By Fred Altvater
As if Currie Golf Course in Midland wasn’t dealing with enough challenges thrown at the golf industry in 2020, the Midland region experienced a flood of biblical proportions on May 20.
After two days of extremely heavy rains, two dams that held back the waters of the Tittabawassee River to form Wixom and Sanford Lakes both gave way, allowing a tsunami of water to flood downtown Midland and the Currie Golf Course.
Course officials had been alerted to an impending flood and moved the equipment to higher ground and took other flood precautions, but they weren’t prepared for the severity of the flooding when the dams broke.
Flood level for the Currie Golf Course is 18 feet. The water crested at 28 feet, causing parts of the course to be submerged under ten feet of water. The Midland Fire Department used a boat to take Currie General Manager, Paul Milholland, to view damage to the clubhouse two days after the initial flooding.
“I have never seen so much mud in my life,” Milholland said. “Everything was covered with slippery, slimy mud.”
Once the water abated, several inches of dirt and debris covered fairways and greens and had to be removed as quickly as possible. Every available staff member, including cart boys and kitchen staff used snow shovels to help remove the sludge.
“I personally want to thank every member of our staff here at Currie for their help in saving six greens. It took four men a minimum of 5 ½ hours per green to clean them.”
In 1952, the Currie Family donated money to build the 18-hole East Course, a 9-hole par-3, plus the 9-hole West Course, as a public golf facility to benefit the Midland community. In 1998, the East Course was cut back to nine holes as nearly $3 million was invested to add a second nine holes to the West Course and make it an upscale championship venue of over 7,000 yards. Improvements were also made to the clubhouse and made Currie one of the best public facilities in the state.
Currie has been able to re-open its shorter, family-friendly nine-hole East Course, as well as, the par 3 layout. The West Course required more work but recently reopened. For the near future, an 18–hole course will be possible by playing the front nine on the West Course combined with nine holes of the East Course. Holes 16 and 17 on the West Course must be reseeded and probably will not be playable until 2021.
The flooring, plus over two feet of drywall had to be removed from the clubhouse, which will curtail any groups from using the restaurant until remodeling can be completed.
Neither COVID-19 nor the Great Tittabawassee Flood of 2020 has stopped Currie Golf Course from offering golf to the people of Midland.
