Rain has local golfers yelling more than Fore!

The record rainfall that has been falling on Eastern Iowa since May is playing havoc with area golf courses.

For instance, the number of rounds played in June at Cedar Rapids' four city-owned courses - Ellis, Twin Pines, Gardner and Jones - is down 13 percent (2,500 rounds) from the same period in 2009, according to Lisa Miller, golf operations manager for the city of Cedar Rapids. In May, Miller said those numbers were down 6.6 percent.

"I've been with the city for 10 years and this is about the worst mostly because there has been no chance for it to dry out," Miller said. "In 2008, (the flood) blew up Jones, of course, and certainly affected the other three, but we kept going pretty well after the early June incident."

Gary Louvar, the head pro at Twin Pines, said there is a lot of "casual" water sitting around his course: across the fairway on No. 6, in the middle of the fairway on Nos. 9 and 18 and in front of the 15th green. Also, the Twin Pines' driving range has been closed because a third of it is under water.