After Hurricane Beryl hit in July, the damage done at the Kingwood Country Club was visible to everyone. More than 600 trees fell across all five courses, leaving a significant amount of damage to repair.

For the Kingwood Park golf team, getting enough practice before the season starts has become a concern. Team practices have been on hold until the courses open and the Humble ISD heat restrictions are lifted. 

“The problem right now is the heat, the heat we’re kind of fighting,” golf coach Angela Chancellor said. “We wouldn’t be able to be going to the course right now anyway, because we’re locked out with our heat warnings.”

Between the heat advisory and the multiple areas of Kingwood Country Club still closed, the team has set goals for themselves and worked to create a close-knit environment among the players. Chancellor is setting high expectations for the season and is continuing to work with returning players and the incoming freshmen. 

The country club had been working with assorted teams to make the clean-up process go quicker. The club has also started offering free golf clinics for members while the driving ranges were closed. 

“With the courses being closed, it was just really hard to get things going, as well as the tree company coming down later than expected to clear all of the trees,” said Elise Parel, who is a Kingwood Country Club pro and graduated from Kingwood Park in 2019. 

The clean-up process at the club has made progress on the Island and Forest courses, allowing members to play the full 18 holes. The course has expectations to open the front nine of the Lakes course by the end of next week.

Since the heat advisory and the course closures, many of the players on the team have found alternate ways to get practice in before the season starts. Some golfers have practiced on the greens of The Golf Club of Houston.

“I’m texting a lot of my teammates and trying to get them on the course as much as possible to have a good season,” said junior Cory Case, who qualified for the State Championships last season.

Even though the team’s main practice course is closed indefinitely, the golfers and the coaches are optimistic for the upcoming season. The team usually practices on the Marsh course. That course is more closed off from the rest of the courses, so the high schoolers are able to avoid disrupting most members.

Chancellor said setting goals and preparing for the season in advance will help the team be fully ready before the season starts. 

“It’s not like it’s hurting us, if this was happening two weeks before State we would be panicking a little bit,” Chancellor said. “But it’s not. This is the beginning of the year, so we’re just going to sink in a little slower than we normally would.”

Without being able to go to the course, the team will continue to find new ways to work in their class period before the season starts. Once the courses fully open, the team will slowly get back to their usual routine.

“We’re going to get back to some semblance of practice,” Chancellor said. “It might not look exactly like it did before, but we will have access again once they get back to full capacity.”