The May issue of T&L Golf, where I’m a contributing editor, is out, and it contains the feature I wrote on coastal erosion and its impact on seaside golf. Starts with an anecdote from PEI, so I thought I’d post a taste here.
A Gathering Storm
The world’s great coastal courses, including Pebble Beach and Royal Dornoch, are fighting to survive in the face of climate change and wild weather
From May 2007
By Robert Thompson
On Boxing Day in 2004, Greg Dukart, the general manager of the Links at Crowbush Cove on Prince Edward Island, watched as high winds and heavy surf hammered the coast near his home on the isolated Canadian island and knew this winter storm would be like none he had ever experienced. This time, his course was in trouble.
Resting on the southern shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Crowbush Cove had long been protected by a sheet of ice that formed annually along the north end of the course. But that winter had been unusually warm and the ice had never arrived, leaving the course, considered among the best in Canada, exposed to the force of increasingly powerful storms. Dukart was worried about what he’d face when he arrived at work the following day, but the damage exceeded even his worst fears. The surging nor’easter had ripped into the dune protecting the par-three eighth and the sixteenth fairway and swept it out to sea.
The entire piece (which I’m quite proud of) can be found here.
very interesting article, rob. nice work.
Robert: Great digging and fact-gathering. Excellent journalism, mate! This is a pressing issue in golf- one that many of us will be reporting on in the near future – and you have helped to make the point clearly.