Heavy rain over the past two weeks has caused the Blanchard River to swell over its banks and onto our course.  Flooding has occurred many times over the past 100 years, the most recent flood ranks #5 all-time for Findlay.

Here is a view of #8 fairway

 #18 fairway
 #1 fairway
 A view from #8 tee
 #8 green from #9 tee


 The torrential rain washed out rocks from our gulley

Pushed up debris into our bridges
 under the bridges
 and on top of the bridges

The water came up so high that we had to pull our pump motors to higher ground to save them from being damaged.  Evan and Sammie were a big help in this process.

The waters rose and eventually completely covered #18 green with over 3' of water for several days.

After receding, we were left with a thick layer of silt that had to be removed immediately to prevent turf loss.

The silt was removed by washing it off by hand.  After 90 minutes of washing off the silt Sammie was able to see green turf again.


After washing away the silt we then had to squeegee off the remaining water.  Being under water for that long could cause severe turf loss.  Once the greens were visible we spiked them to allow oxygen to enter the root zone.  This also helps to release gases trapped below the surface that can be toxic to weakened roots.

We also had to remove water from our fairways as soon as possible.  These puddles heat up quickly during the afternoon and can cook the root zone.  After running these pumps for many hours this past week we were finally able to remove all standing water from our fairways.




Plenty of silt was left on our fairways as well.

Eric is using a backpack blower to remove loose debris and then the fairway washed washed off by hand the same way we washed the greens.

Eric was able to squeegee the water into a collection area that was then pumped back into the river.


Jim helped us out with this process as well.


Once the water was pumped off site we then used a leaf rake to stand the turf back up to help dry out the surface and break up the matted turf.  Jason did a great job raking the turf.


There will be brighter days ahead,  we will have this course in great shape again soon.   The support from our membership has been amazing!  I appreciate all the phone calls, texts, and e-mails this past week with people offering their help and support.  Thank You!


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