BEATRICE, Neb - Golf courses are often known for their big trees, making the course look nice, but also play challenging. However, when a severe storm rolls through, it can lead to trouble.

That was the case for Hidden Acres in Beatrice, after a morning storm rolled through the area on Saturday bringing 80 MPH winds, torrential rain, and isolated spots of hail.

Pro shop manager Kris Shepard says the damage was worse than expected.

“It just downpours really good, then the winds came, it threw everything around, and after we went out and evaluated it was much worse than what we were thinking.”

The storm knocked down trees, ball washers, and scattered limbs and branches around the course. Most damage occurred on the front nine. The event also cancelled the Beatrice Wrestling Golf Tournament scheduled for Saturday. Shepard says canceling weekend events can be a blow to course business.

“Tournament days are very very good,” Shepard said. “Especially on a nice July day.”

After the storm rolled through and damage was assessed, the call went out for help. Hidden Acres reached out to members and volunteers on Facebook seeking assistance for a Sunday morning cleanup. A large group went out to help, which Shepard said showed the dedication of Hidden Acres members.

“It was very very refreshing,” Shepard said. “The number of members that came out and extended their help like that… We had a lot of members bring out skid loaders to get the big damage, we had a lot of trees uprooted… Without those members, a lot of it would not have gotten done.”

Thanks to the generosity of those helping out on Sunday, Hidden Acres won’t have to shut down. While work still needs to be done, the course is playable, and weekly league play will go on as scheduled.

“There’s still some limbs and trees down, try to avoid those, but over the next few weeks it’ll get completely cleaned up,” Shepard said. “Hopefully in the next couple weeks we get some of the big big trees taken out.”