Palm Springs - The Power of Water - Golf Course Damage - Updated March 16th.

Last week, Feb 14/15 Palm Springs seen approx. 3.7" or more of rain, the other desert locations further from the San Jacinto Mountains got slightly less. There were numerous road washouts & water rescue pics on TV and almost a week later there’s still a number of roads closed, such as Hwy #74, Indian Canyons Dr., Cathedral Canyon Dr. the road up to the Tram and others.

We’re renting a place at the Desert Princess on Vista Chino & Landeau they had no damage the berm saved them. I played Escena on Saturday, they had standing water but no damage. Yesterday, went for a bike ride down to Ramon & the wash area, Cimarron G&CC is approx. 50% or more destroyed. I imagine Cathedral Canyons G&CC has similar damage or any course that’s located near or part of the wash area. Also heard Indian Canyons South has lots of damage but can’t confirm. I would suggest those planning trips to the Palm Springs area do some checking on course conditions. The staff at Cimarron say it will be a number of weeks before they open at least 9 holes while they rebuild. Forecast is for 1/2" or more rain over the next few days, windy and cool, nothing like last year.

A few pic’s.

D.

Wow, awful. Do you know if the area south of Palm Springs was affected heavily? La Quinta, Palm Desert?

Following Warrick's thread on his rounds out there (his first trip to PS area) and realized they had a ton of rain. Watched most of the videos posted online and the flooding was stunning. The majority of the rain fell in the area around the Aerial Tramway, Palm Springs and Indian Canyons. La Quinta area got about 1" or less. Palm Desert likely has nothing more than wet ground.

Any courses that used the canals as part of their course suffered damage. Cimmaron has the most damage since most of the course is built inside of one of the washes. Other course suffered some damage. Go to Google Maps and just follow the main canal out of Indian Canyons to see which courses have holes or parts of the course in the canal and you can figure out which ones have problems.

When you are there and you drive around and over all the canals, you wonder why they were so big. And now you know.

The local TV Stn reported Palm Springs got 3.7" rain in 24+ hrs and more was in the forecast. It was suggested there was some snow melt that was a factor. They said Palm Desert = 2.3" & Indio = 1.3" they never mentioned La Quinta, I imagine it was over 1 inch. Police closed a portion of Cook St today, it's was a challenge getting to and out of the airport, however, it's improved since Gene Autry just opened to the I10. The website says Indian Canyons & their range are closed until further notice. Things are slowly getting back to normal around here, except for the temps 52F with rain Thursday sucks, when the norm is 75F.

D.

Link to local Channel 3 NEWS, lots of pic's & video ....https://www.kesq.com...ings/1029651213

The local TV Stn reported Palm Springs got 3.7" rain in 24+ hrs and more was in the forecast. It was suggested there was some snow melt that was a factor. They said Palm Desert = 2.3" & Indio = 1.3" they never mentioned La Quinta, I imagine it was over 1 inch. Police closed a portion of Cook St today, it's was a challenge getting to and out of the airport, however, it's improved since Gene Autry just opened to the I10. The website says Indian Canyons & their range are closed until further notice. Things are slowly getting back to normal around here, except for the temps 52F with rain Thursday sucks, when the norm is 75F.

 

D.

 

Link to local Channel 3 NEWS, lots of pic's & video ....https://www.kesq.com...ings/1029651213

I think Jeremy Chen is a vampire. Never seems to sleep and might be their only reporter. ;)

Tahquitz Creek Legends is reopening tomorrow according to the weekly email I get. The wash does affect several holes but you can play around it.

When I was growing up there I loved it when it flooded. It’s hard to believe but as a teen we used to ride the rapids in inner tubes. My poor mother. One year she and our neighbors were watching the water flow in the wash that now goes through Cimarron (not much was out there then) when she sees me and my buddies float by. It’s not very deep and if you don’t panic or try to fight it, it’s fairly easy to walk to the side once it spreads out. That year I recall we had to float a mile or so before it was walkable. Just one of many stupid things I survived.

I saw a video on Instagram with a RAGING river flowing right through Indian Wells Resort. I heard they are having to start players on the 17th hole, and then after 18 they take a shuttle bus around the canal to the 1st tee?

Tahquitz Creek Legends is reopening tomorrow according to the weekly email I get. The wash does affect several holes but you can play around it.

 

When I was growing up there I loved it when it flooded. It’s hard to believe but as a teen we used to ride the rapids in inner tubes. My poor mother. One year she and our neighbors were watching the water flow in the wash that now goes through Cimarron (not much was out there then) when she sees me and my buddies float by. It’s not very deep and if you don’t panic or try to fight it, it’s fairly easy to walk to the side once it spreads out. That year I recall we had to float a mile or so before it was walkable. Just one of many stupid things I survived.

Good times. All in good fun. These days some snowflake would throw your parents in jail. Which is sad.

I saw a video on Instagram with a RAGING river flowing right through Indian Wells Resort. I heard they are having to start players on the 17th hole, and then after 18 they take a shuttle bus around the canal to the 1st tee?

I heard about that. Wonder why since the canal really doesn’t come into play at any point?

We were there from the 8th to the 16th and it was something to see that's for sure. Being from Kansas City, we're no strangers to three or four inches of rain and even more in a 24 hour period and we deal with flash flooding who knows how many times each and every year. But in Palm Springs? It could just as well have been a foot of snow. You know when there are no gutters on the houses and storm sewers are few and far between that you're not someplace that's equipped to handle significant rain events must less something like what happened on Thursday.

In all, it cost us two days of golf as our Friday round was scheduled at the aforementioned Indian Canyons South course and by the time the deluge hit it was too late to secure a tee time anywhere else in the valley for the next day. Too bad as most of the courses that we either visited or drove by were open and packed. In fact, of the courses we went by only PGA West was even restricted to the cart paths and, amazingly, every single course looked as if nothing had ever even happened. Bunkers were raked to perfection and everything appeared to have been mowed and manicured as if it were just another day.

However, traffic throughout the area was slowed to a crawl as all of the road closures resulted in bottlenecks on the open thoroughfares and the congestion was still apparent on Saturday.

As for our trip, it was a pretty crappy conclusion to what was already the worst weather week of our eleven years of traveling to the area. We only bumped 70 degrees on one occasion and most rounds started in the mid 50's, peaked in the low 60's and ended up back in the 50's for the last four or five holes. Most were also cloudy, breezy with occasional sprinkles and light rain thrown in just for giggles. It wasn't like we were totally ill prepared for the elements it's just that we were so reluctant to concede and put on long pants, multi layers and rain gear when we're so accustomed to sunshine, 70's and 80's and even a decent amount of 90's over the years.

On Sunday, the back nine at Escena was in the 50's with 20 mph plus winds and when the sun went under the clouds it was downright cold. In fact, by the time pretty much all five rounds ended we were just wanting to get the hell off the golf course and somewhere to warmup - preferably the hot tub back at the house where the amount of bourbon consumed surpassed the amount beer for the first time ever!

Not exactly the attitude one expects to have when in the desert in mid February.

Of course now we're home where the ground was already covered in snow and ice and we picked up another four to five inches overnight so all of my whining about Palm Springs seems pretty hollow by comparison.

Here's hoping that conditions out that way stabilize and get back to "normal" sometime soon so our friend David and his wife can enjoy the remainder of their stay as well as all the other folks that spend good money to try and escape the cold in Palm Springs.

I really feel sorry for the folks that have memberships and residences on the courses that were the most impacted by the storm as it's going to be quite a while before they can get Humpty Dumpty put back together again.

Oh well. There's always next year.

Global Warming my a**..........

Too bad about your timing Vernon. This time of year is usually pretty good in PS. The recent rain was the 3rd most in a day in PS history. You're right, the city has no infrastructure for rain. The streets flood once there is .5 inch and the local drivers don't have a clue. There are multiple traffic collisions every time it rains. On the rare occasion that it snows in PS you'd think it was a 100 year blizzard. The town shuts down for 1" of snow.

This year is also the record year for most consecutive days under 80 degrees. Looks like you timed it perfectly.

https://www.desertsu...ees/2891379002/

Too bad about your timing Vernon. This time of year is usually pretty good in PS. The recent rain was the 3rd most in a day in PS history. You're right, the city has no infrastructure for rain. The streets flood once there is .5 inch and the local drivers don't have a clue. There are multiple traffic collisions every time it rains. On the rare occasion that it snows in PS you'd think it was a 100 year blizzard. The town shuts down for 1" of snow.

 

This year is also the record year for most consecutive days under 80 degrees. Looks like you timed it perfectly.

 

https://www.desertsu...ees/2891379002/

I've always seemed to have "perfect timing" just in an imperfect way.

Heck, my brother and I have been setting weather records all over the country for over forty years now........

In fact, numerous local Chamber's of Commerce have been known to offer us significant payoffs to NOT visit their towns while on vacation!

Hopefully, this year's experience will appease the evil "gods of all things weather" in the Palm Springs area for the foreseeable future and we can get back to "normal" starting with next year.

A little disappointed that we couldn't have been #1 on that list but I guess the accompanying record low temperatures make up for it!

I played Cimmaron once for my bachelor party almost five years ago. Terrible they'll have to rebuild.

A little over a year ago, I played Player Course at Indian Wells and thought it was weird that the driving range (that morning) was inside the canal! We hit from under the bridge east to west. Ah memories.

Feb 23^rd … went for a bike ride, the golf course staff and Contractor have started repairs, one of the fella's said it would be at least a month before they can open 9 holes they had 36 between the Bolder & Pebble Par 3 course.

A few more pic’s

David

What’s left of the Pebble course facing N.W.

That’s at least 20-25 feet of bank gone.

Facing S.W. towards the Ramon Bridge

New Hotel next to Cimarron Club House

Equipment working today.

Building a new berm & moving dirt

Oh my. Such a beautiful area. Those pictures bring tears to my eyes...

I driven over that bridge many times and looked at Cimarron and knew that sooner or later this would happen. They didn't build the bridge for the golf course. Tough to see nonetheless.

Just received an email that our tee time for Sunday, March 3 at Tahquitz Creek - Resort Course was canceled due to the course being closed indefinitely. Hopefully our other tee times for the week will stand.

Feb 16^th, it’s been just over a month since the big rain, noticed Cimarron had their flags up, was told they just opened 9 and do a shot gun and replay the same 9 at least the people who bought a short stay membership or punch card can use it. No heavy iron moving dirt/sand today, noticed a few Cat scrapers just got unloaded, it could be some time before they open another 9.

TV said Cathedral Canyon Drive over the wash (1 lane) will open next week and they hope to open the Tram Road the 1st week of April. The small businesses up at Idyllwild are struggling, the main hwy is still closed could be another few months, and it takes 4 hours via detour to get up/down. The plus, California is no longer in severe drought and everyone is hiking up the various trails to see the wildflowers, those hills/mtn have never been this green for years. Finally getting some warm weather, 82F today and 86F/30C on Tuesday.

Went for a bike ride & took a few pic’s …. enjoy.

David