Meadowbrook, Decimated By Flooding 3 Years Ago, Preps For Reopening

HOPKINS, Minn. (WCCO) -- The grounds crew is out in full force at Meadowbrook, dutifully and meticulously maintaining the tees, greens and fairways to get the golf course into top condition.

A golf course that nobody plays.

"I mean, it was just a disaster area," said Matt Just, the director of golf operations for Minneapolis Parks & Recreation.

Meadowbrook has been closed for three years now, ever since flooding decimated the course in 2014.

It's really pretty amazing how much water was here. You can see the water line, about six feet up on the trees here on the eighth fairway. This whole area was under water for about four months.

In the time since, nature's made an effort to reclaim the territory.

Now, Just is leading the effort to reclaim it back.

"You can't open up a golf course with this as the image," he said. "At all. And so, that's part of the reason why it took a little bit of time."

Full-scale construction will begin later this month – on re-seeding, irrigation, cart paths and bunker restoration – with the plan of finally re-opening later this summer, in late July or early August.