Steve Timms, President and CEO of the Houston Golf Association, referred to the massive flooding in the region as “a 500-year event.” Golf Club of Houston, Champions Golf Club and River Oaks Country Club are all underwater as the storm continues to dump rain.
While the focus now is on rescuing victims from floodwaters, golf courses in the greater Houston area have been inundated with flooding that will contribute to the devastating economic impact the region will experience in the weeks and months ahead, Golf Digest reported.
The extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey won’t be understood for awhile and is likely to expand in the days ahead after the storm hit the Texas gulf coast over the weekend and continues to dump rain on the region, Golf Digest reported.
“This is not over yet,” Steve Timms, president and CEO of the Houston Golf Association, said. “This storm got caught between two high pressure systems. They’re usually out of here, but this one camped over south Texas. It’s now backed up, and they’re projecting that by tonight it’ll be back in Gulf of Mexico, which could have further strengthening. We could be in for a forecast of 15 to 20 inches of additional rainfall.”
The association’s offices are adjacent to the Golf Club of Houston in Humble, Texas, site of the PGA Tour event formerly known as the Shell Houston Open. The tournament course there is bisected by the Greens Bayou, which carries water from north of Houston down to Galveston Bay and into the Gulf of Mexico, Golf Digest reported.
“It’s been out of its banks since probably [Sunday] at about 9 a.m.,” Timms said. “We’ve had literally massive flooding. We’ve never seen anything like it.
“If it were to stop raining now, I would say we’re probably at least another day or two before we’ll see any significant receding of water,” Timms said. “It’s a massive amount of water. We’ve received so much rain upstream of us that it’s got to come through major bayous. The longer you keep water on turf, the more silt and turf damage you’re going to have. I just can’t even start imagining how much damage there will be. Obviously, it’ll be significant. One thing we do is that greens and tees are built up out of the 100-year floodplain to protect them. But this is not a 100-year event. It’s more like a 500-year event.”
Timms spoke on Monday morning with Robin Burke, wife of Champions Golf Club co-founder Jackie Burke. “Cypress Creek, which runs through their golf course, is way out of its banks. She said the 18th tee on the Cypress Creek golf course is under water, which is a pretty good distance away from Cypress Creek. It’s pretty devastating flooding for Champions.” The third and 12th greens reportedly were under water as well, Golf Digest reported.
The Woodlands (Texas) Country Club, site of the PGA Tour Champions’ Insperity Invitational, has sustained moderate flooding, Director of Golf Darrell Fuston said.
“I expect the Woodlands Country Club to be OK for the most part,” Fuston said. “The Palmer Course tends to have high water on it, but it shouldn’t be too awful. Other courses in area are not going to be as fortunate. Kingwood, the Golf Club of Houston. There’s some others I’m hearing about.”
Fuston has been unable to inspect whatever damage there is to his courses. The flooding is such that he is trapped on the street on which he lives, Golf Digest reported.
“So many of these courses are built in floodplains designed to be runoffs when floods happen,” Fuston said. “I guess there’s a reason they are where they are. So much water moves over the courses, but something like this is unprecedented, really.”
River Oaks Country Club, once a Houston Open and Western Open sites, is adjacent to the Buffalo Bayou and was largely flooded:
Prayers to all members.send us course photos: in photo: River Oaks CC: Supt: Morris Johnson https://t.co/ZyT745tHlS pic.twitter.com/sX3x9KYHQO
— South Texas GCSA (@STGCSA) August 28, 2017
The Houston area’s newest high-profile course, Bluejack National in Montgomery, Texas, largely escaped damage, despite encountering between 15 and 20 inches of rain, said General Manager Casey Paulson.
“We’re about an hour north of Houston,” he said. “We’ve had a ton of rain, but it’s not quite as bad as some of the stuff you’ve seen on TV. No serious damages here. We’ve had a couple of trees go down. That’s about the extent of it. We’ve been pretty fortunate out here.”
The Houston Golf Association, meanwhile, is renovating the municipal Gus Wortham Park Golf Course, adjacent to the Brays Bayou east of downtown Houston, Golf Digest reported.
“About five holes have been grassed,” Timms said. “In the last 24 hours they’ve had 24 inches of rain on the job site. We don’t know what that will look like until we get there.
“It’ll be quite devastating is the right word to use for these golf courses in our region,” Timms said. “We can recover from that. But there are people in Houston really hurting. It’s a debilitating event.”
ClubCorp, the Dallas-based owner/operator of clubs, provided the following update regarding the impact of Hurricane Harvey on its clubs:
ClubCorp clubs located in the Houston region have experienced heavy rainfall over the past few days and are closed at this time. Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our staff and the members of our clubs. The storm is ongoing and we remain in close contact with all of our clubs in the region affected by the storm. We will continue to monitor the storm and assess its impact on our clubs. We are pleased that, to date, there have been no reports of injuries.
ClubCorp maintains flood and business interruption insurance coverage for storms such as Hurricane Harvey. ClubCorp expects that the storm will not have a negative impact on the pending merger transaction with affiliates of Apollo. The special meeting of ClubCorp stockholders to approve such transaction remains scheduled for September 15, 2017 and the transaction is on track to close in our fiscal fourth quarter of 2017.
ClubCorp applauds its dedicated staff for their hard work and thanks the first responders, members of law enforcement and medical personnel who are working tirelessly to aid the communities impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
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