A golf course is not one building. It’s a dozen exposures on one policy.
Clubhouse, pro shop, cart barn, maintenance facility, pump house and irrigation, plus the course itself. Each one is a different scope, several sit on separate coverage parts, several carry their own deductible — and when a storm closes the property, the income from all of them stops at the same moment.
After a hurricane on a golf property
- The course is usually a bigger loss than the buildings.
- Debris removal is routinely the single largest line.
- The tree count taken in the first week is a first installment, not an inventory.
- Irrigation damage surfaces late and quietly.
- Several deductibles often apply at once on a named storm.
- It’s measured in seasons, not weeks.
Additional hurricane claim information is located here: Hurricane & Tropical Storm.
Flood on a golf property, where the gap usually is
The buildings are insurable in the ordinary way. If your community participates in the National Flood Insurance Program, the clubhouse, pro shop, cart barn, maintenance building and the contents inside them can be written on the NFIP General Property Form — up to $500,000 for the building and $500,000 for contents, per building. Those are the statutory caps for a non-residential building, and on a clubhouse of any size they’re a floor rather than a ceiling. Private flood can sit on top of the NFIP layer or replace it altogether, usually at higher limits.
What flood insurance doesn’t reach on a golf property
- The playing surface. Greens, tees, fairways, bunkers and the land itself.
- Landscaping and cart paths.
- Most property in the open.
- Lost revenue while the course is unplayable.
And your commercial property policy won’t fill that gap by default. Standard commercial forms exclude flood unless flood is endorsed on or written separately — and where a golf policy does carry tees-to-greens wording for the course, that wording is usually a named-peril grant that doesn’t include flood. Two separate documents can each look like they cover the course, and neither of them covers it against water.
Which produces the situation I want you to avoid: the storm floods the property, the clubhouse is handled, and the eighteen holes that generate every dollar the club earns are outside all of it.
There are other flood policies available for the course itself. Ask your agent or broker for details.
What to check, in order
- Flood on every insurable building, and its contents.
- Confirm what is on the schedule.
- Decide whether the real exposure is the course.
- Read the tees-to-greens wording on your property policy.
Additional flood claim information is located here: Flood.
What to look for in your policy
- Your deductibles, and which causes of loss each one applies to.
- The separate flat deductible on the course, and what triggers it. Hurricane & tropical storm
- How the buildings are covered, and how the course is covered differently.
- The exclusions on the building form.
- The perils the course endorsement actually lists.
- The golf course accessories limit — your irrigation lives in it.
- Whether you carry business income at all. Business interruption
- The debris removal provision and its sublimit.
- The limit on trees, shrubs and plants.
- What is actually named on the schedule.
- Flood is a separate policy. Check whether the property carries one. Flood on a golf property
- Who wrote the policy, a Florida-admitted carrier or a surplus lines carrier.
- Yearly renewals often change coverages in previous policies. Review all endorsement changes yearly.
After a golf course loss: Dos and Don’ts
Dos
- Report the loss to your carrier, and do it in writing or by phone call. If you call to make the claim, note the date you reported it, the person you spoke with, the time it was filed with the carrier, and document the claim number.
- Photograph and video everything before anything is touched. Every hole, from the cart and on foot. Take wide photos that establish where you are, then close up photos of the damage.
- Count and measure the trees before they leave, and document them with photographs and video. Species, caliper, location. Once the timber is gone, the record is whatever you wrote down and photographed.
- Keep the failed parts. Controllers, satellite boards, sprinkler bodies, damaged tile. Nothing goes off the property until it’s been inspected.
- Pull your pre-loss records now. Golf course and maintenance records, tree and plant inventory within the boundaries, irrigation control box locations, tee sheets, payroll and departmental revenue. This shows the ongoing cost to run the course.
- Keep dated notes of what surfaces later. Sprinkler zones that won’t turn on and off, trees continuing to fall, and turf failing. The course damage can continue months after a loss.
- Put every conversation in writing afterwards. A short email confirming what was said is enough, and it costs you nothing.
Don’ts
- Don’t clear debris before it’s documented. Make it safe, photograph it, then clear it. Debris removal can be one of the largest losses in the claim and it’s proved with pictures and tickets.
- Don’t throw out the part you replaced. A photograph is not a substitute for the component, and a carrier is entitled to look at it or have it tested.
- Don’t sign anything that transfers your claim or your benefits to a contractor or anyone else without reading it in full and knowing what you’re giving up.
- Don’t make permanent repairs before the inspection unless safety requires it — and if it does, photograph the condition first.
- Don’t close the claim early. Turf that’s stressed and irrigation that’s intermittent sometimes doesn’t show up right after a loss.
- Don’t assume the course is covered because the policy mentions it. Read which perils the course endorsements actually list.
- Don’t claim what you can’t tie to the loss. One line you can’t defend weakens every line you can.
This isn’t everything. Your policy carries conditions and duties that apply after a loss, and they’re yours to meet whether or not they appear here. Read your own policy in full. If something in it doesn’t make sense, call me — it’s a twenty-minute phone call about the loss, whether or not you hire me.
These are the ones specific to this kind of loss. Select the link for the Dos and Don’ts that apply to every claim.
The call that matters
If your course has sustained damages, call or email me before any work is started and before you sign anything. It’s a twenty-minute phone call about the loss, and it puts you under no obligation.
You stay in control of your claim. That’s the whole point.