Hello Bentwater, I wanted to take a moment to update you all on our clean up process.  After 20+ inches of rain, we have finally started to clean up the debris and water damage left from Harvey.  On Wednesday 8/30/17 we were able to get out on all 3 courses and survey the damage and begin our road back.  We were able to mow greens on all 3 courses and start getting the greens back into playable shape.  We will continue to blow off debris and pick up the many broken limbs and piles of straw/debris.  Luckily our courses drain off well and we did not suffer as much damage as I have seen on other courses.  It is still extremely wet on the fairways so we will have to hand rake most of the remaining debris. 

Miller:  Most of these bunkers held up extremely well throughout the property.  Even 15 that was completely submerged drained off well and we have this bunker back in shape by the end of the day.  I am extremely pleased with how these bunkers held up during the storms.  It is amazing to see how the liners actually held the sand up on these steep faces.  We are able to mow tees today, due to the fact they are sand capped.  We will begin putting out truck load after truck load of straw to get this course ready to open by September 29th.  Overall we fared ok on this course.

Weiskopf:  Most of the bunkers did not hold up well.  We will start pumping water from these bunkers and I have already ordered sand to put into these bunkers.  We will work to make these as playable as possible.  Greens, tees and fairways will be cleaned off today and perhaps can mow fairways as early as Friday to open on Saturday. 

Grand Pines:  In my opinion, this course suffered the greatest damage.  Several bunkers have large pieces of Earth that have sluffed off down into the bottoms of the bunkers.  Even those bunkers that did not suffer this damage have significant soil erosion in the bottoms mixing sand, soil and gravel.  I will report our plan to repair these as soon as I have this in place. This course is still extremely wet and only greens can be mowed at this time.  I do not see Grand Pines opening until next Wednesday. 

I hope and pray that you and your family weathered the storm well.  If there is anything that me or my staff can do to help please do not hesitate to reach out to me at dlatham@bentwaterclub.com

Donny Latham

Good Morning everyone, as of this writing we have received over 2+ inches of needed rain, however, this will make the golf courses Cart Path Only.  The bunkers on Weiskopf will be considered Ground Under Repair for the next couple of days as we work to pump the water and push the sand back up on the faces.  Please be patient with us as we work through this labor intensive process to put these bunkers back in play.  For those of you who have driven around The Miller, you will see that the bunkers that have sand will only be better after a significant rain event.  This is natures way of compacting the sand.  The new drained bunkers will not hold any water as well as the wash outs will be very insignificant.  This is a glimpse of things to come.  Once we are able to replace all bunkers on Weiskopf with the same construction methods and drains and liners we will not need to spend as much time as we currently have to repairing bunkers for play.  In the meantime, we will work diligently to pump water from these bunkers and make them as playable as possible. 

Donny Latham