PALM DESERT (Calif.) — There is no good time to have a tropical storm dump a full year’s rain in the Coachella Valley within 48 hours. It’s possible that a tropical storm in August would be less disruptive to desert golf courses. Golf course operators will have a lot of work to do in the weeks ahead as they recover from this rare tropical storm.
Brett Draper told reporters on Tuesday that if a foursome is currently on the tee sheets, “it’s going to be a busy day.” He is the general manager and COO at Thunderbird Country Club, Rancho Mirage. This is a quiet period of the year. We do a lot more construction not just on the golf courses but also throughout the club. The impact on us is as low as possible in terms of play.
Anyone driving by the course can see the damage. While the majority of Thunderbird’s snowbird members did not witness the flooding or debris on their Rancho Mirage private course, anyone else who drives past it will. Thunderbird is just one of the dozens of desert golf courses that have been affected by Tropical Storm Hilary’s flooding of various desert washes and runoff from the Santa Rosa Mountains and San Jacinto Mountains.
Hilary’s impact was felt across the Coachella Valley, from courses with just a few trees down to those with water and mud damage that could take months to fix. Thunderbird and private clubs were not spared, but it could have been much worse.
Chris Gilley, the head pro of La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, California said that there were only six golfers on Tuesday. This is the least effective month to open the club. There is no cool-season turf left, so Bermuda grass will probably be able to handle the weather better than we do in winter.
(Photo: Andy Abeyta/The Desert Sun) Floodwaters from Tropical Storm Hilary rush across Country Club Drive, Rancho Mirage in California. Andy Abeyta/The Desert Sun Photo
Hilary turned the Whitewater Wash into a raging river of water and mud. Tree limbs, palm fronds, and tree branches are all part of this raging river. It cuts through Thunderbird’s fourth, ninth and 10th holes. A spillway near the third hole, just off Highway 111, also caused mud and debris to flow onto the course.
Draper explained that it was part of the golf course’s maintenance. We will clean it up as fast as possible and hope to be ready by the first week of October. Then we can begin the overseeding process.
Draper stated that he was not worried about a wet golf course delaying overseeding. This is the process of switching from Bermuda grass in summer to a cooler-weather grass such as rye. Overseeding usually occurs when the golf course is dry.
“This is desert. Bermuda and blowing sand are all that’s left. Draper explained that things dried up quickly. The wash is drying out. We still have a small trickle of water in it. We’ll start moving some of the material that was on the property.
Many courses are struggling to clean up after tropical storms.
Randy Duncan, General Manager of SilverRock Resort in La Quinta, a 18-hole course located at the foot of the Santa Rosa Mountains, said: “We get hit more than other golf clubs.” “We get a lot from the watershed coming off the mountain, and it gets into our bunkers and cart paths.”
Duncan said SilverRock had the good fortune to be closed during Hilary for annual course maintenance. However, the scheduled opening this Sunday was moved to September 1. Duncan explained that the maintenance will be done in August, as there is little activity on the public access course during July and August.
Cleanup work begins
We have a lot of cleaning to do. Duncan stated that the work was labor-intensive, such as clearing bunkers and cleaning cart paths. “We lost about 30 trees here. Some of them are blocking the cart paths. “Rain doesn’t like to do well in the valley.”
Duncan said that the floodwaters washed away some cartpaths and some maintenance work completed in the past few weeks.
Duncan said, “We went through all the bunkers and dialed them in perfectly.” Now we must go back and redo all of them.
La Quinta Country Club is located just a few miles away from SilverRock. Two courses at La Quinta Resort separate the club from the mountain base. La Quinta Country Club was spared much damage, even though the Mountain and Dunes Course at the resort still had a lot of standing water on Wednesday.
The biggest damage, from the superintendent’s perspective, was a beautiful Eucalyptus tree that was planted in a nice spot in the left rough of No. Gilley stated that the No. 1 tree was beautiful and growing well. “It uprooted. “It’s not that it was heavy. It was just a tree that was uprooted by the wind.”
Gilley stated that the tropical storm had not affected a project Gilley was undertaking to renovate the greens of the course on the front nine in preparation for the American Express PGA Tour tournament scheduled for January. Forty newly planted trees on the course were all able to withstand the wind. He said that a large, older palm tree fell near the 17th tee.
Hilary did not destroy every desert golf course. Dave Ruvolo, the head professional at The Lights at Indio Golf Course, said that the course suffered more damage due to a monsoonal storm last Friday than from Hilary. The storm tore off the roof of a patio Friday. However, the course was open for play on Monday after the tropical cyclone.
Ruvolo explained, “We opened the course in the morning to see what was going on. We had standing water all over the greens.” “But my course drains incredibly well.” We are far from the mountains. The course dries out like crazy. It’s beautiful. It’s awesome.”
The damage at Sunrise Country Club was much less than the adjacent course, Thunderbird, because it does not share a border with the wash.
Hale Kelly, General Manager of Hale Kelly Construction Company said: “We did have a small amount of washout along the road edge but nothing too bad.” “We did pretty well.” There were a few washouts on the perimeter wall, along the wash. Some palm trees fell and caused a small amount of damage to the roof. “Apart from that, there’s nothing else.”
Kelly, like other private clubs said that his club gets only 20-30 rounds per day during the summer heat.
It’s the same everywhere in the valley. Kelly stated that the tee sheets are usually done by nine o’clock.
Duncan, like Draper said that there’s not much a golf course can do in a wash at the foot of the mountains or when a rainstorm hits the desert.
Duncan: “It is beautiful to watch water come down the mountain.” “It is beautiful, until it reaches the golf course.”
