The Loop

Hail batters Colorado Springs golf course, closes it for at least a week

July 29, 2016

Nature’s wrath can devastate a golf course, as we were reminded recently at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. It surfaced again in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Thursday night in the form of a brutal hailstorm.

The greens at the Silver Spruce Golf Course at Peterson Air Force Base there were rendered unplayable by hail the size of, well, golf balls. Here, via Twitter, is a photo of one of the greens:

“They’re just pockmarked so bad,” superintendent Scott Anderson said. Most are half dollar up to golf ball size. To get it back to a decent putting quality we concluded aerating would be the best, most effective option.”

Moreover, the hail wreaked havoc with the trees on the course. “We’ve got a variety of ponderosa pine trees and deciduous trees and the hail just thinned out the trees so much there’s stuff everywhere,” Anderson said. “There are little branches and limbs under every tree.”

Anderson said they would aerate the greens on Tuesday and Wednesday next week and hope to reopen on Thursday.