Fore, please: First fairways set to reopen on Hilton Head Island

Nineteen days after Hurricane Matthew struck Hilton Head Island, golf is set to make its return.

Shipyard Golf Club will open its Clipper nine on Thursday, becoming the first holes ready to accept golfers since the island was shut down in anticipation of Matthew’s approach. The hurricane blasted through Oct. 8, leaving acres of tangled wood and flooding in its wake.

“It’s going to be good to just have some golfers out there,” general manager Ken McNerney said Wednesday. “It’s been very quiet.”

Well, except for the chainsaws and equipment trucks. But the sounds of golf have been absent.

“We’re just happy to be open and trying to get somewhat back to normal,” McNerney said.

Dolphin Head Golf Club and the Country Club of Hilton Head are set to follow Saturday, giving them the distinction of being the island’s first 18-hole layouts back in operation. For those who simply wanted to hit golf balls, the First Tee of the Lowcountry has had its practice range open for more than a week.

Mainland courses have been faster to reopen, with nearly all facilities offering public play welcoming golfers back by last weekend. Hilton Head National was Bluffton’s final piece, opening its doors again Wednesday.

“We’ve been going after it pretty hard,” said John Brown, CEO of Brown Golf Management, which operates five Bluffton courses in addition to Dolphin Head and two at Palmetto Hall.

Brown said he could have had nine holes at Dolphin Head ready a little sooner, but waited to give golfers a full 18-hole experience.

Shipyard has three nine-hole layouts, offering different combinations for golfers to play a full 18. Clipper had fewer trees down than its sister courses, McNerney said, so it became a fairly easy choice as the first to get up and running again.

“We had about 120 trees (down) on that nine; the others had a bit more,” he said, estimating that crews have carted off 20,000 cubic yards of debris between the three nines.

“We have probably 95 percent of the debris off the property, so it’s a pretty clean golf course. The bunkers have some serious damage. We lost a lot of sand, so the team has done a good job to get back to the minimum playable surface. They’ll need more work down the road.”

Golfers also may notice tire tracks from the big equipment brought in, though most of it has been restricted to near wooded areas.

“They do cross the fairway in one location,” he acknowledged. “But I guarantee you, people playing (Thursday) will not know what it looked like three weeks ago.”

Shipyard’s Galleon nine also could reopen soon, McNerney said, perhaps by late next week to create an 18-hole option in combination with alongside the Clipper. Oyster Reef also hopes to have nine holes ready sometime next week.

On Thursday, Sea Pines Resort announced it would open the new Atlantic Dunes layout next Monday and Heron Point two days later. Harbour Town will come a little later in November.

This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 11:56 PM with the headline "Fore, please: First fairways set to reopen on Hilton Head Island."