two weeks' time, escaped serious damage as Hurricane Gert brushed Bermuda yesterday.

And that came as a big relief to club officials as they prepare for another influx of top talent from the PGA, LPGA and Senior PGA tours.

Clean up will begin this morning on the Tucker's Town course and vice president of Mid Ocean, Michael Dunkley, expects it will be back to normal very quickly.

"We're in good shape,'' Dunkley said yesterday after surveying minor damage which included a downed tree.

"We were very fortunate, but that goes for everybody on the Island. The only problem we have is a bit of the wall on the fourth tee has eroded away. But that's a very minimal job and with the skill of the guys we have I don't see a problem there.

"We will probably close the course down in the morning and then open it up at lunch time and most people won't even know we had a hurricane.

One cliffside home near the course partially collapsed as the east end suffered most from the high winds.

"We can all recall hurricanes in the past,'' said Dunkley. "I can remember 1987 when we had Emily and we lost hundreds of trees on the course and that changed the character of the golf course. We just managed to build that up by planting over the last couple of years.'' Dunkley said all systems were go for the October 5 Challenge with the 24 players confirmed and television crews ready to provide coverage for broadcast of the event during the Thanksgiving weekend in November.