Fences surround the charred ruins of the Clubhouse at Juday Creek Golf Course.

Now only did the fire leave little behind, but thieves stole four golf carts after the fire.

Golfers say they hope their support can be the breath of fresh air needed here now.

“I think it’s pretty, pretty important. You know, when you have something devastating like that, most people like me would have thought you were closed. So coming out and making sure they still get rounds of golf in is good for everybody,” Joe Benigno said.

“It’s important as it’s just as important as it is supporting them any other time. So I mean, I’m not going to stop coming. I’m going to help them as best I can. I hope they can rebuild,” Steve Riley said.

A week ago, massive flames and smoke could be seen coming from the Granger golf course.

Firefighters tried to salvage what they could but the clubhouse and everything inside of it was destroyed.

Today, golfers could be seen enjoying the green which was untouched by fire.

Steve Seifer is a regular golfer here and was ready and willing to support one of his favorite courses.

“It is a week later, I heard they were open. I heard they had carts, which surprised, surprised me, but yeah, it’s wonderful,” Steve Seifer said.

“You know, it was the last minute decision to come out on Labor Day and weather was good. We were unsure if they were going to be open. Made a quick call, and they said, come on out. So here we are,” Benigno said.

The general manager of the course, Michelle Wittig told WSBT 22 in a statement:

1.At this time, we are still waiting for the Fire Marshals to finish their investigation which will be early this week. The building continued to smolder and it wasn’t until Friday that they were actually able to get in and start the process. They have it narrowed down to an area where they believe it started and they need to look a little deeper at that area. As far as rebuilding, we will be moving towards that direction soon but need to get the existing remains cleaned up as our first priority and then get plans designed. As a family business, we all have opinions but we want to get things in motion as soon as possible. I would love to say that it will be within a year but won’t know until we can actually start construction.

2. It was such salt in the wound to have basically a quarter of the carts we had that survived the fire either stolen or damaged in the couple days after the fire. The good news is that the Sheriff’s Department was able to recover three of them and have a suspect. They are scattered between here Michigan and the Illinois line but at least they found them. Crazy enough it was through tips from employees. One who is relatively new, one who is away at college and one who left about 10 years ago. She said once you are part of the Juday Creek family, you are always part of the family. We hope to get the last cart. We have added security and cameras and taken a lot of measures to protect us going forward. It’s just so sad that something that hasn’t been an issue such as theft people would take advantage of after a tragedy.

3.I don’t even know where to begin in talking about the community support. It seems that is what gets me choked up and teary the most. Our family has worked so hard for so long, keeping our heads down and trying to provide a nice experience (for) our customers that we tend not to notice that we have actually had an impact on peoples lives. It is really overwhelming and so appreciated.

4. We started to open slowly for our members and preferred players and are now taking tee times online for the general public. There are a few challenges as we are limited on carts since the theft but should be getting some rented this week. We will be going back to having our leagues this week and hopefully outings next week. There have been a lot of pieces to get in place such as water and electricity but we are getting moving ahead and look forward to seeing everyone. We should also have the range open late Wednesday afternoon. The best thing for people to do is make their tee times through our website but we have a tent now and are getting a small shed to work out of and then will be getting a larger space for offices and customers soon until we get the new clubhouse.

Three of those stolen golf carts were recovered.

They were scattered between here, Michigan and the Illinois line.

The General Manager says the Sheriff’s department does have a suspect.

One of the golf carts is still missing.

She says they have added security and cameras to protect their property going forward.