Golf Courses in Retention Basins

[David Schofield]

Tom Doak's recent thread on CommonGround's construction cost brought my attention to the fact that it was constructed wholy or in part within a flood retention basin.  As an engineer, I've long thought this was a great use of otherwise wasted ground.  I did have a few questions that the Treehouse might be able to ponder:

• How many other examples of golf courses in flood retention basins are there (for the sake of brevity, let's omit golf courses in natural floodplains)?
• Are there any abnormal design constraints such as having all green complexes above the 10- or 25-year high water level?
• Are there any extraordinary drainage precautions taken to assist the course from drying out after a long and deep submergence?  Or is it simply assumed that most of the course will be lost?
• How does one hide the ugly head and outlet works?

Your thoughts?

[Tom_Doak]

David:

The only other courses I know of in a flood control basin are the two courses at the TPC of Scottsdale.  That big "spectator mound" along the last three holes of the Stadium course is the CAP canal which doubles as a big flood control dyke.

At Common Ground a big flood [bigger than I can imagine] would fill nearly all of the golf course to #9 tee, where the spillway is; so 80% of the golf course would be underwater, but I think only for a couple of days until the water level starts to go down.  So, we did not try to keep the greens above flood level.  If it rains that hard in Denver, they're probably going to have other things on their minds besides golf for a while.

At The Rawls Course we had the opposite problem ... the entire golf course was built out of cut and fill, but all the "cut" areas would fill up with flood waters moving across the site, if we hadn't engineered the sheet flow around them.  There was another course in Lubbock which went underwater for more than a month in a big storm event.

[Joe Perches]

How many other examples of golf courses in flood retention basins are there

There are several in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles

Sepulveda Dam
Hansen Dam
Angeles National

These regularly flood.  See articles like:

http://articles.latimes.com/1995-01-11/sports/sp-18707_1_sepulveda-dam
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-02-14/sports/sp-2374_1_encino-golf-courses

[Jason Topp]

I know Randolph South Golf Course (now called Del Urhich) was redesigned to serve as an area to retain a certain amount of flood water.  I am not sure if it qualifies as a retention basin.

[Carl Rogers]

As the whole issue of Stormwater management takes on increasing amount of environmental importance, golf courses as gigantic sponges (refer to the entire emerging field of Low Impact Development) will help the game take on wider public acceptance as smart land use.

Tom, wasn't part of the justification for Riverfront its use as a buffer between development and wetlands and the compliance with the Chesapeake Bay Act?

[Scott Weersing]

Here is the flood update on Common Ground:

FLOOD UPDATE

November 1st, 2013:

We have been able to re-open a modified 9 hole course. 6.5 holes suffered severe damage from the flooding and will need to be re-grassed before we can re-open them for play. Our plan is to dormant seed the damaged fairways, tees, surrounds, and rough areas this fall and will reseed the 5 damaged greens in the spring. This way we have the best chance of re-establishing turf as soon as the growing season begins. Unfortunately, this means that we will not have the full 18 open for play until July 1, 2014 at the earliest. Although our goal is to open the course and get back to normal operations as soon as possible, we don't want to compromise the conditioning play of the course moving forward. We will make sure new conditions our top notch and strong enough to handle play.

The modified 9 holes that are open consist of holes 1,2,3,8,9,10,16,17,18 - it is a par 36 (par 72 for 18 holes) and does have a slope and rating, so you may continue posting through the rest of the active season. All other facilities are open, including the range, and the Par 3 course.




Until the full course opens, we will be offering several different flood offers. Please see our Rates page to see all new offers.

[Jason Thurman]

I believe Metairie CC in New Orleans is in a retention basin. I'm not sure it was originally constructed that way, but I think I remember reading that they decided to make it as such when they were cleaning it up after Katrina. I may have totally made this up though, so perhaps someone else will confirm or correct me.

Bummer about CommonGround, but I also suppose that in some way this is another example of what a great community resource it is. Hopefully they get things back up and going swiftly.

[Tim Leahy]

In San Diego Carlton Oaks and Mission Valley had to be rebuilt with higher tees and greens to withstand annual flooding. Palm Springs has some too.

[Steve Lang]

  54 Holes at Bear Creek (public) Park facility within the Addicks Flood Control area on NW side of Houston.  Very flat and Park area used for multi-purposes

- fast water very erosive, so I's assume you'd move it elsewhere first, if possible, and let it backflow into course areas

[Derek Dirksen]

I think Desert Rose gc in Las Vegas is in a basin (I could be wrong on that).  Dick Wilson designed it.  I know it is scheduled to be redone next year.  They are going to lower parts of the course 10 plus feet to help with flood control.