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When it rains, it pours
How a Texas superintendent dealt with a pontoon boat floating across his course and dropping anchor.
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Above: No. 5 tee at Twin Rivers GC in Waco, Texas, July 2007. Below: For one day only, Twin Rivers had its own island green. Eventually, a foot of water would cover the green. Moore, with his two dogs, surveys the water levels from his canoe. Photos by Jim Moore, USGA |
When contemplating whether to take my first superintendent job, I considered many factors. After speaking with people in the industry, researching the job and assuring myself that I was up to the task, I thought I’d covered all of my bases.
However, there was one crucial factor I failed to consider — Texas weather.
The rains begin
Twin Rivers Golf Club (formerly Bear Ridge Golf Club) is a Peter Jacobsen and Jim Hardy design located in Waco, Texas. Built in 2001, it’s the home course of the Baylor men’s and women’s golf teams. The property was acquired by Brown Bark One LLP in early 2007. The new ownership recognized the potential of the property and decided to fund major improvements, including resurfacing all greens and rebuilding the greenside bunkers.
When I started at the course in late May 2007, it seemed apparent that a typical hot, dry summer waited just around the corner. Our lake-fill pump, which rests in the Middle Bosque River, was inoperable, leaving a critically low irrigation lake for a course that was already showing obvious signs of drought stress. After spending a large amount of time and money, we repaired the pump, filled the lake and began watering the course.
Little did we know that the central Texas monsoon season was about to begin. The week after we repaired the pump, the rains started. The river flowed out of its banks and overflowed into our irrigation lake, thus eliminating the necessity of having a pump at all. As the waters receded we frantically began the cleanup process in preparation for hosting the Starburst Junior Golf Tournament, the second-largest junior tournament in the country, which is played at several courses around town.
If we thought this first flood was bad, we were wrong. The good Lord must like junior golf, because the tournament, played in early June, would be our last dry weather we would see for six weeks.
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A panorama of holes 4, 5 and 8, as well as the pump station. Taken July 5, 2007. |
Round two
We had planned to resurface all our greens in mid-June, immediately following the tournament. The process got off to a great start but was soon plagued with rain delays that never seemed to end. About three days into the work, Burnside Services was forced to halt construction and wait for dry weather. Unfortunately, this was not the typical summer.
The rains in June and July would cause the level of Lake Waco, as well as the rivers flowing into it, to exceed their normal elevation in excess of 20 feet. Average rainfall in Waco from March 1 to July 31 is just under 10 inches. In that timeframe in 2007, we received more than 25 inches of rain.
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Above: Luckily for Moore, his canoe fit through the doors of the pump station. The canoe served not only as transportation, but also as a work bench, and eventually as transportation for the variable frequency drive computer, stashed away safely in the front of the canoe. Below: Travis Moore’s father, Jim Moore, director of construction education for the USGA, lends a hand in less-than-favorable working conditions. |
As the water continued to rise we watched several tees, fairways, and even three greens complexes become completely submerged. During this time we witnessed several unusual sights. Four feet of water covering the fourth green transformed the fumigation cover into a giant balloon as the air trapped beneath it tried to escape. Then, some curious boaters decided to drive their pontoon boat across the course and drop anchor over the submerged eighth fairway. In addition, several of the members traded their golf clubs for fishing poles and had luck catching catfish over the top of the No. 15 green.
Meanwhile, we had two major concerns facing the course: The flooding was delaying the replanting of the greens, pushing our opening date further and further away, and continued rising water threatened the pump station and the valuable equipment inside.
Pump station repair 101
Every day we closely monitored the water’s progression. We marked the trim on the doors to the pump station and watched as the water rose. We measured how high off the ground various components in the station were (motors, circuit boards, breaker boxes, etc.) and related those numbers to our marks on the door. The water fluctuated over a three-week span and varied from a few inches a day to as much as a foot.
Eventually it was apparent that we would need to remove as many electrical components as possible from the pump station. This became a three-stage process as the water continued to rise farther up the trim on the doors, threatening more valuable equipment.
Not having a thorough knowledge of pump station repair, we relied extensively on a digital camera. My father, Jim Moore of the USGA, and I took literally hundreds of step-by-step photos while disassembling the station in order to ensure that we would be able to put everything back in the right place. Everything in a pump station is expensive, and fuses are no exception. I made the mistake of leaving several fuses in the box until they were partially submerged. Unfortunately, it cost hundreds of dollars to replace them.
The component we worried most about was the VFD, or variable frequency drive computer. With the water about a foot away from its base, we decided it was time to move it to higher ground. You know it’s a strange year when you are standing in more than 3 feet of water attempting to transfer a 150-pound, $7,000 computer into a canoe for transportation to dry land. The canoe proved to be a great tool as it doubled as transportation and a floating work bench. Needless to say, the whole process proved to be a nerve-racking method for learning the system’s ins and outs.
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Above: Based on a call to the Corps of Engineers, who indicated the water would rise at least another six inches even without additional rain, Moore (pictured) made the decision to remove additional components from the pump station. Below: Moore took literally hundreds of step-by-step digital photos to ensure everything could be put back in the right place. |
The waters recede
Toward mid-July the course had dried out enough to finish construction on 19 of the greens (three remained under water). We monitored the water recession and desperately waited to reinstall the pump station components and begin planting 19 of our 22 greens. Once water reached the base of the pad in the station we began the re-installation process.
The first step was to remove all debris from the building. We did our best to get everything clean and dry as the entire station was littered with trash, moss and irrigation fittings. My boss, George Coleman, an 18-year GCSAA member and the Class A superintendent at Lost Lake GC in Jupiter, Fla., helped my dad and me as we began the process of putting everything back together.
All of the pictures taken during disassembly were downloaded onto a laptop and served as our installation instruction manual. Not having power to the building, we relied on a generator to run the lights, fan and laptop. Before turning the power back on, we decided to have a professional come in and check our work. Robert Paschall, the Flowtronex expert with MPS Inc. of Dallas, inspected the station and replaced a few damaged components (including all the fuses I let get wet). After he gave the OK to turn the power back on, we successfully pressured up the system.
We now had to frantically repair the irrigation system. Two satellite boxes had been completely under water and required much attention. As I lifted the cover for the display on one of the boxes, I was surprised to find a small black bass that had become trapped during the flood. All of the components were removed and thoroughly cleaned. I was amazed at how well they performed despite being submerged for so long. Many of the heads needed work and tended to stick on because of all the debris in the still-flooded irrigation lake.
On July 19 and 20, Mike Brown with Champion Turf Farms arrived to begin the planting process. Everything went according to plan, and we were able to begin our grow-in on 18 of our 21 greens. Three weeks later the final three greens surfaced. We removed the silt and debris from the complexes in preparation for Burnside Services to return. After fumigation and final grading, Champion Turf Farms was able to finish the planting process.
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The cleanup of Twin Rivers took many hours of labor. The flood waters left a lot of trash on the course, including a deer carcass and dead fish. |
From feast to famine
August was drier than usual, which caused us another problem. Because of heavy watering during grow-in and drought-like conditions on the course, we had started lowering the water level in the irrigation lake again. The flooding had disabled the lake-fill pump for the second time, and we were now monitoring the water from a completely different point of view.
We lowered a long measuring tape into the wet well and we closely watched the level drop as we tried our best to conserve water. The only areas of the course to get water were our newly planted greens. To repair the pump we hired a barge to travel up the river from Lake Waco. Unfortunately, the lake was still flooded, and it took a couple of weeks before they could get to the pump. Fortunately, the pump was repaired before we ran completely out of water.
Not long afterward we received word from the city of Waco that we were no longer allowed to pump out of the river because of complications with our water rights contract. The conflict was resolved after about 10 days of hoping for rain, and we were able to start watering again.
Never a dull moment
That summer was certainly an entertaining challenge. We dealt with floods, tournament preparation, equipment changeover, the hiring and training of an essentially new crew, and major renovations to the greens and bunkers. I learned that there is never a dull moment in the life of a superintendent, and that every day provides a new challenge.
I’ve also discovered that this industry provides a support network unlike any other. I appreciate the hard work and patience of the crew, Mike Caldwell, our assistant superintendent as well as all of the superintendents, contractors, vendors and industry professionals who went out of their way to provide insight and support.
Leo Feser Award candidate
This article is eligible for the 2008 Leo Feser Award, presented annually since 1977 to the author of the best superintendent-written article published in GCM during the previous year. Superintendents receive a $300 stipend for articles. Feser Award winners receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the Golf Industry Show, where they are recognized. They also have their names engraved on a plaque permanently displayed at GCSAA headquarters.
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