The report by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources said Bass Pro Shops, which owns the Top of the Rock Golf Course, should fill the sinkhole with rocks and install a plastic liner on top of the clay barrier to prevent future sinkholes, The Springfield News Leader reported (http://sgfnow.co/1MRH2pl).

The sinkhole, estimated to be about 60 feet in diameter and 30 to 40 feet deep, formed in the early hours of May 22. The pond was built on the golf course’s driving range.

The department also found four smaller “collapse/settlement areas” near the main sinkhole, three of them beneath artificial turf.

Martin MacDonald, Bass Pro’s director of conservation, said Bass Pro is “excited about the sinkhole and the geology beneath it.” But he declined to elaborate about what ongoing investigations at the site might have revealed. A week after the sinkhole formed, MacDonald said water flowing into the sinkhole had made its way into a cave on the property.

“We’re preparing an update on the sinkhole and we will have some exciting news to share soon,” he said in a statement.

The DNR report indicates the northern section of Top of the Rock Golf Course was built “in a collapsed structure that previously contained a sinkhole pond” on either side of U.S. 65. The sinkhole formed about 1,000 feet south of that sinkhole structure, according to the report.

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Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.news-leader.com.