Gold Canyon golf course rocked by storm damage

GOLD CANYON, Ariz. (KSAZ) - On the morning after the storm, clean up begins at Gold Canyon's Mountain Brook Golf Club.

One by one, crews remove 19 uprooted trees, but none as dramatic as the massive Cottonwood that used to stand tall on the 13th hole.

"Planted it in 2002 off of a branch we soaked in water and now it's gone," said Brendan Waddell, general manager of Mountain Brook Golf Club.

It's a shocking site for Waddell, who hasn't seen anything like this in his 17 years at the course.

"We usually lose branches here in there, but not whole trees... none," he said.

After a short drive with Assistant Golf Professional Ed Boyd and we found another tree that even knocked down one of the club's gates.

"We got all hands on deck right now," he said. "Everybody's out here, even us working out here taken down trees and cleaning it all up."

That work shut down the golf club just for today after a powerful storm that Head Golf Professional Marko Hardin saw for himself.

"Strong winds, a lot of lightning, heavy rains, we're told the winds were probably 50 to 60 miles per hour," he said.

Then there's all this damage in a neighborhood not too far away from the golf course. You can see Palo Verde trees down and mud filling the street. Neighbors tell us they have never seen a storm like the one here last night.

"I've been here since '95 and I've never seen this much damage... ever," Sue Wright said. "We got two-and-a-half inches of rain in our rain gauge in less than 40 minutes. That's a lot of water."

The first major monsoon storm of the season made a lasting impact on a community that's now picking up the pieces.

"These storms happen, and we'll probably see more of this in the weeks to come," Hardin said.

Officials with the Mountain Brook Golf Club told FOX 10 Phoenix's Liz Kotalik that there is no damage to the greens or any of the turf, and the place will be back open for play on Thursday.