Following weeks of cold and rainy weather, golfers took advantage of the sun and hit the greens last week at Toqua Golf Course.

But the courses are still playing catch-up.

“Just from the business side of it, it’s killed our rounds,” Adam Jacob, Toqua golf professional, said. “Being an outdoor sport, weather affects everything we do. We’re just trying to survive and save money where we can. When it’s nice, we kill it. Our days get really busy and everyone gets out to play, but the rain has definitely hurt.”


Since the beginning of the year, the Village has seen record amounts of rainfall.

Golf superintendents and maintenance crews have worked as much as possible to keep up the courses.

“There’s really not much you can do,” Jordan Clark, Kahite golf superintendent, said. “I believe last year, we received a total of 80 inches of rain. We’ve already gotten 15 inches for the month of January and February. When it’s raining and it’s raining all day, we stay indoors and work on inside projects that we’ve had planned since the fall. It keeps the crew busy and keeps them out of the rain. Golfing in Tellico Village is obviously down.”

When combined with cold air, rain in the winter months can prove a struggle to keep the grass aerated and healthy.

“As far as agronomically, all our pre-emergent applications are getting flushed through the system,” Clark said. “Weed pressure looks to be really high right now and it just makes things difficult. When it’s wet this time of year, it takes a while for it to dry out. Typically, it’s cart path only. Me, Chris (Sykes) and Wells (McClure) push the boundaries to go 90 degrees as much as we can because we understand the experience of playing golf is much better when you can drive to your ball rather than walk.”

Several areas experienced flooding, but the greens have remained intact.

“The greens have been good,” Jacob said. “We might have had some dead areas where the water was sitting for so long, but I think for the most part, our guys are on top of everything. They’re trying to save as much turf as they can or limit the damage, so we’re in good hands. From the business side, I just need it to stop raining.”

Kahite experienced multiple areas of erosion and collected debris throughout the course.

The biggest issue has been restoring bunkers, Clark said.

“Runoff is always an issue, especially after a heavy rain,” he said. “Anything that comes through the golf course, it also affects common area properties. This also makes trees very fragile when they’re wet, so you’ve got limbs and trees falling down. I know at Kahite, we’ve got 93 bunkers. When they get washed out, we spend the majority of our day putting them all back together. That’s kind of been the story this winter. It’s no fun, but you’ve got to do it.”

Tanasi Golf Course was closed last week for aerification, which is a process that helps improve the overall health of the grass.

“We’re blessed to get a full week,” Clark said. “That’s the beauty of Tellico Village is that we can close one for a week and keep the other two running, which still invites revenue and golf in. Typical aerification starts as soon as the sun comes up and you’re pulling up cores out of the green, which is all that organic matter that accumulated from the previous year. Here in Tellico Village, we’ve adopted the program to double aerify. Our tines are five-eighths of an inch big and we pushed them in an inch and a half spacing, so you’re taking a lot of material out and it helps the greens perform better throughout the year.”

As warmer weather begins to set in, Jacob believes all three courses will be able to quickly rebound on lost revenue and golfer participation.

“Most definitely, we’ll get it back,” Jacob said. “Hopefully, we’ll get a little bit extra because people haven’t golfed and will be able to make up on the days we missed out on. Charles (Roffers) and I are in Milwaukee right now and we’re telling everyone how nice it’s been the last few days.”