NZ: Hororata Golf Club overtaken by flood waters – closed for weeks
The course at Glentunnel, 35 minutes drive west of Christchurch, was overwhelmed by flooded Selwyn River as heavy rain drenched Canterbury on Sunday.
“It’s pretty devastating when you see it like that,” Bell, a greenkeeper at the course, said.
“The course will be closed for weeks.”
Bell said he and a number of volunteers had done a lot of work planting natives and putting bark chip down. All their work was now probably lost.
Getting clean-up assistance
“It’s Mother Nature doing what she does best,” he said.
“You just have to stand back and look at it and think, ‘that’s pretty impressive’.”
Bell has already been contacted by several fellow greenkeepers offering to help with the cleanup.
The Selwyn River breached its banks at the golf course about four years ago, he said, but this time the damage was worse.
Selwyn District Council and Environment Canterbury had done a lot of work in recent years to prevent the river crossing onto the course, but club president Nicky Muir said this time it breached at a different point.
“It’s gut-wrenching,” Muir said.
The club, which has 190 members, is due to celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.
Muir said Bell had put a lot of work into the club over the past five years, but they were all facing a big clean up now.
Source: Stuff
