‘Everything is under water – it’s totally destroyed’

John Harrison’s wife joked his hands had never done a hard day’s work until he took over the reins at Country Golf at the start of July.

But he ploughed himself into renovating and revitalising the old driving range and par-3 course to local acclaim.

Whether that was overhauling the shop and lounge or out cutting fairways and mowing greens, Harrison set about transforming the business.

Over the weekend, though, those efforts were sunk.

Heavy rain lashed Hull and East Yorkshire and left Country Golf submerged under two feet of water.

All 22 acres of the property were deluged after a nearby drain backed up under the torrent.

Ruined!! @countrygolfhull pic.twitter.com/J0uSZtpuYp

— John Harrison (@harrisonjohnboy) October 27, 2019

“We had quite a lot of rainfall on Saturday – about 40 millimetres locally – but we are next to the main Holderness Drain, which takes water from the hillsides around North Yorkshire down to the River Humber,” Harrison explained.

“It looks like the pumps have not been turned on down to the Humber and it’s backed up to our property and flooded us. We have two feet of water across 22 acres of land.

“Everything is under water. It’s totally destroyed. We have 22 new 50 kilogram range mats, which are all floating down the driving range. It’s all of the stock for the pro shop.

“We’ve taken on a full-time PGA professional in James Drinkall and his assistant Stewart Fraser and all of their teaching bay and their teaching facilities have gone.

“All the machinery we have for the golf course is under water as well, plus the driving range, which we had refurbished.

“We have done a massive amount of work on the golf course in the four months and it’s two feet under water.”

The clean up operation began but Harrison was left demoralised when the water came up again over the drain at high tide on Sunday evening – and deposited even more on Country Golf.

“This was totally avoidable,” Harrison claimed. “If the floodgates were opened further down this wouldn’t have happened and it has happened twice in two nights now.

“We are insured. Providing we can move the water, which is the hardest bit, we can start the clean up operation and hopefully start trading in a couple of weeks.

“We felt a little bit out for the count [on Sunday] but we’ve got up with the determination to try and move some of this and crack on. But, unfortunately, we got in this morning and it was six inches higher than yesterday.

“We’ve been pumping all morning and we’re starting to move some water. Hopefully, for the grace of God, it doesn’t come over again tonight.”

Main image from @HarrisonJohnBoy