Newquay Golf Club has turned its par-five eighth into a 147-yard par-three after Storm Austen blew a large amount of sand across the fairway.
The storm hit Cornwall on Friday, October 23. The Met Office issued an amber warning for wind, with gusts expected to exceed 80mph in coastal areas. At Newquay, gale-force north-westerly winds and dry conditions combined to strip sand from the dunes and deposit it on the first part of the eighth fairway, spreading it across what the club called “a substantial width”.
In a statement, Peter Batty, the club’s secretary / manager, said the clubhouse had suffered no structural damage and the practice nets had survived. “Regrettably, the course did not fare quite so well,” he said. The club said it would assess the damage shortly and draw up a plan to restore the fairway to play. Until then, the hole is being played from a temporary tee on the other side of the east / west path. Stroke indexes have been adjusted for the changed hole, and one of the three practice nets is already back in use, with the others expected to follow on Monday.
The eighth is reported to play at 518 yards from the back tees. Reports say the sand came from nearby Fistral Beach, but the club’s statement says only that it blew off the dunes.
Newquay was not the only course affected. Truro Golf Club was forced to close after a number of trees fell, according to a report. The club was badly hit earlier this year, when Storm Goretti uprooted or snapped more than 100 trees in January.
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