Flooding aftermath

EDITOR'S NOTE
Below are just a few accounts of how superintendents and their maintenance teams have dealt with the devestating impact of recent record flooding. If you'd like to share your experiences with Golf Course Industry readers in how you're dealing with flood damage and course clean up, please e-mail us at gci@gie.net. Your stories may be able to assist other superintendents to troubleshoot their post-flooding challenges. We'll print these in future issues of the e-newsletter. Thank you and good luck!

Many of Tennessee's golf courses are still dealing with the effects of damaging floods that occurred a few weeks back. From damaged bunkers, to submerged greens and washed out cart paths, early May's harsh weather took its toll on more than 50 area courses.

Indian Hills Golf Club, located in Murfreesboro, 36 miles outside of Nashville, was fortunate to only receive around 12 inches of rain, says superintendent Brad Marcy. “I know that sounds like a lot, and it is, but it is nothing compared Indian Hills GC's No. 1 -- Flooded.to the 18- to 20-inch range that was seen in the Nashville area," says Marcy.

Built in 1986, Indian Hills Golf Club is a year-round, 18-hole, par-72 public course that covers 6,800 yards. 

Marcy says the Stones River, which runs adjacent to part of the Indian Hills' course, rose to cover six holes, with two holes entirely underwater. Marcy says that after a couple of days the river’s water level dropped.

“We were very fortunate not to have very much debris or silt displaced onto the course,” Marcy says, adding the worst of the debris was an uprooted 40-foot Sycamore tree that settled on the No. 8 green surround.
Marcy's main area of concern was cleaning up the high water line across the six flooded holes. “I did aerify the wettest greens with ¼-inch needle tines to try to get some air into the soil," he says. "We are still trying to get some of our bunkers back into shape."

Unlike Indian Hills Golf Club, other Tennessee courses did not fare as well. “I Indian Hills GC No. 1 -- Normal conditions.am hearing a new horror story every day about pulling out mowers with forklifts, maintenance buildings being completely submerged, greens being washed away and multiple other scenarios," Marcy says. "My heart goes out to those guys who took the major impact of the flooding."

For example, Nashville’s Gaylord Springs Golf Links was impacted by the flood so greatly that the course was forced to close and cancel all reservations for the next 90 days. According to a statement issued by the facility, the resort and many of its indoor atriums were submerged in more than 10 feet of water. The resort is in the process of assessing the damage.

-- Photos courtesy of Brad Marcy, Indian Hills Golf Course