Out from under water

Scott Boyd had no illusions about his new post at White Clay Creek in Wilmington, Del. In fact, he was tipped off pretty much from day one: “The day of my interview was a day after a flood, so I saw it all first hand,” Boyd says.

White Clay Creek Country Club was laid out almost entirely within the flood plain of the White Clay Creek, and water comes into play on 16 of the 18 holes.

As it turned out, he hadn’t see the half of it. Since taking over as superintendent in October 2003, Boyd has witnessed 20 separate floods, culminating with a 500-year storm in late September of 2004 – around the time White Clay Creek Country Club at Delaware Park was originally scheduled to open.

“That day, Sept. 29, we had 80 percent of the golf course completely under water,” he says. “It was unbelievable. But you know what? Since then, we’ve definitely held our own, and the changes we’ve made will be effective because we’ve seen the absolute worst it can be. Same for the cleanup systems we have in place. We’ll probably never be tested like that again. But if we are, we’re ready.”

In wake of the 500-year storm, Boyd and White Clay’s designer, Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest & Associates, responded with a three-pronged approach of cleanup, redesign and major drainage enhancement.

“It’s been a battle to say the least, but everything’s paying off – all the work we’ve done and all the adjustments by Steve Forrest and Arthur Hills,” Boyd says. “Last year, you couldn’t have imagined where we’d be today. I’d have said you were crazy. People are amazed to see how far we’ve come. I’m amazed.”

Around the time White Clay Creek Country Club was scheduled to open for play, a 500-year storm created massive floods and delayed the opening for eight months.

The original design at White Clay Creek – built by Niebur Golf of Colorado Springs, Colo., and the one that almost made it to opening day in 2004, only to be rained out (for eight months) – was an architectural, drainage and permitting achievement in and of itself. Toledo, Ohio-based Hills/Forrest was obliged to lay out the course almost entirely within the flood plain of White Clay Creek and its many tributaries. Sixteen of the 18 holes are bounded or crossed by a river, stream, wetland or pond. The course also was inventively routed around the perimeter of the thoroughbred racing facility and slots casino that shares its name.

“A round at White Clay is certainly an unusual, dramatic and eclectic journey – past racetracks, railroads, tunnels, a water tower, a casino, and some of the most scenic, tree-lined river settings anywhere,” says Steve Forrest, the Hills/Forrest partner who directed the project. “I can’t imagine there’s another facility quite like it.”

Because almost all of the golf course was built in the flood plain, the architects had to design all the tee and green sites above 100-year flood levels to get the permits.

Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest & Associates were challenged by the flooding at White Clay Creek. From left: Chris Wilczynski, Brian Yoder, Hills, Forrest and Drew Rogers.

“That meant all the green features are probably five feet above the flood level, above the creek banks,” Forrest says. “It was pretty much a fixed design consideration for us, but one we took good advantage of. Any time you can create an elevated tee situation, like we did throughout the White Clay Creek project, it gives you a better view of the target areas and the overall golf hole.

“Building up green sites is another architectural advantage, even if its mandated by flood plain conditions, because any time you can have a slope to build a bunker into, it makes for a more dramatic and attractive bunker,” he adds. “Even though it sounds like a demanding restriction or requirement, it’s something we’d strive to do anyway. Funny thing was, when we started the project, we were in drought conditions. We went from desert to rain forest during the course of construction.”

Flood damage
Last summer, when the fledgling course was almost entirely grown in, the rains and flooding that had been a consistent annoyance became more than a nuisance. The greens and tees, built above the flood level, stayed relatively dry; but playing areas were drenched, and silt was everywhere.

“With that first round of flooding, we ended up getting more of the silt off the fairways with less damage than I originally thought possible,” Boyd says. “I learned you have more time in spring or fall. In the middle of summer, however, it’s imperative to get the silt off as quickly as possible. It’s basically a four-hour window. If you don’t get it done, the grass will become anaerobic. We had quite a few floods during the summer last year, and they were killers.
“You come in a morning after a flood – it’s already 80 to 90 degrees outside – and you can smell the damage,” he adds. “It wasn’t a pleasant smell. We call it the smell of death.”

To battle future flooding, the river banks at White Clay Creek Country Club were raised along several holes.

Boyd says the number of flood incidents honed his crew into an efficient cleanup machine. But it came at a cost. He estimates his guys averaged 20 to 30 hours of overtime per week last summer.

“My guys have been real troopers,” he says. “When we flood, we know where to go first, where the hoses have to be – as quickly as possible – to clean the silt off fairways. We’re about as fine-tuned as we can be.

“The toughest thing to explain to other superintendents is you’ve got maybe 60 percent of the course doing well,” he adds. “But with those floods, at a new course, you’re trying to grow-in, maintain and cleanup all at the same time. You’re sending the crew to all these different areas to accomplish all these tasks.”

Boyd had dealt with flooding before, most recently as superintendent of Kiln Creek Golf Course & Resort in Newport News, Va., and before that at Great Rock on Long Island in New York.

“But nothing helped me prepare for this,” he says. “I know a lot of guys who have worked at flood-plain golf courses and guys who still do. I’ve been in touch to see how they dealt with it. I try to throw my ideas off some of the other guys in this area. I even called my mentor (Paul R. Latshaw, who Boyd worked for at Congressional and Winged Foot) mainly to vent and make sure I wasn’t going insane. But at a place like this, I learned it’s basically its own beast.”

Preparation
The floods of 2004, however, had a silver lining. They showed Boyd and Forrest exactly what had to be done, in terms of drainage and design, to cope with the next enormous flood.

“The lesson here is 100-year storms can occur any time,” Forrest says. “There’s basically a 1-percent chance it can happen in any 12-month period. We did extensive modeling, revised the grading plan many times to get the proper volumes, made compensating cuts so as not to change the flood-way as it exits the property. But when you get a 500-year storm, well, it’s going to create more problems than any flood model is going to show. It illustrates that even with the best planning, studies and models, Mother Nature can still show you something surprising.”

White Clay Creek Country Club

Architect: Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest & Associates Location: Wilmington, Del. Construction began: May 2002 Course opened: July 2005 Total project cost: $9.5 million Course owner: Parkside III, LLC Director of grounds: Scott Boyd Length: 7,077 Number of holes: 18 Number of bunkers: 48 Site: 230 acres Par: 72.

Between late September 2004 and early June 2005, Boyd and his crew embarked on an ambitious berm-building project, effectively raising the river banks along holes six, 14 and 16, and behind the ninth and 13th greens. Having seen where the river overflowed, placement of the berms was straightforward.

To enhance drainage, the crew installed five extra overflow outfalls – two of them are from a pond, and the rest are basins in the fairways that exit to the creek.

“When all is said and done, we will pretty much have reconstructed major sections of the third, sixth, eighth, ninth, 14th and 16th holes,” Boyd says. “That’s a lot of reconstruction right there. In most of these cases, there used to be large basin areas on the creeksides of fairways. We’ve filled all those in and sloped everything at a 2-percent to 3-percent grade to create more of a sheet flow. In times of flood, when the water goes back down, the creek will pull the water back with it.”

Additionally, Forrest redesigned several holes to account for when flooding makes portions of the trouble holes unplayable. For example, on the long par-4 sixth, only the front portion of the fairway is located in the flood plain. By building an alternate men’s forward tee, the hole can play as a short par-4 – directly over the low-lying, flood-prone area – in times of flooding.

“We took a similar approach at No. 8, which was also seriously impacted by last year’s flooding,” Forrest says. “The new forward tee basically creates a new and different hole in times of flood.”

“What we did there was reshape the fairway to give it solid sheet flow,” Boyd adds. “That’s also one of the holes where we installed a catch basin at the bottom of fairway. We didn’t get approval for a berm because it would have changed the flood model too much. So Steve installed two tees behind the fairway bunkers on top of the hill. In case of adverse conditions, we can use the hole as a par-3. It was a great design solution, and it has turned out well.
Boyd says this has been a beast of a job.

“But we’ve overcome a lot, and we’re getting rave reviews,” he says. “When I first learned of the position here, I was extremely excited to work at a course built by Arthur Hills. My goal was always to be a superintendent at a top 100, top 50 club in the United States. If we can keep an even keel, that’s just what we’re going to be.” GCN

Hal Phillips is president of Phillips Golf Media. He’s based in Gloucester, Maine, and can be reached at onintwo@maine.rr.com.