By Tim Seyfert

After seven months without an operational golf course, the Los Altos Golf & Country Club is expected to reopen its fairways in October on completion of a major renovation project that will replace the course’s aged and ravaged underground drainage system, as well as add a few new features.

The $7.2 million makeover began in April in response to storm overflows that had been flooding the course over the past six years due to overgrown roots that clogged the drainpipes.

“Oftentimes, after a heavy storm, we’d get a river on the course that wasn’t supposed to be there,” said Brian Inkster, the club’s golf director. “It was especially a problem when it would delay playing times for a day or more.”

The new drainage system is designed to allow the fairways to drain more quickly and be more resistant to clogging, thus allowing golfers to play sooner after a storm.

Along with replacing the course’s underground piping, which Inkster said hadn’t been touched since the 1940s, club officials decided the course needed a complete face lift above ground.

Every blade of grass has been replaced, a creek that snakes through the grounds has been restored, and a new lake has been built for the purpose of adding more scenery and challenge to the course.

“It’s like remodeling a home,” Inkster said. “You start with one thing and then you end up changing the whole house. It’s needed it for a while.”

Since construction began nearly five months ago, club members have been teeing off at nearby golf clubs at reduced rates.

The Los Altos Golf & Country Club, located at 1560 Country Club Drive, features an 18-hole, 6,534-yard course.