Golf Club Almost Back To Normal After Flood

RACHEL DICKERSON/MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS A group of golfers play at Elk River Golf Club, which is almost back to normal after the December flood.
RACHEL DICKERSON/MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS A group of golfers play at Elk River Golf Club, which is almost back to normal after the December flood.

The Elk River Golf Club at Noel is almost back to normal following cleanup from the December flood.

Manager John Hardy said the club did not close due to the flooding, "but it was definitely a lot of work to get it back to where it is now."

"It was unreal the stuff that came down this course," he said. "The only thing that wasn't under water was the area right around the parking lot. There were propane tanks, washing machines, picnic tables, but the worst part was all the driftwood. The power linemen were cutting, and the north wind blew everything up in here."

He said Raymond Landon and Jimmy Stauber brought tractors and pushed everything into piles and started hauling it off.

"It was a group effort. Our senior association pitched in a couple of days and hauled off smaller things."

In addition to the huge piles of debris, the river left behind a thick layer of silt that covered all the greens, Hardy said.

"We had to spray and Squeegee all the greens. That was a lot of work. It's 60 acres. It took a long time for the grass to grow back, and there are still brown spots," he said.

The club's maintenance shed flooded, as did the bathrooms, which had a water line freeze during the cold temperatures that followed the flood.

"It washed all the sand out of the sand traps, so we had to get a bunch of sand," Hardy said.

He estimated the golf club is back to 90 percent of where it was before the flood. There are several little jobs left to be done.

"There's still a lot of creek gravel on the far side that needs to be hauled out ... a couple of big mounds of dirt. Nothing major. Little things. It washed away our flag sticks and tee box markers, and we're just now getting those back. I think we're back to normal on play."

Mike Bell, a former board member, said the golf course is looking pretty good.

"We've got some equipment issues ... just normal wear and tear," Bell said. He added that a recent fundraiser raised several thousand dollars to help with those issues.

Bell said he has been at the club after every flood since the 1990s to help reclaim the course. The course tends to flood every year.

"Every time it floods you've got to deal with Mother Nature," Bell said. "We had a bunch of unusual stuff on it this year. Propane tanks, I don't know how many ice chests. Then just wood, sticks, pieces of trees."

Bell said he is glad to see the golf course back to normal.

"I've been playing here since 1989. I retired in '06, and this is my home course," he said.

General News on 06/23/2016