New Orleans is sinkin’, man — but even worse, it seems a couple of holes at the Seven Hills Golf and Country Club are doing the same thing.
Clay Jones, self-described chief grunt of the popular nine-holer just off the road to Port Alice, said holes one and nine are in trouble.
“They’re sinking,” he said.
“When they built the course back in the 1980s, they used the stumps and wood and whatever was there when they cleared the land was used for fill underneath — hey, it was built by loggers,” he said.
“It’s not flat, but golf is not supposed to be fair.”
Jones said members aren’t complaining, but “it just has to be fixed.”
However, the cost of that could be astronomical.
“We don’t have that many members, so we need a sugar daddy or two,” said Jones.
The 357-yard Hole 1 and the 491-yard ninth hole are on a hill and “they’re bumpy,” said the course’s golf pro, Kevin Black.
“It could be rocks rising … there’s a bunch of different theories, but until we open it up I can’t give you a good answer,” he said.
“It’s not unplayable, but they are some potholes, some mogols like on a ski hill — nothing to ruin your day, but we’d like to get it fixed.”
Black said he’s waiting on some land-moving equipment to see exactly what’s going on.
“We have a couple of volunteers and the equipment to do it, which is just amazing, and we’ll do a sample shortly.”
As for 2011 golf season, Black said numbers are down this year.
“Just like everywhere else,” he said.
“But this is a good time to be small because we’re down on the year what most places are down in a couple of weeks.”
Black said he reckons between 10 to 20 per cent fewer golfers were on the course this year than last.
“But our 20 per cent is smaller that a lot of others,” he said.