. Some of the most famous are now gone, but will the golfers notice it?
“Well, if you’re a golfer that has a propensity to be within the trees. I think you’ll find the course more to your liking because there will be a little less trees than what was here originally. But we’re confident that the overall design intent is still maintained even after such a substantial storm,” Young said.
The first tee time Saturday is at 8:30 am. All the tee times are filled for Saturday, though there are a few nine-hole slots left for after 3 p.m.
Read the original article at WKBN.