Rain, Rain, Too Much Rain

When we get rain it is a blessing here at the golf course. When we get a lot of rain, sometimes the effects can be a hindrance. When we take a look at our creek you will see exactly what I am talking about. In the last few years we have experienced multiple short bursts of excessive rain. These storms can bring a relief for a droughty turf in the summer, but when it comes to a water feature like our creek, the effects can be overwhelmingly destructive. The large amounts of rain will cause the creek to flood significantly, and when this happens there is a high chance for erosion to occur on the creek banks. This is especially true near the waterfall features of the creek.

There is a large washout near the stepping stone bridge behind the blue tee on 18. As you will see from the videos, the flow of water has managed to find a weak spot behind the rocks and is now flowing into the bank, the water then finds its way back into the creek.

One of the projects we hope to complete this winter is to create a long wing wall that expands into the creek bank.  This wall will be made from poured concrete and will extend about 15 feet into the bank and placed at a 45 degree angle. This process will be tricky because when the waterfall was first designed it was placed on top of the city sewer. The stacked landscape rock was then placed through iron rods in the center to stabilize the waterfall rock. So with this in mind we will expand onto the existing foundation of the waterfall to create the necessary wing wall. Placing a wing wall at this length should help correct the flow of water and divert it back into the main stream where it belongs. We will then back fill the washed area with topsoil and bring it back to level.