CT Golfers Can Look Forward to Playing Again Soon (UPDATED)

As soon as the snow melts...

Here in Danbury, CT we've been without electricity for four days now,  however, the storm that caused so much damage had a silver lining...of sorts.  It's happily been followed by a stretch of stellar weather.  Snow is steadily melting and our cleanup effort continues. As I predicted earlier,  most of our local courses will be reopening... despite the fact that many of them are still without electricity.

I received an email from The Golf Club at Oxford Greens this morning, with the photo a left to illustrate their message:  

"When the Snow Melts... We will be back open! Currently, we are without phones and power, but you can still book your tee time online. We hope to be up and running by the weekend. We will send out a notification via email when we are open. Thank you for your patience and we look forward to seeing you soon at Oxford Greens!"

The message on Richter Park's Facebook page was a bit less optimistic but none-the-less leaves room for hope:

"The October 30th snow storm dumped 17 inches on Richter Park. As of November 1st, power, telephones and email are still out. Our crews are assessing damage. As of today we are uncertain as to when or if we will reopen for the season."

Richter Park is defined by the woodland it's built upon, and this particular storm took an enormous toll on exactly the kind of noble deciduous trees that line its fairways and greens so restoration to playability will be a huge effort.

The point is, golfers in the area and in the entire storm-stricken zone will definitely have places to play they'll just need to find them.  A couple of years ago I played some wonderful winter golf at Richter Park the weekend after Thanksgiving.  I know I'm not done yet.

UPDATE: Another gorgeous day in Danbury has taken care of much of the remaining snow, so I stopped at Richter Park to see for myself how the cleanup was coming along.  There were several crews out  and they've made amazing progress.  So much so that a reopening next week sometime seems like a very real possibility.   That's the goal according to the those I spoke to and it definitely seems do-able from what I could see.   Then when I arrived home at my temporary office a bit later I noticed I had received an email announcing the 1st Annual Richter Park Turkey Shoot ... to take place on Saturday, November 12th.  So things are clearly looking better for area golfers.