Dallas' Keeton Park Golf Course is struggling with flooding from leaks

DALLAS – Sand traps have turned into mud traps at Keeton Park Golf Course in Dallas.

Golfers say the municipal golf course on N. Jim Miller Road has experienced standing puddles and soggy ground in recent months due to running water.

Mesquite Mayor Pro Tem BW Smith played in Keeton once a week for years.

He took FOX 4 on a tour of the damp course.

“It's flooding the cart path, but this is a problem that's been going on for months and months and months,” he said. “It's rampant everywhere on the golf course where there's water, and we haven't had a good rain in thirty days.”

Smith isn't the only one who noticed.

“We assume that it cannot be caused by the sprinkler system. Something is broken or something because it never goes away. Even when conditions get really, really dry, the water is constantly draining,” said golfer Randy Fast.

Smith says he has called the city of Dallas several times without receiving a response.

“[I] I spoke to a lady and she transferred me to another lady I spoke to and I told her again who I was and why I was calling about the water that flows all over Keeton Golf Course , and no one ever called me back. I've called that number a few times since then and I don't get an answer, it just rings,” Smith said.

In some places it appears that work on a leak started but then stopped. The grass growth around it suggests that work has been stopped for some time.

“There’s no way that should be the case for a golfer, and when you look at it, man, that’s a man-made obstacle,” Smith said. “When something like this is man-made and we try to correct it and nothing is done, it’s frustrating.”

John Jenkins, director of Dallas Parks and Rec, told FOX 4 Thursday afternoon this is the first complaint he has heard about the Keeton plaza.

Jenkins said the course was built in 1979 and has an old irrigation system that causes leaks.

He said the city feels the urgency to make repairs, but it's not unusual to repair one leak and have another leak.

Jenkins says the city isn't neglecting golfers' experiences or losing city water. Water for the golf course's irrigation system comes from the Trinity River.