The Road To Recovery

The golf course couldn't be playing better right now. We are in the process of recovering from the flooding areas. Many of them, (like this picture of the 9th fairway) will rebound with fertilizer and time. Other areas are being replaced with sod.
Yesterday we cut out a number of areas on holes 1,2,7,8 & 9. Today we will begin to sod these areas. It is much nicer to hit off grass!

When The Best Irrigation System Goes Wrong

First of all, the best irrigation system is rainfall. We have four points of collecting rainfall at Vail Golf Club. Each  rain event they record within one hundredth of an inch. That is as consistent as you are going to find and far better than any man made irrigation system. Vail Golf Club does have one of the best man made irrigation systems around, but it just can't top Mother Nature.

However, in this climate when she decides to dump 2 inches of moisture on the Vail Valley within 6 days, it is not exactly the best for one's golf game. I heard a lot of comments about how long the course was playing today. Honestly, the course looks great, fantastic as a matter of fact. The course is green, the turf is lush, but the ball isn't rolling far under these conditions.

Fortunately, we live in Colorado at 8,000 ft above sea level and when she wants to dry things out, she can rather quickly. So give us a couple days of drier weather to get this place rolling again.

The creek is dropping and the water is beginning to subside. We will have all hands on deck with mowing, seeding, topdressing and doing whatever possible to have the course to normal conditions as soon as possible.

Thanks for all of your patience and let's play golf.

When Will The Water Recede?

Honestly? With the weather patterns we have been experiencing, we will most likely see water on the golf course into August. The creek is running at an average of 1000 cfs which is almost 200% of normal. When the creek is full it can only take on so much water. Even pumping water to the creek is not a sure thing because there is more ground water behind what is being pumped.

On top of the large run-off we have seen .8" of moisture in the last 20 hours at the golf course. Even under dry conditions the golf course struggles to maintain playable conditions after a rain event such as that one.

So bare with us, we are doing everything we can do to make the round as pleasant as possible.

One final note: Yes, the master plan does address some of the drainage issues we are experiencing. However, we are finding some more areas that need attention. We have begun looking at solving drainage problems for the future. Even though this is the worst flooding the course has seen, I am a believer that it will happen again some day.

Waking Up The Sleeping Giant

 Well the Boston Bruins have woken up to make it a series in the Stanley Cup. But in relation to the golf course, groundwater has also woken up and is saturating some areas of the course. The main difference between this season and last, was the amount of snow along Vail Mountain. There is a significant amount of snow up top and it is going to take some time to run off.
We are managing areas with sandbags, pumps, digging ditches, and providing temporary bridges for access.
Currently we have the front nine closed but will have 18 open shortly. Cooler weather has moved into the valley and the river has dropped a bit from the other night. The temperatures have dropped recently and it will help with high water.

The 5th tee is nearing completion with the new netting. All of the posts are in the ground and the cables are in place. Thursday we will be removing the rest of the dirt from the posts and place mulch under the netting. The net is en route to Vail and will be installed ASAP. A little more clean up is needed in the area, but we are targeting to have the tee box open Friday.

Back on Track

The 7th and 8th holes are back in play as of tomorrow morning. Today the staff removed a lot of silt and debris around both holes. Conditions are still wet in areas but playable.

When conditions dry out enough we will brush these areas again to remove more silt. There is only so much we can get out at a time. Any damage that will occur may take weeks or months to surface. The silt can cover the crown of the plant and begin a slow death. Numerous attempts will be made to remove as much silt as possible. We have been fighting growth and wet soils to remove the material.

We will be keeping an eye on these areas as the season progresses. Aerification may be necessary in areas to penetrate the soil profile for new growth.

Clean Up

Clean up will begin Tuesday as the dry weather returns to the valley. We have a lot of mowing, raking, washing and removing other debris up and down the 7th and 8th holes. With the help of some volunteers and the staff we should be able to move quickly.
Most of the standing water has subsided, yet the surface is still water logged and makes it difficult for play.
I will have more to report on the results from the end of the day's work.

Re-Opening the Front

Saturday the front nine will re-open with some slight changes. The 7th hole will remain closed and the 8th will play as a par 3. Please follow signs to temporary tee.
We will allow those flooded areas the weekend to dry and clean up will begin on Monday. We have a lot of silt and debris to remove from the surface. Heavy silt build up can be lethal to the turfgrass.
If weather moves into the valley please call the golf shop at 970-479-2260 if conditions change.

Erosion

The river has settled down a bit and some cooler weather has entered the valley. The creek peaked closer to 1200 cfs last night which seems like things are getting back to normal. These pictures are of eroding hillsides along 11 green and 14 tee box.

Plans are being made to stabilize these areas in the coming weeks and months to prevent this from happening again.

The front nine is expected to be open by Saturday with some slight temporary changes if the weather cooperates. Clean up efforts have begun and will continue into next week.

Survival

These are some of my favorite pictures from this week so far. The view from the frontage road is certainly a scary one. It seems that the creek has finally reached its peak, I hope. We have many areas cited that have come over the banks of the creek. The worst areas of destruction are the erosion to the creek side. These will need attention as soon as possible. The areas affected are along holes 7, 11, 17 and 14.

Imagine if we had a large snow year! What is amazing is how fast the snow is melting that is creating a monster out Gore Creek. I have put together a slide show of all the flood affected areas on the golf course and Aspen Lane near the 14th tee that you can view on the right side of the blog.

Fighting The Good Fight

Today, a new set of challenges. The Gore has been running so hard, it is amazing to see the power of water. This picture was taken by our field manager Mark Jero from what we call the "5K bridge"(A Nordic Term). This bridge is just upstream from the 14th tee at Aspen Lane. What a sight!
So today, with the help of many of the golf service guys, it was sandbag day and lots of them. Approximately 500 sand bags were put out today. The bags were put at #11 and #15 bridges to prevent under cutting the abutments. We have also experienced a lot of erosion at the 7th tee area. A wall was constructed there to prevent more erosion.
We have four trash pumps running, thanks to Ben Krueger (Former Superintendent and Designer of Vail GC) keeping them up all day long.
Many thanks to Head Professional Jeanne Sutherland and much of the golf staff and help from the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District and the Town of Vail. The GCM staff busted all day long to keep this place together.
We'll be back at it again tomorrow with 1,000 more sand bags.
Some say the river has already peaked or it will tonight, hope for the best!

Flooding

An interesting weekend to say the least. These pictures do not do any justice to the situation, but it has been getting bad. I am not sure how long the flooding will occur but we are having to keep the front nine closed until the water subsides.

This is life in the flood plain when the Gore reaches record levels. Last night the Gore topped off at 1600 cfs. For those of you who are not privy on that number for a creek that size, that is very high, very fast and very dangerous.

Locals who I have spoken with have never seen this much flooding occur on the golf course. The holes affected the most are 2,7 & 8. These areas are the lowest on the course and right now are having a difficult time draining into the creek. Some holes on the back nine will be effected this afternoon as the creek begins to rise again.

Experts say that the creek usually tops out between 2-4am. By this afternoon we'll have to close the back nine as flooding will most certainly occur in areas.

The GCM staff is busy catching up on mowing while levels are down in the morning. We are also working on sand bags and pumps to mitigate further damages.

More to follow.