Deeside delight as 18-hole course reopens

Five months on from the devastation of Storm Frank, Deeside Golf Club has finally reopened 18 of its 27 holes – much to the delight of its members.

The Aberdeenshire course was entirely submerged on December 30 and the weeks that followed, with 200-250 of the club members volunteering at some stage to help try and get things back to normal.

Read more -> North East facilities ravaged by Storm Frank

And with the club almost fully operational again – they hope to open the nine-hole course next Friday – Deeside’s director of golf Frank Coutts says there’s been a fantastic buzz about the place over the past few days and reiterated his thanks to clubs in the local area, who welcomed Deeside members with open arms in its period of closure.

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“The vibe around the place these past few days has been great,” said Frank. “There’s a fantastic buzz and we’re delighted to be able to open 18 holes again.

“The clubs in the area have been absolutely outstanding for us – just fantastic really. Murcar gave our members free golf until the end of February if they produced their Deeside card and all of the other unaffected clubs in the area let us pay guest rates instead of visitor rates.

“We haven’t quite decided but we will be doing something to thank the golf clubs in the area that have helped us out.”

Deeside Golf Club in pics (December 30 – January 9)

And if the pictures don’t explain the devastation enough, Frank was quick to say just how badly affected Deeside was from the flooding, with the club having to rent machinery which cost them ‘a lot’.

“There were two areas where there were four to six inches of silt and we couldn’t do anything for the first three weeks because the ground was so soft,” he explained. “For the first six to eight weeks, it was all down to manual labour.

“We had to get diggers in eventually because the STRI gave us a 50-day window where if there was no sunlight, the grass will die, so we had to bite the bullet.

Read more -> North East facilities vow to recover after devastating floods

“We scraped all of the silt into molehills – about eight tonnes per mound – and on the area of holes 13, 16 and 17 there was over 320 mounds. And at the eighth and ninth, there were about 100.

“With renting the machinery, it’s cost us a lot – that’s all I’m going to say. If outside contractors were employed to do what our greenkeepers have done, then I dread to think how much it will have cost.”

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