Grey Bruce Golf News

Close calls at two area clubs

F2 tornado causes only minor damage at Markdale club

This photo was taken by Francis Botko, a student at The Georgian Bay Club's Golf Academy, on Aug. 20, 2009 as an F2 tornado passed by the Thornbury-area golf club.

By STEVE HARRON Grey-Bruce Golf

The Georgian Bay Club's Megan Chapman has had an exciting golf season, but not even her best round in 2009 can match the excitement of being an eyewitness to an F2 tornado.

The Thornbury resident was working at her club's Golf Academy with academy director Laird White and fellow staffer G.W. King on Aug. 20 when she saw a strange orange colour in the sky and felt a sudden shift in the wind direction.

After noticing what appeared to be a funnel cloud in the distance, she took cover in a small brick building that serves as the administration area for the academy. As the twister came into full view she grabbed the academy's video camera and began filming through a window. As it moved closer she started to fear for the safety of herself and the others, including five academy students.

"I started to get really scared. I thought maybe we should take cover but there was nowhere to go. The building doesn't have a basement and we didn't have enough time to get to the clubhouse," she said.

In the video, which was posted as "Tornado at The Georgian Bay Club" on www.youtube.com, you can hear her say "Oh my God, it's going right over the clubhouse."

While it may have appeared the tornado was bearing down on the clubhouse, it actually hit about two kilometres to the east at The Georgian Peaks Ski Club where it caused significant damage to club buildings and nearby chalets. Chapman stayed in the building until the tornado passed then went outside to continue filming it. She said the winds were calm in the wake of the tornado, which dissipated over Georgian Bay after touching down at the ski club. While the course escaped with no damage, club officials, responding to tornado warnings, had to scramble to get tournament participants off the course. They were able to get everyone inside by the time the twister passed by. At the end of the You Tube video you see the twister moving away from the club and you can hear excited male voices saying "That was crazy, that was wild, I've got goose bumps." Chapman isn't sure who was saying what in the video but she knows it was a very tense few minutes as they watched the tornado pass by.

Earlier that day the twister touched down in Markdale, causing an estimated $2 million in damage but leaving Markdale Golf & Curling Club relatively unscathed even though it was in the direct path of the tornado.

General manager Shawna Phillips said the course lost about half a dozen trees and numerous tree limbs and had some minor damage to the outside of the main building, which houses both the clubhouse and a curling rink.

The tornado caused extensive damage along George Street, which is directly to the west of the club, and in Markdale Cemetery, which is south of the course and runs along the 5th hole.

Phillips said it appears the twister basically hopscotched over the course, touching down only at the 5th and 6th holes in the far back corner. The most severe damage was at the sixth tee box where a number of trees were pulled out of the ground and a tree lifted from somewhere else was driven into the ground by the high winds.

No one was on the course at the time. One group wanted to play but decided not to because power carts weren't available, Phillips said.

"We were very lucky, that's the bottom line," she said.

The same storm spawned a tornado in Durham which caused an estimated $10 million in damage and killed an 11-year-old boy.