Golf Course Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2014 07 21

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Coal Creek was the most heavily damaged golf course in the area, but other courses took a big hit. Mariana Butte in Loveland has reopened, but some holes are still being reconfigured. Twin Peaks in Longmont suffered $170,000 in damage and reopened in May. A recent overflow of the Poudre River has three holes of Windsor's Pelican Lakes Golf and Country Club — Nos. 12, 13 and 18 — remaining unplayable. "We were luckier than some others," Mariana Butte club pro Winston Howe III said. "Right now, we only have one hole, No. 16, that is a different par from before the flood. It was a par -5 for years, but it became a par -3 for a while and it's back up to a par -4 and should be back to normal soon." At Coal Creek, the City of Louisville and the contractor it hired to do the renovation — Landscapes Unlimited — caught a big financial break when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) changed its policy last Sept. 4 to include public golf courses as being under consideration for federal financial relief. The flooding began Sept. 9, so much of the funding to restore the golf course will be paid for by the government. The damage to Coal Creek was comprehensive, including the destruction of fairways. "The water churned so much that big holes everywhere were formed," Gill said. "We're the first course to go through this process (with FEMA). It's a very deliberate process, but we're grateful for their help. Golf courses are essentially designed as detention basins, and ours did its job in conveying a lot of the water downhill. But it couldn't withstand what we deemed a 400 -year flood." Gill said the fairways received heavy siltation from stream deposits, which interfered with irrigation. So all the fairways need to be reseeded and properly hydrated. At Twin Peaks, about 75 percent of the course was underwater after the flood but was able to get back to full operation a month ago. Gill said Coal Creek will be redesigned to better withstand flooding. "This has been our chance — though we didn't really want to do it this way — to modernize the entire course. But essentially, the new course will have more common -sense drainage improvements," Gill said. "Water will be directed to the center of the course, with different berms to make that happen. It should be a course that people will be even happier to play than the previous version." Adrian Dater: adaterndenverpost.com or twitter.com /adater 14