Work continues on the Lafayette Golf Course, with a reopening still expected next month, parks superintendent Ted Bumbleburg said at Monday's parks board meeting.
Employees on Sunday finished reseeding the course's 18 fairways, which were damaged last month when heavy rains caused the Wabash River to overflow its banks onto nearly 70 acres of grass.
The course's roughs will go unseeded until the cooler fall season because the areas lack the irrigation system necessary for summer cultivation of grass.
Still, officials hope golfers may soon return to the course off North Ninth Street Road next to McAllister Park.
"We are trying to move forward and working with the board," Bumbleburg said. "It has not been easy, but we're hoping it will be finished soon."
Germination of the rye grass is expected to take four to five days, he said. Rye is considered the region's fast-growing grass, but growth may be hindered because of the hot and humid July weather, he said.
"July and August are not generally the best times to be growing grass, but we are still looking to open in August," Bumbleburg said. "We are fortunate that the damage isn't as great as from the floods of 2003. The roughs and the fairways were destroyed."
Heaving flooding last July destroyed almost 150 acres of the course, causing about $150,000 in damage.
Employees reseeded the area with about 40,000 pounds of a 50/50 mix of perennial rye and Kentucky bluegrass, which Bumbleburg said did not work out as well as expected.
Source: Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Ind.)