We continued to pump water from the 26th green area, starting at first light we had the pump running all day to remove the flooded area, there is a lot of water in this area so it will take us some time to dry the course up.

The River Derwent is incredibly high, as all of members are aware Malton has been severely affected by flooding, I can definitely say if the flood defences had not been built after the floods of 2000 we would have the same damage as back then, which took months to recover. These pictures were taken today and shows how close we are to the disasters of 12 years ago.

 The water level to the left of the flood bank is 5 cm  from spilling over the top of the flood bank, hopefully without rain for the last 3 days the water level will start to fall.

 The water level on the course side of the bank is a lot lower and at present the damage is minimal although due to the height of the flood water the level is slowly rising. We hope that over the course of next week the flood waters will drop significantly.

We also continues with the hedge removal on 18 and 19

 

Today Rob and I spent most of the day battling the standing water with the water pump. We finished the 1st fairway, which was the largest area on 1-9, then pumped out the 8th and 9th green side bunkers.

We then tackled the area between 11th tee and the 12th green.

This unfortunately highlighted another problem, the pipe connecting the 12th ditch to the 9th ditch was obstructed, so Will and Scott roded the pipe to free the debris and is now running great.

The rest of the team continued to remove the hedgerow between 18 and 19, once again this is for safety reasons, as shots hit over the hedge could potentially hit an on coming golfer or a member of the green staff. More trees are to be planted where the hedge is removed to help define the two holes.

The forecast is for drier weather over the next few days, but very cold nights, as the greens will become frozen Rob moved 1-13 holes in preparation for the opening of a least 1-9 holes. 1-9 holes will be inspected tomorrow with a view to getting some of the course back open for Saturday. The rest of the course is still incredibly wet and will not be open until at least Monday

Testing times

Now the forecast looks a little drier we are starting to assess the damage and water on the course in an effort to get some holes open as soon as we can. Holes 1-9 are the driest on the course and will take the least time to recover. We began pumping some of the flood water from really bad areas on these 9 holes so they can begin to dry out. Pumping water from areas across the course is going to be an ongoing task, but we are making every effort to minimise course closure.

The 1st fairway

Flooding on the course more pics

I was unfortunate enough to witness the devastating floods in 1999 and 2000 that left the course under water for weeks, causing untold damage to a lot of areas. This morning when we walked the course to push water off the greens it was very similar to back then. Water in a lot of areas we NEVER see water, pooled into lakes around greens and tees and fairways saturated. There were a few puddles on the greens although the work we have done and the verti draining has helped reduce the stood water but the surfaces were very soft in areas.

Not nice to see I know

We are able to continue with work in and around the shed, so Adam and my self continued with the machinery servicing, Alistair and Scott finished the shed soak away.

Then we started to remove the hedge between 18 and 19 which has been passed for removal to improve safety for golfers and incorporate the 19th hole into the rest of the golf course.

 

Flooding on the course

It has not stopped raining for a few days and the course is really water logged and extensive flooding is starting to become an issue. There has been around 50mm of rain over 3 days. The green staff cant go on to the course with any vehicles due to the severe wet conditions. If the rain stops tomorrow we will push the water off the greens and see the extent of the damage, however i do not expect the course will be playable until AT LEAST the end of the week. It is very saddening to see the course in this state, however we can not stop nature, we only can react and do all we can to lessen the damage it causes. The drainage planned this winter hopefully will help us in the future to recover more quickly after such extreme weather.

This is the flooding on the driving range. We used our time today to start servicing all the machinery, Adam and Rob continued servicing the John Deere greens mowers which they started last week, then started taking the units off the Toro fairway mower. Will serviced the strimmers, I fixed the leaf collecting machine, Alistair Scott and Rich continued staining and painting tee markers, then started digging out the soak away down the side of our shed.

The course stayed closed today after the heavy rain we had yesterday. I inspected the course first thing, and although the majority of the land was saturated and wet under foot there were some positive signs from the work we had been doing with drainage on the greens and fairways. Firstly yesterday all the greens were under water after the 22mm of rain, the work lowering the surrounds and the drainage installed on the 6th and 12th had removed the puddles which would have been left.

The verti draining done over the last few days will have also helped generally remove water, helping it penetrate through the profile, I finished off the the remainder of the greens this afternoon, fortunately I had left the driest of the greens till last knowing the weather forecast.
Other areas which showed remarkable improvement after the rain were the 10th fairway and in front of the 18th green.

10th fairway yesterday

and then this morning

This small puddle was all that was left, in an area which had not had the drain reinstated

Other bits that we haven't done yet showed that the work we have done has made progress in to draining the course.



A wet area on the 10th hole near the road that crosses the fairway

Work continued on the drainage on 15th fairway that was started on Tuesday

Adam and Rob continued servicing, grinding and cleaning the John Deere greens mowers. Neville Maw continued with will cutting the hedges on the course with the flail. We use Neville every year to cut the hedges as he makes a fantastic job, unfortunately this year it has been wetter than usual, leaving a few prints from the cleated tyres on his tractor. These will be rolled out in the next couple of weeks.

 

Yesterday we had a demo bunker rake to try out, so Will and Scott raked all the bunkers on the course, checking and pushing sand where needed.

Whilst vertidraining the greens continued the rest of the team dug out more drains on the 10th and 15th fairways where water has collected this summer.

Unfortunately today the weather has been incredibly bad, 21mm of rain had fallen by noon, with it still raining the course was in a bad way. Water was stood nearly everywhere, hopefully tomorrow it will start to dry out a little. As the ground conditions were saturated we started servicing the John Deere greens mowers and continued painting the tee markers.