AS might have been expected, golf found itself on the top of the hit list during the wrath of Hurricane Fabian.

It's unlikely that any local sport suffered more as each and every one of the island's courses had their own tale of woe to tell.

And as the clean-up continued throughout this week, the enormity of the devastation quickly became apparent.

At Port Royal alone, it was estimated that 300 trees were lost and many more severely damaged.

Little wonder that this weekend's annual Bermuda Mixed Foursomes Championship due to be played at the Southampton course was an immediate casualty with no date set for its rescheduling.

Gayle Kozol, Bermuda Golf Association's newly-installed tournament secretary, was left with little choice but to postpone the event after witnessing with her own eyes the destruction inflicted on Government's most popular track.

"I couldn't believe what I saw," she said earlier this week. "The fairways are just littered with trees and broken branches. It's going to take a major clean-up operation.

"Fortunately, the greens appear ok but the rest of the course is in a terrible state."

Kozol said it was now possible to see the first green from the first tee and the tenth green from the tenth, with the trees that bordered those fairways having fallen victim to Friday's storm.

A question mark must now also hang over the island's premier tournament, the Bermuda Open, due to start on October 17, although Port Royal greenskeepers believe they can make the necessary repairs in time.

It could be another week before Port Royal reopens to the public, and members at Mid Ocean Club at the other end of the island might face a similar wait.

Norman Furtado, course superintendent, reported on Monday that some 200 trees had been lost and there had also been structural damage to the clubhouse.

"It looks like somebody dropped a bomb down here which blew everything to pieces," said Furtado.

"It's an absolute war zone."

While Furtado's staff worked frantically this week to clear the course, workmen moved into the clubhouse overlooking South Shore where large bay windows in the dining room were blown out by Fabian's fury and sections of the roof torn off.

Nearby Tucker's Point might have been luckier, according to general manager Bruce Fraser, who hoped to reopen the course for members by this weekend.

Hit hard by Hurricane Emily 16 years ago, Tucker's Point - then known as Castle Harbour - escaped relatively unscathed this time around.

"We lost a lot of big casuarinas but the course itself has not been that badly damaged," said Fraser.

"We are lucky here because a lot of the course was shielded from the wind.

"We will recover and I expect we will be back in business very soon."

At Belmont Hills, which only reopened earlier this year, John Mason admitted that damage was "less than expected".

As with the rest of the island's courses, a huge amount of trees came down and broken branches could be seen scattered around all corners of the lay-out.

But as Mason pointed out, "none of those trees fell on the tees or the greens.

"If a tree comes down on a green it can be devastating, so I think we were lucky to escape that."

"At the moment it's just a matter of cleaning up," he added. "A lot of trees that came down were palms and they can be replanted.

"The sand traps don't appear to have lost much sand. I think the rain helped pack it down.

"The course is closed until further notice. It's really just a day to day thing, we'll see how the clean-up goes."

Across the rest of the island, at Ocean View, St. George's, Southampton Princess and Riddell's Bay the story was much the same, with most hoping to get back to business once the clean-up is complete.