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Mount Brenton Golf course clean-up requires many hands

Volunteers join staff members to work on piling debris
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Many hands make light work. (Photo by Don Bodger)

There was a show of force unlike anything ever seen on the Mount Brenton Golf Club course last Wednesday.

A massive course clean-up involving staff and members took place the day after New Year’s. It became kind of an unplanned way for the workers to get themselves and the course back into shape following the Dec. 20 wind storm that pounded the area before the holidays.

For the diehard golfer, there wasn’t a longterm effect other than the back nine that remains closed.

The course was only closed on the day of the storm and a few days later before the front nine reopened for play.

“We opened up the front nine on Christmas Eve,” said course superintendent Ernie Whitelaw.

The course is always closed on Christmas Day, but then was open for play again on Boxing Day and it’s been that way ever since, said pro Jan Best.

Best and Eric Butson have been holding down the fort as the only employees in the pro shop at this time of the year.

Club president Art Kendall and Whitelaw spearheaded the cleanup campaign.

“We had over 40 people come and help,” said Best.

It was quite a sight to see such a large group of people scouring the fairways and greens at the back end of the course to pile branches that were strewn all over, completely covering the fairways in some cases - such as on No. 10.

“They’re still cleaning up all that mess,” said Best Tuesday.

“They’re out there with a chipper truck now to get all that debris cleaned up.”

Best said there are still some sizable branches coming down that were stuck in the trees and just loosening up.

It’s not known when the back nine will be completely reopened, but there’s not necessarily a great urgency at this time of the year, Best noted.

“For the middle of January, probably having nine holes open is good enough for most people,” he said.

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Members and grounds crew alike were on hand for a Mount Brenton Golf Club clean-up. (Photo by Don Bodger)
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There were a lot of tree limbs to clean up. (Photo by Don Bodger)
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Broken tree branches are placed into piles. (Photo by Don Bodger)
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It was a tedious process to gather tree branches by hand for staff and volunteer members at the Mount Brenton Golf Club Jan. 2. Rakes and gloves were the primary tools of the trade, with many hands making lighter work at least but still very intensive. (Photos by Don Bodger)
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Rakes and gloves were the primary tools of the trade. (Photo by Don Bodger)


Don Bodger

About the Author: Don Bodger

I've been a part of the newspaper industry since 1980 when I began on a part-time basis covering sports for the Ladysmith-Chemainus Chronicle.
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