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Golf course cleans up after violent winds
By jeanne starmack
new bedford, pa.
Bruce and Jody Clingan had just plumped up their pillows and settled in their bed to watch their favorite TV show when, at 9:15 p.m., the television went off.
The couple lay in bed then at their home on Tanglewood Road near New Bedford, Pa., listening to the roar of last Sunday’s fierce winds, until at 9:45 p.m., a firefighter came to their door.
Fire crews were out because of downed power lines in the area.
Was the couple in the middle of tearing down a building on their 200-acre golf course behind their house, firefighters were wondering?
“We said ‘no,’ Bruce said Thursday as he and Jody stood in their pro shop and recalled the damage the winds had done to the Tanglewood Public Golf Course — where most of the business comes from golfers who live in Struthers, Campbell and Youngstown.
Bruce said he went out Sunday night and inspected the heavily damaged building, which housed the course’s league rooms.
But in the daylight of Monday morning, the couple saw that there was so much more.
A second building for equipment was completely flattened.
Add 150 once-majestic pine trees, now splintered and cracked apart or uprooted, and the Clingans had the ingredients for one very messy golf course.
They do not believe straight-line winds caused the damage, and they wonder if a tornado came through even though there were no reports of any touchdowns.
A neighbor on the same side of the road as the golf course “Didn’t have a twig in his yard,” said Bruce.
The course, which is 50 years old this year, was just closing for the winter, Jody said.
“We had just put our workers on unemployment, and the course looked beautiful,” she said.
Now the golfers are gone but there’s still plenty of activity from insurance adjusters, contractors and five workers who are donating their time to help clean up.
“Everyone’s been great,” Jody said, adding that other golf courses in the area have offered to help.
After climbing into a golf cart and setting out for a tour of the course, Jody pointed out the downed trees, which were everywhere. Many were large and lying on their sides or intertwined with trunks and branches from other casualties. Some were attached to huge balls of roots and dirt.
One small tree stood cracked in half, one side of it round and well-groomed with colorful fall leaves and the other side just gone.
The couple has had no word yet on the amount of damages from the insurance company, she said. But she expects the course will be cleaned up and the buildings will be repaired in time for next spring’s opening.
“Our workers are great — they’re so dedicated,” she said.