Long Island Golf Course Closes Due to Damage from Superstorm Sandy

Ed Lynch Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The damaging effects of Superstorm Sandy is still being felt throughout Long Island and many other East Coast communities. Through the thousands of lives that have been forever changed to the actual landscape of the coastline, the rebuilding continues to have some casualties. This is also being felt within the overall job outlook here within Long Island.

One business which has truly felt the punch of Sandy is Middle Bay Golf Course in Oceanside. A long time fixture on the South Shore, the golf course is taking steps to close the grounds due to the extensive damage which came from the superstorm in late 2012. It is strange to say that as back in August, Middle Bay Golf Club was hosting the Blind Golfers’ championship. But after the hurricane, everything was altered – permanently.

One of the members, Steve Cohen said,  “The water came over the bulkhead, probably 6 or 7 feet high, and just covered the entire golf course, and just caused so much devastation that we couldn’t rebuild."

So why is this so devastating to the community of Oceanside? The answer is found in the 130 jobs that are no longer available.

Cohen, who has been a member of the club for 21 years, and was one of the people who tried in vain to keep the club alive said recently, “It’s really about saving the jobs of 130 people, during the height of the season. It’s about the $2.5 million operating budget that we have, most of which gets infused into the local communities. And it’s about the $100,000 or so every summer that our membership raises for local charities."

The impact is not that rich people can not spend the day playing golf, but in the loss of money, loss of good works, and loss of jobs for those 130 people.

Edwardl@longislandyellowpages.com

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