Water hazard: Area golf courses deal with flooding

By RYAN AMYS Chronicle Sports Writer

Local golfers finally got what they were anxiously waiting for n snowmelt.

SEAN SPERRY/CHRONICLE Parts of Bridger Creek Golf Course were under water Monday afternoon. Bridger Creek is one of many local courses affected by the weekend’s heavy rain. With winter-like conditions making a prolonged detour to the season opener, Gallatin Valley golfers were on standby to unleash a drive on a par five, make a bending birdie putt or to get a chuckle from a Carl Spackler impersonation.

With a handful of days that raised the red in the thermometer to playable temperatures, the frosty ground gave way to green grass and the bunkers were filled with the white of sand opposed to that of snow.

What seemed too good to be true turned out to be just that.

Now, waders would be more suitable than golf shoes and a paddle and canoe more appropriate than a nine iron and golf bag, which brings truth to that too-often-used cliché: be careful what you wish for.

The dense snowpack that has turned into rivers cascading down the surrounding mountains and the never-ending rainfall have teamed up to cause another delay to the golf season, with every aspect of what is needed to play the game dominated by water.

“Golfers are understanding,” said Valley View Golf Club professional Scott Kremmel. “They don’t want to be golfing out in the swamp and muck. They are chomping at the bit to get back out there, though.”

Valley View, which has been closed since Sunday and plans to reopen on Thursday, has suffered an onslaught of Mother Nature’s wrath. On top of the snowmelt and rainfall, beavers have dammed up Sourdough Creek, which has emptied its excess water into Spring Creek, leading to the “swamp and muck” on the course.

Bridger Creek Golf Course and Riverside Country Club are more of the same.

The front nine is still open at Bridger Creek and six holes make up the back nine, with holes 18 and 16 taking the brunt of the overflow. So, once again, it’s a waiting game for the course to be an 18-hole setup instead of 15 holes of aquatic makeup.

“I haven’t seen it flood quite like this,” said Bridger Creek golf professional Mark Holiday. “It’ll just dry up. We won’t do anything special, but we’ll have to pick up the wood and logs from the fairways of 18 and 16.”

Keith Loeber, an assistant pro at Riverside, said 11 of the holes are made up of standing water. The recently added hazards leave nothing but a question mark for when tee times will be scheduled and actually made.

But, while Valley View, Bridger Creek and Riverside are fending off the effects of an unordinary Montana spring, Cottonwood Hills hasn’t missed a stride and the soon-to-be Black Bull golf course actually welcomes the dreary weather.

“One would think we would be packed with golfers, but the weather’s been too bad for that,” Bill Larson, golf pro at Cottonwood, said. “High water really is not an issue for us. We have absolutely none, and we’re even allowing carts on the course.”

Tammy Ryan, a sales representative at Black Bull, said the rain is only helping to manicure the course, which is still on pace to open the middle of July.

Ryan Amys is at ramys@dailychronicle.com.

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