Hail leaves thousands of dents at golf course in Denver, prompts partial closure

A golf club in Green Valley Ranch canceled one of its biggest tournaments because of the severe weather that brought hail, heavy rain and strong wind gusts to the Denver metro area on Thursday night.

General Manager of Green Valley Ranch Golf Club Matt Bryant met up with CBS Colorado Traffic Reporter Brian Sherrod to discuss the impact from the hailstorm. Bryant says the hail started hitting the field around 10 p.m. Thursday. It left hundreds to thousands of dents on the field, causing them to cancel their Colorado’s Women’s Golf Tournament.

PHOTO GALLERY: Hail looks like snow in the Denver metro area

Bryant tells CBS Colorado he has been working there for 18 years and this is the first time ever he’s had to cancel this tournament. Bryant says along with the dents, they have to remove the broken tree limbs from around the course. Bryant hopes the course will be reopened by the weekend but says it all depends on the weather. 

“When you have hundreds of thousands of hail stones hitting the greens, it’s just like a battlefield,” Bryant said. “We have to do different grounds practices to get the greens back into smooth condition. Hopefully, we will be able to open this weekend.”

Luckily, the golf club was able to host their awards ceremony Friday morning and will open their driving range around noon Friday. 

In some parts, hail piled up which made it look like snow and remained until Friday morning. CBS News Colorado’s helicopter flew over the areas hardest hit. 

Several windshields and back windows were shattered by the hailstorm.