Dear Members, we thought at this time it would be useful & timely to provide an update following the weather event of 23rd to 28th February. Firstly, we send our thoughts and support to those members & family and friends who have been affected by the catastrophic weather event, we trust all impacted have the support needed to recover as quickly as is possible.
Clearly, our Club as well as many other businesses was significantly affected as well. My thanks go to our Course, Pro Shop & Club staff for the manner in which they have responded to the events that unfolded, and to Barry, Brett & Tony in particular for all their work in getting the club back up and running. A special thank you as well to our wonderful team of volunteers who have also gone above and beyond anything that could be reasonably expected of them to initially help with the clean up and then to assist in preparing the course for play, which we recommenced last Thursday. Perversely, whilst 6 & 10 will remain ‘playing short’ for the time being whilst remediation work is undertaken, the course is now in good condition despite being pretty much entirely under water not much more than 2 weeks ago.
Members are also advised that the Club is insured for such an event. We expect over time that we will recoup much if not all of the costs incurred in remediating the club buildings damaged, course damage (including pump stations), stock losses from the Pro shop etc. In consultation with our insurers, rather than rebuild the Pro Shop ‘as it was’, we have taken the decision to immediately proceed with the planned Pro Shop extension which we hope to have completed over the next 6 or so weeks. We continue to work closely & collaboratively with our insurers in relation to these matters and advise that at this time, whilst there will always be a cost to the club from such an event, our insurance cover will minimise the club’s financial exposure to the flooding event.
In short, over time, the clubs recovery from this event is entirely manageable.
It is likely that there will be delays in some remediation works. For example, prior to re-turfing holes 6 & 10, we will need to replace drainage pipes as the drains have been blocked by silt from the flood waters, these sorts of works are provided for in the club’s insurance cover and have been provisionally approved by our Insurer.
We will update further as we move through the various stages of works required to repair the course and Club House buildings over the next couple of months.
Greg Seaborn
President – Virginia Golf Club
