DEERWOOD, Minn. - Heavy rain and strong winds toppled hundreds of trees at a popular golf course in Crow Wing County.
Crews at Ruttger's Bay Lake Lodge spent all day clearing away trees that covered parts of the resort's golf course after strong storms blew threw Sunday night. They had a lot of work to accomplish as early estimates had at least 200 trees downed by the storm at the course.
"We just have to get the debris off and we’ll get back to it," said golf pro Dave Sadlowsky.
Sure enough, by late Monday afternoon the front nine was already open, the back nine was expected to be open by Tuesday.
"We have everything from the uprooting like you can see here, to just plain snapping off half way up. One’s laying this way, one’s laying that way," he said describing the damage to the trees.
He gave KARE 11 a tour of parts of the golf course as workers, some who volunteered from the community, helped clear away debris from playing areas on the course. The superintendent said it could take months before everything is cleared.
"We got to take it a day at a time, " said Joe Wollner, course and grounds superintendent. "It’s going to be a process probably the next couple months. We’ll get the brush picked up and trees picked up. But the stems that are still standing, that will probably go into next fall.”
Crews went hole-by-hole, clearing away debris. Sadlowsky said it looked like a weak tornado came through, but at this point it appears to be straight-line winds.
"We literally started going hole by hole in succession. So started with hole 1, then hole 2, and right now we’re wrapping up 4 and 5," he said. "Our worst green was hole 8 where a pine tree actually got snapped off and landed on the green itself.”
But that was the only hole that was damaged, and even that was fairly minor.
There was no damage to the resort, so it's still open. And with the course expected to be fully operational by Tuesday, they know how lucky they are.
"Nothing we can’t recover from. And just thankful no one was hurt in the process," he said.