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 From the News Desk...East Lake handles flooding rains with easeby John ReitmanGiven the choice, Ralph Kepple will take torrents of rain over searing heat and humidity any time. Not that Kepple was trivializing flooding rains that have been blamed for nine deaths and more than $250 million in damage throughout metropolitan Atlanta - far from it. In fact, one could argue that Kepple's home in the city's northern suburbs took a worse hit than East Lake Golf Club, the urban Atlanta club where he is superintendent and where the PGA Tour's best players have gathered for this week's Tour Championship. Some parts of the Atlanta area, particularly those north and west of the city, received more than 20 inches of rain during a seven-day period that began Sept. 16. Nearly 10 inches fell at East Lake during that span, including 2.5 inches on Monday, Sept. 21 and 1.5 inches in about 20 minutes the following day. The club, as well as PGA Tour players reaped the benefits of recent drainage-improvement projects that allowed Kepple to have the course open for practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday. Other courses throughout the area were not as fortunate. While 9.3 inches of rain fell in seven days at East Lake, at least 23 inches fell during that time at Stone Mountain Golf Club north of Atlanta, including at least 16 inches on Monday. The lake that runs through the state park where the course is located overran its banks, and floodwaters caused a short in the pump house electrical circuit and washed away much of the earth at a tunnel entrance to the course, exposing the 14-inch irrigation mainline. "I like to think of myself as someone who enjoys challenges," said Anthony Williams, CGCS at Stone Mountain. "There were times on Monday that I thought I was outmatched. I thought, 'OK, I don't have an answer for this.' " Debris from the other side of the park washed over greens including a trashcan still filled with garbage, Williams said. "There was garbage, sticks, fish and things unimaginable on the greens," Williams said. "They're calling this a 100-year flood. I thought that it might be 100 years before we're ever able to play golf here again." By the time the dust had cleared at 36-hole Stone Mountain, Williams and his staff were able to drain 
enough water to have the Stonemont Course open the following day. The back nine on the Lakemont Course was open by Wednesday and the front is scheduled to be back in play by Saturday. Williams credited the efforts of his crew as well as outside help he summoned with bringing the two courses back from the brink. "There were Herculean efforts all around," he said. "There aren't enough high-fives to go around." Back at East Lake on that same day, Kepple was in a meeting with PGA Tour officials when the worst storm of the week hit the inner-city course. "I came out of the trailer, and I could've paddled a canoe down the fairway," Kepple said. "Immediately after the last big thunderstorm, every fairway I saw was like a river. The lake was outside its banks anywhere from 5 to 50 feet, but as we have no real streams through the course, we were not under water like many of my colleagues." The rain and floodwaters did little to disrupt practice for this week's Tour Championship, the finale of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Few players were around on Monday, but those who were could practice without delay - at least once the rain stopped, Kepple said. He kept the course closed until noon the following day; with the stipulation that all practice rounds begin on No. 1. "That allowed us to keep working on the bunkers on the back nine, and we still didn't get those done until dark," Kepple said. Crews that included 64 volunteers from golf courses throughout Georgia worked diligently to remove silt from the bunkers and push the sand back in - once they located it. The ground was so wet, however, that Kepple couldn't get carts to the bunkers. Instead, crews used wheelbarrows to remove the silt. "(Tuesday) was the fifth time we had to do that," he said. "That part of it was a pain. "In all, they only lost half a day of practice." About 80,000 feet of drainage and new catch basins were installed at East Lake in 2003 and a SubAir drainage system went in two years later. By Wednesday, members of the crew were coming into the shop noting how free their shoes were of mud. "This place was draining great," Kepple said. The flooding hearkened to memories of the 2007 Tour Championship when, Kepple and East Lake were challenged by a deadly combination of heat and sun that brought temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit or more on 26 of 31 days in August. The average daily high for the month was 96 degrees, and temperatures climbed above the 100-degree mark on several occasions, including 104 on Aug. 22. A solid agronomic plan by Kepple and a load of help from his crew and dozens of volunteers helped salvage that year's event. "It's a hopeless feeling both ways. But in 2007, it just dragged on for so long," Kepple said. "This year, the rain is gone and the course has dried well, although (players) are going to have to play the ball down. It was much worse in ’07." It also was worse at Kepple's home in Sandy Springs, located some 20 miles north of the golf course. His wife Lisa called at one point during the week and described the scene at their home as a "monsoon." "And it wasn't even raining (at East Lake)," Kepple said. Local news broadcasts helped him keep matters in perspective. Footage taken Sept. 22 from a news helicopter showed firefighters in Powder Springs battling a home fire only to have rising floodwaters swamp their truck and send them scampering for higher ground. Both the home and the fire truck were declared a total loss. "Once I got home and figured out where the water was coming from and fixed that," Kepple said, "we turned on the TV news and thought 'what happened to us is not so bad.' " Stone Mountain, on the other hand, was a disaster area. 
Heat generated by the massive granite edifice for which Stone Mountain Park is named naturally attracts lightning strikes. That was no different Monday. Although saving the golf course was a top priority, safety was Williams' immediate concern. He dispatched workers in pairs with specific instructions to help ensure the safety of his staff. "Nobody is going to get hurt in this process," he said. "Don't lose your buddy, and know how deep that water is before you get in it." Floodwaters washed over the main road into the park and many low-lying roads in the area. It also covered three greens on the Lakemont course and washed away the ninth fairway. "The last time I saw it, it was somewhere headed toward Alabama," Williams said. His crew shut off power in the clubhouse to prevent fire if it flooded and moved the fleet of about 125 golf cars out of harm’s way to an upper parking lot. "We were doing a lot of things that had nothing to do with growing grass," he said. "It became a matter of how do we get out of this situation and get back to being a business again as soon as possible." The ultimate irony occurred when floodwaters overwhelmed the pump house and a short circuit triggered the irrigation system on the practice green. "We were just trying not to get killed when that happened. That was a surreal moment," he said. When much of the earth near the tunnel entrance to the Stonemont course washed away and exposed the irrigation main, securing the line with clay, earth and concrete became Williams's top priority. He called in favors from Paul Powers of Wall to Wall Golf, which specializes in projects such as cart path construction; Bob Pinson of the architectural/golf construction firm Course Crafters; and Bob Scott of Irrigation Consultant Services. "I needed an irrigation, hydraulic expert, a construction designer and someone who could pour concrete like nobody's business," Williams said. "So I called the best people in the business. "If I couldn't get the best, we were going to go to Plan B, but we really didn't have a Plan B, so Plan A had to work." The efforts of all involved at salvaging Stone Mountain left Williams satisfied but not surprised. "It was pretty scary being out here, but when we realized we were the only ones who were here we knew it was all up to us," he said. "At the end of the day, I saw guys making $8 an hour risking their lives to save this golf course without batting an eye. Hopefully, when this is over, it will serve as a reminder that there are some good people left in this world, and a lot of them work in golf." |
In other news... Study examines spring pre-stress fertility programs Research finds no correlation between biostimulant applications before spring core cultivation and recovery. Posted: 09/02/2010 Read more » Aquatrols, TurfNet present Water Week The series of five Webinars is aimed at helping superintendents manage water and soils more efficiently. Posted: 09/01/2010 Read more » News and people briefs Registration opens soon for Irrigation Show, Briggs & Stratton elects new chairman, FMC taps new director for professional solutions division Posted: 09/01/2010 Read more » GCSAA selects firm in search for new CEO Kansas City-based company will open search process for Mark Woodward's successor in October. Posted: 08/31/2010 Read more » Water foul! Research shows that droppings from non-migratory geese on turf can result in nitrogen runoff into adjacent bodies of water. Posted: 08/26/2010 Read more » Complete news index » |
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