Bridge replacement at Schuyler Golf Club helps restore community staple

SCHUYLER - When waters rose in March 2019, the Schuyler Golf Club was not spared from the ensuing damage.

Among the casualties: A bridge that connects the third and fourth holes on the course.

Schuyler Golf Club Board President Steve Bailey said for more than a year, that created an obstruction for everyone trying to play a round.

“We had to make an alternate path to travel from hole number three to hole number four, which required us to leave the course and go up on Higgins Road and then come back onto the course,” Bailey said.

Which he said caused potential liability issues with golfers encountering traffic on the road, so they had to do something about it.

However, Bailey said that wasn't easy.  

“Running a golf course, you don’t anticipate a major expenditure like a $36,000 bridge, you know?" he said.  "You expect trees that fall down with wind storms, or hail to buildings…and insurance will cover those things.”

He said that doesn't include a bridge wiped out by a flood.

Schuyler Golf Club said it was prepared to pay for it with its own money, but then reached out to FEMA.

“We had to submit a lot of paperwork," Bailey said.  "We had FEMA representatives here from Georgia, they took pictures.  We had a book that was put together showing all the damages.”

It paid off.  Bailey said FEMA funds covered the cost of replacing the bridge.

On Thursday, Schuyler Golf Club and community leaders christened the new bridge, complete with a ribbon cutting.

Some may ask why a bridge on a golf course is so big to the town.  It's not just a golf course.  As Schuyler Area Chamber of Commerce executive director Audra Jedlicka put it, it's a pillar of the community.

Bailey doesn't disagree.

“It’s a place for people to congregate, we’re seeing," he said.  "With Schuyler, with a mixed diversity of people, it’s important for us.”

Now that the course is looking much more like its former prestige, he said he'd like folks in the area to check out its leagues and open golf events.