SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO | From deep in the El Yunque National Forest, hikers can stand atop the Mt. Britton Tower on a clear day and see a majority of Puerto Rico’s 3,515 square miles.
Even from that remote vantage point, there are signs of Hurricane Maria. The 2017 storm that caused close to 3,000 fatalities in the U.S. territory has left a sea of rooftops bathing in blue tarps, many of them surrounded by slanted but still operational power lines. In closer proximity, it’s not uncommon to see large palm trees tipped over, their trunks smashing once impenetrable concrete barriers. Some signs on Highway 22 are split in half or gone altogether.
These are some of the scars yet to be healed. But much of what I saw during a recent four-day trip to San Juan was surprisingly uplifting given the terror of what unfolded two Septembers ago. The Category 4 hurricane arrived at the southeast coast of the rectangular territory and dropped more than 30 inches of rain while winds of up to 155 mph showed no mercy. The whole island went dark. It was only last August, 11 months after Maria, that electricity was fully restored. Given those circumstances, it would only be fair to assume Puerto Rico would need years to become somewhat normal again. Forget hosting a PGA Tour event, as it has since 2008; it would take a monumental effort to reopen businesses and ensure citizens could resume their daily activities.
Despite this devastation only 17 months ago, the island has bounced back in a remarkable way. This week’s Puerto Rico Open at Coco Beach Golf & Country Club will be the first official edition of the tournament since the storm – an unofficial pro-am won by the team of George McNeill and Cheyenne Woods took its place last year – and is a clear sign of how quickly the recovery process has proceeded.
The first signal of such an impressive comeback started with booking my JetBlue flight from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan. There were only 20 daily flights in and out of the capital city two weeks after the hurricane, but now there are an average of 110 flights per day. JetBlue returned to pre-Maria flight levels in June, six months earlier than the airline had planned. Other tourism markers have actually exceeded traditional expectations. The revenue generated from cruise ships is on path to break a record, hitting an estimated $250 million for the 2018-2019 season. Lodging is scheduled to reach its pre-Maria number of 15,000 rooms no later than this summer.
With no passport required and no need to exchange currency, Puerto Rico is an attractive destination for Americans. One friend I spoke to said three of his co-workers visited separately in the span of a month. It turns out that isn’t at all a coincidence; two weeks before my trip, The New York Times ranked Puerto Rico No. 1 among places people should visit for 2019.
True to my friend’s testimony, I arrived in San Juan to a mass of humanity. In Old San Juan near the famous El Morro Fort, a stream of people rolled into the town of pastel-colored storefronts and cobblestoned alleys for the San Sebastian Street Festival. The largest festival in Puerto Rico features 350 local artisans and musical groups coming together for a party that extends well into the night. My lasting memory will be walking within the teeming throngs like we were all headed to Game 7 of the World Series.
Across the sparkling bay is the Casa Bacardi, the world’s largest rum distillery. There, too, was a jammed parking lot with a tour shuttle full of people holding colorful mojitos. The restaurants in the area were similarly crowded but with a relaxed vibe and terrific food – I highly recommend most any pork taco you come across in Puerto Rico, for it’s a deserving staple of the culture.
At TPC Dorado Beach, two of the three golf courses are currently open and drop their prices by $90 in the afternoons. The East Course is home to a PGA Tour Latinoamérica event, but the Sugarcane Course I played looked every bit the part of a major tournament host. There was virtually no hurricane damage noticeable and it was surrounded by new luxury condos. There are 17 golf courses on the island, many of them around San Juan, where ocean views make for a wonderful setting. And the number of golfers the territory has developed shows that baseball isn’t the only sport that can thrive there. Take Rafael Campos, a recent winner on the Web.com Tour who finished in the top 10 in the past two Puerto Rico Opens.
It was natural for me to compare this revival with my venture to New Orleans in 2007, less than two years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city. At that time, debris was still ubiquitous and the small businesses we passed appeared to be fighting for survival. Even 10 years later, a survey showed that 60 percent of Louisiana’s African-American residents said the state was still “mostly not recovered.”
At least from my short time in Puerto Rico, it felt like the territory had made the most of a horrendous situation. One server we spoke to noted how it was an exciting time to be on the island and the resurgent tourism has become a major point of pride among locals.
This week at Coco Beach is sure to be another chapter in the recovery story. Golf has a long history of giving back, but this may be one of its most important weeks in aiding a local community that has shown resilience in the wake of disaster.