Glen Eagle Maintenance (8/9/24)

 And the rain keeps a coming. Tropical Storm (eventually Hurricane) Debby dumped 6.4” of rain on Glen Eagle, most (5.93”) within a 24 hours period last Saturday and Sunday.

That brings our year-to-date total to 50.74”, 42.61” of that since June 1st. Needless to say, it has been a wet summer.

Trivia time. The Glen Eagle property is approx. 362 acres. So Hurricane Debby dumped 62.9 million gallons and year to date, we have had 498.7 million gallons of water on Glen Eagle. In comparison, our annual water permit allows us to pump 73 million gallons. Which tells me that most of the rain that falls on Glen Eagle runs off the via the weir at Davis Blvd, evaporates, or goes into the ground to recharge the aquifer. 

Even with all the rain, the course overall faired well with most of the water accumulating along the outer edges, only two small trees blown over and we were back to 90 degrees on Thursday.

The installation of the weather station couldn’t have come at a more opportune time as I was able to monitor the rainfall and wind during the storm. On Sunday, the day TS Debby passed by, we had a gust that reached 38 mph and the wind averaged 15.3 mph during the storm.

While we were waiting for the water to recede, we were able to add some plants around the weather station to make it look better and help protect it from equipment and carts.

Here is a video of a rain squall on Monday that was associated with the tail end of then Hurricane Debby.

We ended up closing the golf course on Tuesday because the cart paths on 5 and 17 tee were under water, limiting our ability to get carts around the course. By Wednesday, the cart path on 5 was clear allowing us to open the front 9 and Thursday 17 was clear, allowing us to open all 18.

When the water rises above the lake banks, as is receeds, all the debris that was brought with it is left on the turf and has to be removed by hand. Our team has been out since Monday, cleaning up Glen Eagle and after many hours of raking and shoveling, it is starting to look normal again.

Here are some pictures of the water on the course this week.

Bunker on #3 flooded (the lake was over the turf on the left after the storm)

Lake on #5 tee spilling over into the UROS

#10 Rain accumulation

#16 Bunker Washout (Before Repairs)

#16 Bunker (After Repairs)

Drain in 16 Fairway

Hole #1 on Wednesday Afternoon (getting back to normal)

Looking back on 16 from 17 Tee

You can see from the haze in the picture of number 1 that it is very humid. The feels like temperatures in the afternoons since the storm have been at or near 105 degrees.

It will take another week or so to catch up on mowing etc. but with some drier weather in the short term forecast, we should be back to normal conditions relatively soon.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!