Area Golf Courses Get a Free Drop-- of Raindrops : Weather: Precipitation hurts business in the short term but will help conditions, considering drought restrictions.

Normally this would be the busiest time of year for Stardust Country Club golf shop manager Andy Carlson. But when your course sits in the San Diego River bed during one of the rainiest Marches in county history, there is not much else to do but answer the telephone or sell umbrellas.

Over the last two weeks, Stardust has been closed to its members for 10 days. In that span, Carlson estimates the course has lost 3,500 rounds of golf and a significant amount of business to the pro shop.

“When you go from 350 customers a day to 10, it really hurts,” Carlson said.

Of all the courses in the county, Stardust might lie in the worst possible location. Not only does it receive a run off from the San Diego River, Stardust also gets water from the Pacific Ocean when there is a high tide. The course is just over a mile from the San Diego River Floodway.

An antiquated drainage system has also contributed to Stardust’s problems. Carlson said it takes the course three to four days to recover from each drenching.

Stardust’s driving range, one of the largest in the county, has remained open for all but two days. But Carlson said keeping a fresh supply of range balls has not been easy.

“The machine we have pushes the balls into the mud and then we have to go and dig them out,” Carlson said. “We’re a real mess right now.”

Torrey Pines Golf Course is not in much better shape. Course manager John Walter said it has been closed seven days over the past two weeks.

“We don’t have the greatest drainage system in the world,” Walter said. “We just can’t take all this rain.”

But unlike Stardust, Walter said, Torrey Pines is playable a day after the deluges. Walter said Torrey Pines has received more than five inches of rain in only two weeks. The recent storms have also taken down five 20- to 40-foot trees that line the course.

Walter estimated the rains have cost the city $50,000 in greens fees. He said Torrey Pines averages 550 rounds and $7,000 a weekday.

But Walter said the long-term effects of the rain actually might help Torrey Pines.

“Any golf course superintendent has to be happy with the fact that we’re getting help with our water storage by the rains,” Walter said. “If it costs us three or four weeks now, I’ll take it for the summer months.”

The San Diego County Water Authority is scheduled to begin a mandatory 50% restrictions Monday. Under those cutbacks, golf courses would be allowed to water only greens and tee boxes.

But not every county golf course will be affected by the cutbacks. Rancho San Diego in El Cajon uses water from its own well. John Haggerty, Rancho San Diego’s general manager, said his course had plenty of water even before the storms arrived.

“Our table was pretty full when the rains came,” Haggerty said. “During good times and bad times that table is usually pretty full because we use reclaimed water.”

Like Stardust, Rancho San Diego straddles a river. Runoff from the Sweetwater River has put about 35% of Rancho San Diego under water. Haggerty said the recent storms have shut down the course for four days in the last two weeks.

However, Coronado Golf Course has bounced back from the precipitation because of its sand basin, which allows the course to drain in less than three hours. Dave Jones, Coronado’s director of golf course operations, said the course has been closed only two days.

“The course is built on sand that was dredged out of the channel in 1957,” Jones said.

Even after heavy rains Tuesday morning, Jones said, people were playing on Coronado at 7 a.m.