From the air, Dumbarton Golf Club barely looks like a golf course. It looks like a lake, with a few raised greens poking above the surface. Aerial images taken on Tuesday show the 18-hole venue almost completely underwater, days after the River Leven burst its banks during Storm Boelo.
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The flooding has become a financial and physical emergency. Water is still coming in through a collapsed embankment, and the club has cut its opening hours to save money and is preparing to pay for extra pumps itself. In a statement on its Facebook page, the club said, “This is heartbreaking, given that we have been doing so much in the clubhouse.”
Founded in 1888, Dumbarton is among the oldest golf clubs in the west of Scotland. It now faces a recovery with no timetable and a repair bill it can’t yet estimate.
Storm Boelo struck on Saturday, October 24. According to reports on the storm, it brought gusts of up to 84mph and a third of a month’s rain to pockets of Scotland. The River Leven burst its banks, and the course, which sits beside it, took the full force of the flood.
The water has not stopped coming. Club officials say they are monitoring it as it enters through the collapsed embankment and warn this “will not be a quick fix.” Vice-captain Paul Savage told the Dumbarton Reporter that the club is in a “precarious situation” because the course is effectively acting like a dam. At high tide, he said, water seeps back in through the collapsed section.
West Dunbartonshire Council is closing the towpath for safety reasons as its first priority, then reviewing the situation with engineers. The club says it has been given no timescale, so it is left to get the water off the course itself.
The club says the damage will be “difficult to imagine” until the water recedes. It expects bunkers to need re-sanding, multiple bridges to be rebuilt, debris to be cleared and a number of damaged trees to be dealt with once crews can reach them. It says this will come at a high cost.
Draining the course will probably mean extra pumps at the club’s expense, which it is trying to secure. The reduced operating hours are meant to protect its finances in the meantime. Revised hours will be sent to members, who have been asked to “support the club wherever possible.”
Helensburgh, Cardross and Clydebank and District golf clubs have reached out, and the committee called the offers “extremely welcome.” The Dumbarton Reporter says other local clubs have also offered tee times so Dumbarton members can keep playing. Practical offers of help will be accepted once the water is off the course.
Recovery now depends on the council’s engineering review, the pumps and the tides. The committee calls the situation “very much ongoing” and has asked members to “bear with us as much as possible” while it learns more.
The club can’t yet say when the water will clear or what the final bill will be. For now, the message to members is to be patient and to keep supporting the club.