Although the area received a lot of rain last week, there was minor damage from flooding on the golf courses, golf maintenance director Keith Ihms said on Monday. All the courses were open for play by Friday except for the front nine at Scotsdale, and that opened on Saturday.
It was almost two years to the day that Little Sugar Creek flooded and damaged its banks near a Berksdale cart path, resulting in the permanent closure of part of that course. At the time, repairs were estimated at $500,000 for Berksdale. The other courses -- except for Dogwood and Brittany -- also needed repairs, including new sand in bunkers, cart path repairs, and repairs of both tee boxes and greens.
Ironically, this area received more rain last week than two years ago, Ihms said. The difference is where the rain fell. In 2017, cities to the south of Bella Vista got more rain, sending the water into Little Sugar Creek. This year, in spite of anywhere from four to seven inches in Bella Vista, the creek was not impacted as badly.
Since the water in the creek was still high when Ihms was contacted on Monday, it's possible that there will be some damage to the creek banks uncovered when the water goes down, he warned.
Golf maintenance workers did clean up some rocks and debris on the courses late last week, but none of the greens were covered, he said.
With the creek still running high and more rain in the forecast, Ihms said there could still be flooding damage later this spring.
General News on 05/08/2019