Imagine taking the same route to work, your child's school or the grocery store every day, then one day out of the blue being told "you can't get there from here."
Flooding is a common occurrence on many Midwestern golf courses - in spring and summer. But flooding? On golf courses? In late winter? That is not so common.
An unusually wet winter with frigid conditions followed by periods of rain and rapidly rising temperatures have resulted in circumstances the likes of which some in the Midwest never have seen before.
Rising water levels and ice jams caused as ice flows break apart as temperatures rise clogged rivers and creeks throughout parts of the Midwest in mid March, compromised levees and bridges in several states and have left floodplain golf courses in an unfamiliar position - with winter dormant turf inundated with nearly freezing cold water. By the following week, water had begun to recede, but by then the damage had been done.
In Nebraska, where flooding in some parts has been characterized as a 500-year flood by FEMA, the situation is so unique that University of Nebraska researchers are using it as a teaching moment for their students.
Roch Gaussoin, Ph.D., of the University of Nebraska believes the flooding conditions probably will not result in any long-term turf damage, with heavy emphasis on "probably".
"Flooded turf survives better when it's dormant or the water is cold, but the ground was already saturated and we probably will get another couple of inches on a weekly basis through the spring," Gaussoin said. "It is going to be interesting to learn from this and go to multiple locations and watch the progress. There is so much silt on some courses, what do you do with that? We know what silt can do to a green. They can seal up. You know I'm not a fan of core aeration, but I think some guys are going to have to get out there and pull some cores.
"This is going to take a lot of patience. We don't know what is going to occur. There is no crystal ball, because we've never seen anything like this before, and I've been doing this for 30 years. It's overwhelming."
In Columbus, Nebraska, parts of Quail Run Golf Course were so severely damaged by glacial sheets of ice moving across the property that the boys high school state tournament scheduled for May already has been moved to another location. Flowing slabs of ice gouged the playing surface and caused tree damage several feet above the ground.
On the positive side, the turf was not actively growing and we did not have the heat of the sun to contend with. ... On the negative side, since we're not open yet, we're not fully staffed, so that is going to delay opening, probably by a couple of weeks.
According to a release from the city of Columbus that owns the course: "Damage at Quail Run is extensive. Staff is working on cleaning up damage on the section of the course north of the levee. We will be looking at reshaping a couple of holes so that there will be nine holes available on the north side of the levee. We are anticipating opening the north side of the course on Wednesday, April 10, 2019. Damage on the south side of the levee is extensive. Therefore, the holes on the south side of the levee will remain closed until further notice."
"Until further notice" could mean next year, said Gaussoin, who has visited the course numerous times.
With floodwaters expected, the crew set out to remove what they could from the golf course, including irrigation satellites that would have been crushed by the ice flow. As they were finishing up, they were doing so in knee-deep water.
"It's a heavily treed course," Gaussoin said. "Everything in the path of the ice was compromised. Part of a cart path just fell off into the lake."
Flooding across the state was so severe that several bridges were closed across eastern Nebraska and on March 14 the sheriff's office in Colfax County, an hour north of the University of Nebraska, declared all bridges throughout the county unsafe and unusable.
In Green Bay, Wisconsin, superintendent Mark Storby posted a video on Twitter of his crew using chainsaws to cut through ice on the 18th green that was more than a foot deep.
Just to the south, in Iowa, Tom Feller has seen a lot of flooding during his 18 years at Cedar Rapids Country Club. The course is located in a floodplain of the Indian Creek, which meanders about 10 miles south by southeast until it eventually empties into the Cedar River. But it has been more than a decade since he's since anything like what occurred this year at the 1915 Donald Ross design.
"Water was 4 feet high in some areas. That's the highest it's been since 2008," Feller said. "Ice jams, rapid melt, it created havoc all over the place."
Like Gaussoin, Feller doesn't believe damage to the turf will be extensive or long lasting - other than that 6-foot-wide chunk of the No. 6 fairway that was washed away by the Indian Creek.
"On the positive side, the turf was not actively growing and we did not have the heat of the sun to contend with. We have a lot of silt and sand, but not being open yet allowed us to concentrate on clean up," Feller said. "And we haven't put out our pre-emerge yet, so we won't see weeds like you do after flooding in summer.
"On the negative side, since we're not open yet, we're not fully staffed, so that is going to delay opening, probably by a couple of weeks. Our board knows, and they're OK with that.
"This is the first late-winter flood we've had here, so there are no more surprises. The scary thing is it's still March and we haven't been through April or May yet. That is typically when we get our hardest rains. The good thing is I've gotten really good at skimming silt and sand."