New Orleans has a long history with professional golf, dating back to Lighthorse Harry Cooper's win in the first and only Crescent City Open at City Park Golf Course more than 80 years ago.
Since Cooper's win at City Park in 1938, there have been several name changes to what is now the Zurich Classic, and it has been played a host of courses since finally settling in - for the most part - at the TPC of Louisiana in nearby Avondale in 2005.
New Orleans also has a history with tropical weather, and sometimes Mother Nature wins out over golf.
The TPC of Louisiana, a Pete Dye design 15 miles upriver from the French Quarter, reopened recently after being closed for two months courtesy of Hurricane Ida, and the course lost perhaps its most well-known feature when the Category 4 storm passed by on Aug. 29.
The 105-foot bald cypress once located 80 yards in front of the 11th green was uprooted by Ida, which recorded maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour. The storm damaged or toppled at least 500 trees on the course, and thousands in the surrounding woods and swampland.
Course officials hope to replace the tree with another cypress on the course before next spring. A healthy 75-foot cypress in a nearby wooded area has been identified as a possible replacement. A company that specializes in moving trees could complete the job in late January or early February.
Officials plan to re-plant hundreds of trees on the course over the next year to restore heavily damaged wooded areas throughout the course.
Four buildings on the site also received roof and interior damage from winds and wind-driven rain and are under repair.
The forerunner of the Zurich Classic has been played in New Orleans since that inaugural event in 1938. The only interruptions to play were in 1943, 1947, 1949-57 and 2020. Tournaments were played at City Park from 1938 to 1962, Lakewood Country Club (1963-88), English Turn (1989-2004, 2006) and TPC Avondale (2005, 2007-21). TPC Louisiana is no stranger to tropical weather. The Zurich was moved back to English Turn in 2006 when the TPC was closed due to damage from Hurricane Katrina, which struck the area the year before.