A top golf consultant, here at the request of Government to assess tourism potential, believes Fabian has done the sport's pulling power to the Island no harm at all.

International Management Group (IMG), whose clients include Tiger Woods and Venus and Serena Williams, was employed by the Ministry of Tourism to carry out a three-month study into the shape of Bermuda's golf product, recommend improvements, and market the sport.

And Roddy Carr, who braved the ravages of Friday's hurricane in the Oxford Guest House, Hamilton, will still be submitting his report at the end of the month as planned, with Fabian not affecting his assessment of the Island's courses.

"They seemed to have survived extremely well," said Mr. Carr, managing director of IMG Tourism and himself a former pro on the European and African circuits.

"I was in Hong Kong for a hurricane and the courses sustained much worse damage there. Mid-Ocean took by far the worst of it, with the damage to its clubhouse, but the others escaped any serious structural damage.

"Obviously a lot of trees went down but there is no long-term damage anywhere. My report will still be going in at the end of the month and nothing that has happened in the last few days is going to change anything in it."

His company was hired on a $45,000 contract to provide an action plan by September 30 to plan, market and promote golf in Bermuda.

It will also set goals for revenue from golf over the next three to five years, proposing a branding, and completing an audit on the quality of the Island's courses.

And Mr. Carr believes the loss of trees, widespread across the Island's courses, may even be a positive thing for golfers.

"The tree-trimming process was achieved in just one day," he told The Royal Gazette. "Where you have two or three large trees shading a green, it can inhibit growth.

"Having fewer trees may not necessarily be that bad a thing, it can only help with the conditioning of the courses in the long run.

"The staff on all the courses here have done an amazing job and there is no reason why the push for more golf trade on the Island shouldn't continue.

"The hurricane has really changed very little. Some courses, like Ocean View, were quite lucky because a lot of the trees fell on to bushes rather than on to the fairways."

Port Royal was the worst affected on the tree front, losing around 400, with Mid-Ocean losing around half that and suffering a damaged clubhouse. The others all suffered some tree loss although no courses reported serious damage to their layouts, with greens and tees remaining largely unaffected.

Many of the courses are unsure when they will re-open, although some may be able to offer golf this weekend others will remain shut for a couple of weeks.

The golf tourism market is worth $19.5 billion in the US alone, with golfers typically spending three times as much during their holidays as other tourists which explains why the Ministry of Tourism has booked a stall at the world's largest golf holiday trade show, the International Association of Golf Tour Operators, in the US in December.

Mr. Carr said the exclusivity of Bermuda would provide an ideal resort for these sort of travellers with its top class hotels, restaurants and shops.

Mr. Carr has been on the Island for three ten-day trips compiling this report and has played all of the courses, although not during this visit for obvious reasons.