I was privileged to play at Northland over the weekend, and though the destruction of the ponds and creek beds was astonishing to see, and the residual cleanup challenges will be monumental, the course was not just playable but in fantastic condition. It's a shame Northland has received so much rain this spring, but if anything it has left the grass on the fairways and greens in the best condition I've ever seen it. When the golf course finally dries out, it could well be the ultimate in fast, firm and fun. In years past, heavy rains would have left the course spongy in many spots. Those days are gone; the playing corridors take the rain beautifully. Even though it rained most of the day Saturday -- following the torrential downpours earlier in the week -- it hardly affected the quality of play.
You'd really have to see the creek bed that runs across the 16th fairway and between the 17th tee and green to believe the force of the water that rushed through the course. There were boulders the size of carry-on bags strewn along the banks of the creek; Chris told me he could hear them colliding with each other while he monitored the worst of the flooding. The banks of the creek have been widened considerably, with tree limbs, foot bridges, mud and debris spread about 80 yards wide around the original path of the creek. The pond on #11 doesn't exist any more; a retaining wall will have to be rebuilt to fill it up again. The cleanup will take a huge, summer-long effort.
(A note to Morgan about those old bridges: I don't believe storms had anything to do with their removal. They were simply old and weathered, and I think the advent of golf carts probably had more to do with their passing into history. Almost all of the new, smaller wooden footbridges that forded the creeks were swept away or dislodged during the floods, but the relatively new stone bridges were not damaged, as far as I could see.)
Northland will never look exactly like it did before; the water changed its route through the course in several places. But the essential nature of the course is unchanged, and a case can be made that, when the cleanup work is done, the facelift is going to be seen as an historically fascinating chapter for a grand and unique golf course.