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There has been pouring rain, flooding, behind-schedule course superintendents and frustrated golfers. No, this isn't in reference to the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black; it's about Bonneville, Forest Dale, Nibley and other Salt Lake golf courses struggling against one of the wettest Junes ever recorded in Utah.
With rain dowsing the Salt Lake Valley nearly every day this month, local golf is up to its knees in water concerns. Chuck Sorge, course superintendent at Forest Dale and Nibley golf courses, said that right now, most of the deluge is under control since the sun has shown its unfamiliar face over the last few days. The greens are still pretty wet and the rough is growing too fast, but his five-man teams at both courses have things pretty well controlled.
"Really, we're just behind on mowing," Sorge said. "The greens are wet but they are definitely playable."
With construction of Interstate 80 underway just north of Forest Dale, a couple of flooding incidents have created extra headaches for the grounds crew. Fortunately, the construction workers were able to use street sweepers to amend the flooding in the parking lot and the remaining damage was minimal. But course structure and maintenance isn't the only problems rain has created.
Average June precipitation in Utah is 0.77 inches. Through Sunday, Utah had seen nearly 2.5 inches of precipitation. The abundance of rain has Salt Lake golf courses looking at a concerning number decrease
Up until June, 2009 had been a strong year for Salt Lake City Golf. David Terry, golf manager for Salt Lake City Golf reported that golf rounds in May 2009 were up nearly 12,000 rounds from May 2008 to over 69,000. Salt Lake City Golf counts its rounds as nine-hole rounds since many Utah courses were founded with nine holes. Numbers are way down in June, according to Terry, who expects the month's totals to be about 70 percent that of recent years.
"It's 100 percent weather related," Terry said. "Rounds are up versus previous years each month with good weather. The economic situation has yet to have a real effect on us at all."
In fact, Terry believes the recession is providing more business for his golf courses since people are passing on expensive vacations and spending their time off at home instead.
As for a silver lining, Terry is holding on to one. With poor weather in April driving numbers down, a fair-weather May brought in the best May in the last decade. By that logic, maybe a soaked June will bring in a bustling July.
"My sense is that a lot of May's success was from the pent up feeling of a bad April," Terry said.
Steve Elliot, head pro at Bonneville, said he thinks things have already begun to turn around.
"I think people have decided, 'You know what? If it's going to stay this way, I'm going to get out and play,'" Elliot said.
» With one of the wettest Junes ever recorded in Utah, local golf courses are struggling for business.
» David Terry, golf manager for Salt Lake City Golf, saw his best May in a decade, which he attributes to poor weather in April. He hopes for the same in July.
» Some courses are seeing golfers come out despite the weather and Bonneville head pro Steve Elliot attributes that to people being sick and tired of not playing.
