Rain over the past month has hampered construction of the Lonnie Poole Golf Course on Centennial Campus, according to Ron Gilmore, golf course superintendent.

“There has been some frustration working around the rain and repair work,” he said. “There has been significant rain since Aug. 26. We’ve probably had close to 12 or 13 inches… since then.”

According to Gilmore, this adds to the work to complete the course.

“You can’t work when the conditions are too wet or too slick and muddy,” he said. “With any construction that’s always frustrating to work around.”

The company in charge of completing the project, Centennial Development LLC, is taking steps to deal with the rain and make sure the course is completed on time, according to Gilmore.

“The construction company is dealing with it by bringing more crews in and more equipment to stay on schedule,” he said. “We work more hours and there are more people physically on the job running more equipment to prep the ground. This way there are more acres being done each day than would have been done otherwise.”

According to Gilmore, rain should not delay the opening of the golf course because of the additional effort. “I think we’re sticking with the spring of 2009,” he said.

Andrew Allen, a second year student at the CALS Agricultural Institute, said dealing with rain isn’t always simple.

“It depends on what kind of damage the rain has done to the course,” he said. “I’m sure with a bunch of rain they’ve had a lot of washouts and… had to go and fill in where stuff hadn’t completely grown in.”

Andrew Foy, also a second year student at the Agricultural Institute, said there is more than one way to deal with excess rain.

“First I’d probably check on the drainage system and see how their system works,” he said. “What type of soil they use and how quickly it drains is an issue. Clay holds more water than sand and peet and other types of soils.”

The Lonnie Poole, founder of Waste Industries, purchased naming rights for the golf course at $3 million.