Flooding in southern Sask. cancels provincial golf tournament

Heavy rain and flash flooding in Estevan, Sask., has cancelled a provincial golf tournament this week.

On the eve of the Saskatchewan Junior Boys and Junior Girls Championship at the TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club, more than 130 millimetres of rain soaked the course and caused localized flooding.

In the words of our superintendent, this is the second-most amount of water he's ever seen on our golf course.- Kyle Mulligan, general manager of TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club

"If you're standing up at number six tee box, which is the highest point on the golf course, you'd see a lot of water where you'd wonder, 'Why is there water there?'" said club general manager Kyle Mulligan.

Months of planning all came to a halt after the city declared a state of emergency after homes and vehicles flooded between Sunday and Monday.

• State of emergency declared in Estevan, Sask., after heavy rainfall

Mulligan said the club has received extra pumps to try and get water off the course as quickly as possible, but staff members are running out of places to pump water to.

About 60 players from across the province made the trip to Estevan, about 200 kilometres southeast of Regina. Mulligan said this morning he spoke to the managers at the Legends Golf Club in Warman, Sask., and they agreed to hold the junior tournament next week alongside the Canadian Men's Amateur Championship.

"The course was in fantastic shape, we were definitely geared up," Mulligan said. "Thankfully there's a lot worse things that could have happened. The golf course is fine. We will get the water moved off. The worst thing for us is we're not playing golf this week."

Despite more calls for wet weather in the coming days, Mulligan is hopeful the course will be dry enough to start booking tee times on Friday.

"We had a flood here in 2011. It's not the that extent but in the words of our superintendent this is the second-most amount of water he's ever seen on our golf course," Mulligan said.