Park district examining floods at soggy Palatine Hills Golf Course

Upping a golf course's level of difficulty with some narrow fairways and sand traps is one thing, but the unintended water hazards that appear at Palatine Hills during even moderate rainfalls have golfers increasingly aggravated.

Widespread flooding forces Palatine Park District to close its par-72 course tucked back from Northwest Highway about five days each season. That's not including several additional days when water shutters the final four holes or entire back nine.

"It's been a problem as long as I can remember," 20-year Palatine Hills regular Gary Schwietz said. "First there's no golf at all, then they have to reseed the fairways. So depending on the severity, it could be three weeks before the course is back to normal."

Park district officials agree there is a problem - Palatine Hills is built on a floodplain, after all. And it's gotten worse as development to the north has diminished open space, causing higher water volume in the creek that runs alongside the course.

What there isn't, however, is money to fix it.

The park district recently hired a golf course architect to take an overall look at the course and design four conceptual plans aimed at alleviating the flooding. But the solutions, some of which include relocating recreational fields or raising and reconfiguring holes, cost between $4 million and $6 million.

"It's not going to happen unless we figure out a way to print money," Park district Commissioner Andy McPherson said. "We tried to make clear we can't afford any of the fixes, but we wanted to do our due diligence by looking into it."

Some golfers argue the investment would be worth it in the long run, but park district Executive Director Ron Gbur said spending that kind of money isn't realistic since Palatine Hills isn't self-sufficient.

In recent years the park district has spent about $200,000 of its roughly $19 million budget each year subsidizing the course, which itself generates $1.45 million annually in revenue. Gbur estimated that Palatine Hills loses $28,000 each year in potential revenue because the course is closed.

Golfers like Schwietz say the revenue lost due to flooding is likely even greater since many others in the Palatine Hills Golf Association - a group of about 160 regulars with permanent tee times - don't hesitate to head to other courses such as Poplar Creek in Hoffman Estates and Randall Oaks in West Dundee when Palatine closes.

"How much does it cost to reseed? How much do they lose because carts aren't allowed for days at a time? I don't think they're looking at the whole picture," Schwietz said.

Former association President Derrell Gilstrap credited course management for the drainage improvements that have been made, and said it's been an especially difficult year to regrow damaged grass due to the heat and humidity.

"It's been more than the course can handle," Gilstrap said.

Commissioner McPherson said the next move is to finish the golf cart path system to be one continuous path, so that carts can be used sooner after heavy rainfall.

He said the park district will also hire an engineer to look at the adjacent water-related infrastructure.

Though the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago claims it's operating correctly, some park district officials believe the nearby Tom T. Hamilton Reservoir should be taking in water faster than it currently does. The course floods when water is being pumped out of the reservoir, too, McPherson said.

"MWRD is happy that basements aren't flooding, and of course I'd rather we flood than someone's home," McPherson said. "But we see some relatively inexpensive solutions in the reservoir."

Though the Chicago-area market is already saturated with golf courses, it wouldn't be unprecedented to pour millions into alleviating a public course's water problems.

In July, the Hoffman Estates Park District board agreed to spend about $6.2 million at Poplar Creek Country Club, which loses about $10,000 in greens fees any given Saturday due to floods. As many as nine holes will be unplayable at a time during work, but the entire course is expected to reopen late June 2011.