By Steve Harmon
Surrounded by Hurricane Ian’s destruction on Sanibel Island in southwest Florida, Jimmy DiMarino ponders the massive task that lies ahead.
With the causeway to the island breached, DiMarino, the director of golf at The Sanctuary Golf Club, has been shuttling daily from the mainland with colleagues on a club-chartered boat since Ian struck Sept. 28, helping pick up the pieces. He has taken some measure of comfort from the fact that his staff and members reportedly are OK after the deadliest storm to hit Florida in nearly a century.
“We’re just totally under brush,” DiMarino said via a spotty cell phone connection. “I think what saved, to some extent, the part of the island that we’re on, is the eye went directly over the club. That hour, hour-and-a-half reprieve, allowed us not to get the 8, 10 feet of water that our members had in their homes. We want to recover and we want to get back to what we were, but we’re more concerned about our members and their homes and how they’re going to rebuild and get back to the island.”
That sentiment about the well-being of staff and members prevailed among officials who spoke with Global Golf Post.
David Kent, the general manager at Crown Colony Golf and Country Club in Fort Myers, said: “I consider our club fortunate,” noting the food-and-beverage operation was close to resuming service. “Some of our members did not fare as well.”
At least 119 deaths have been confirmed in Florida after Ian, with its sustained 150-mph winds and heavy rains, shoved a storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico as high as 12 feet. Ian left 2.6 million customers powerless as it tore across the peninsula before entering the Atlantic and striking the Carolinas.
Matt Oakley, a Fort Myers resident and the head professional at Worthington Country Club in Bonita Springs, shared a harrowing story of survival with the Fort Myers News-Press.
The lights were back on throughout most of the Sunshine State today, but Sanibel Island and surrounding areas of the Gulf Coast are facing a recovery that likely will last for years.
“Our main priority, beyond cleanup, is to find a way to get water to the golf course ... It’s just so limited because right now, there’s only one way that you can get on and off the island, and that’s by boat.”
JIMMY DiMARINO, DIRECTOR OF GOLF, THE SANCTUARY GOLF CLUB
Ian is projected to be among the most expensive storms to strike the U.S., with losses estimated as high as $70 billion. Many of those economic casualties will come from the golf industry, but relief already is underway.
The PGA of America activated its Hurricane Relief Fund, with up to $10,000 available for members and associates.
Geoff Lofstead, the president of the South Florida PGA Section, said his group was trying to make contact with officials at the 153 clubs that employ PGA members in the three-county area of Charlotte, Lee and Collier most affected by Ian. About 70 PGA members have contacted the association to request assistance, Lofstead said, but that number “is sure to climb as more people get power and start to pay attention to things like this as opposed to cleanup.”
The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America also is offering aid, with up to $2,000 available per member via the GCSAA Disaster Relief Fund. Spokesman Mike Strauss said the GCSAA is canvassing members to assess the extent of the damage, but the organization was not aware of any injuries to its associates. GCSAA leaders were expected to be in southwest Florida this week, he said.
In Naples, the Ritz-Carlton Resort’s Tiburon Golf Club reopened on the Sunday after the storm. The club will host the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship on Nov. 17-20, as scheduled, and the QBE Shootout, a PGA Tour exhibition, on Dec. 9-11.
Stage II of LPGA Q-School, which had been scheduled for Oct. 18-21 in nearby Venice, has been pushed back a month and will be reset for Nov. 17-20, the tour announced in a news release. The tournament will be played at its original venue, Plantation Golf and Country Club’s Bobcat and Panther courses.
Sanibel Island was reopened to residents on Wednesday as President Joe Biden and Gov. Ron DeSantis assessed the damage. A popular vacation destination, the low-lying barrier island has about 7,000 year-round residents, with the population swelling to 35,000 during the winter months. Strict zoning laws adopted nearly a half-century ago have saved Sanibel, roughly 12 miles long and three miles wide, from the widespread commercialization found on so much of Florida’s 1,350 miles of coastline.
DiMarino, a Rhode Islander who is in his fifth season at Sanctuary, said the club’s salt-tolerant paspalum turf should help in the recovery of the course, a 1992 Arthur Hills design.
“Our main priority, beyond cleanup, is to find a way to get water to the golf course to get that going and in conjunction with trying to get crews out there so we can start cleanup on the golf course,” he said, noting water service was out. “It’s just so limited because right now, there’s only one way that you can get on and off the island, and that’s by boat.”
The island’s two other golf courses, Sanibel Island Golf Club and The Dunes Golf and Tennis Club, reportedly sustained extensive damage. Both courses are semi-private and have Bermuda grass, which is not salt-tolerant.
Despite his hardships of recent days, and with the promise of much more struggle to come, DiMarino ended the phone call with a prediction.
“Sanibel is a great island,” he said. “The people there are resilient, and I really see us coming back stronger than ever.”
WANT TO HELP? Here are links to the websites of some major organizations assisting in the recovery: Red Cross, Salvation Army and the AARP Foundation, which pledges to match contributions dollar for dollar up to $1 million. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also offers tips for those who want to help.
Top: With the Sanibel Causeway having been breached by Hurricane Ian, Sanibel Island is cut off from the mainland.