Special Report: Disney World Shuts
Down, But Orlando Golf Continues After Tragedy
By Shane Sharp, TravelGolf.com Contributing Writer
ORLANDO, FL. – Disney World and Orlando’s other famous theme parks shut down Tuesday in the wake of the largest attacks on American soil since Pearl Harbor. However, golf around the sunshine state’s most recognizable tourist attraction went on in a business-as-usual fashion at courses throughout the greater metro area.
“First thing I did was put the flag at half mast, other than that, play has gone on as normal,” said Danny Boswell, head golf professional at Hunter’s Golf Club. “We have actually got more play because of it. People are getting tired of watching television and they are getting off work early, so they are coming out to golf. The players that went out before it happened and then heard about it at the turn kept playing.”
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Disney World’s championship golf courses were also closed in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon Tuesday morning. But the remainder of Orlando area courses continued normal operations, and reported average levels of play.
“It doesn’t look like anything has changed around here, its about the same amount of play,” said Jim Smith of Falcon’s Fire Golf Club. “No one is really talking about it because they have watched it all morning on television. They are just going about their business like usual. If they had any calls to make, I guess they are using their cell phones.”
One Orlando-based golf facility that was affected by the tragedy was the popular Metro West Country Club. Head professional Dave Scott said that a tournament scheduled for Tuesday afternoon was cancelled after a number of people called in to say they couldn’t make it.
“We had over 140 players booked in that tournament, so it was really slow this afternoon,” Scott said. “But of the players that ended up out here, not many were talking about what was going on.”
With its sunny weather and affordable golf packages, Florida attracts thousands of golfers to it’s over 1200 golf courses each month. Because of the sheer size of the state, and its location in the extreme southeastern portion of the country, most travelers arrive in the state via airplane.
Al Gaspari, President of World of Golf Tours, said that 85 to 88 percent of the golf packages that his company sells are to players flying into the Orlando airport. In contrast, Myrtle Beach – one of the southeast’s most popular tourist destinations – receives about 9 million of its 12 million annual visitors by automobile.
Gaspari said that the phones at World of Golf Tours were quiet Tuesday, as was to be expected, but that he did not know what the long term impact on golf based travel to Orlando would be.
“Who has a crystal ball?” Gaspari asked. “The thing is this, the entire mental attitude of the traveling public will change today. They will come to the realization that our air service system is not foolproof and people will be thinking about that the next time they make a reservation to do anything. The general public is in shock, but the question remains, what impact will it have on the prime time season?”Gaspari said that no one had called to cancel their packages yet, but that the company would be prepared for some fall off in revenue over the next few weeks.
“You have to prepare for the worst in this business, because what we do is at the mercy of so many different things,” Gaspari said. “We have to deal with the weather, and the economy, but we have never had to deal with anything like this. Most people on in this country had never had to deal with anything like this.”
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