The staff at the Links didn’t know why the pond on the Patriot course started losing water in March. The greens were the only things irrigated as they dealt with this problem all summer. Finally, they found the source of the leak – a sinkhole.
“The pond had been leaking pretty bad since March-April time frame, and we couldn’t find where the water was going until this sinkhole appeared and that helped diagnose it,” Gary Haught, Links general manager and director of golf, said.
Most of the hole has been filled. Golf wasn’t impacted because it was fenced off and not in the field of play. Initially the hole was 34 feet deep and about seven feet across.
The pond was built in the mid-1990s. Over the past 30 years, leaks developed in the corrugated steel pipe that brings water from the pond into the pump house which irrigates the golf course. This eventually caused the sinkhole.
Workers now are trying to find where the pipe is leaking. Play hasn’t been affected but the pond problem “makes it more challenging” to irrigate the course, Haught said.
“We divert our well directly into the pump house, but we’re limited to about 400 gallons a minute versus the normal 1,200 gallons a minute,” he said.
Their leak investigative work was hampered by last week’s intermittent rain. Workers were digging to check the pipe in the mud of what used to be a filled pond. “It’s a mess is what it is,” Haught said.
Eventually a polyethylene pipe will replace its leaky predecessor. Haught estimates that the cost will be $75,000 which includes equipment rental, materials, and labor. He hopes to see the repairs finished by March 1 or sooner.
“The hardest part right now is dealing with this winter wet season while we’re trying to fix this,” Haught said. “But no this won’t affect golf at all.”
The Warrior course, which is newer, also has a pond but hasn’t had such irrigation problems.
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