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Residents, Detroit Golf Club deal with storm damage ahead of tournament

Detroit Golf Club storm damage
Posted at 3:51 PM, Jun 26, 2023
and last updated 2023-06-26 18:14:40-04

DETROIT (WXYZ) — The Rocket Mortgage Classic tees off this week at Detroit Golf Club. All day Monday, crews continued cleaning up storm damage from Sunday's high winds.

Large trees are uprooted. Tree branches are broken and laying on the course where some of the best golfers around prepare to compete.

Cameras weren’t allowed on the course Monday. However, the media representative 7 Action News spoke with said there is no damage to any permanent structure, and tees and putting greens are fine.

Lastly, temporary structures set up for the tournament are being checked to make sure they haven’t been compromised.

Mother Nature doesn't care about property lines. The Parnell family, who lives along the course, is also dealing with the aftermath. They've got a brand new generator going to power their home.

“It almost seemed like it was a small, mini-tornado or so," Bryant Parnell told 7 Action News.

He lives on the 6th hole on the south course where the storm caused part of the tree in his neighbor’s yard to crash onto his wrought iron fence.

“I just thought my umbrella was going to blow away until I got outside, and then this (broken tree) hadn’t happened yet," Parnell explained.

"And then I walked back around figuring I got my umbrella and figured everything was OK. I saw the debris outside by my pool and stuff like that. But then later on maybe about half hour to 40 minutes later, I walked back out and I saw all this."

Parnell said his next call is to the insurance company.

Rodney Harris said, “This one was a big one here as you can see. That was from last year around this same time.”

Harris helps the property owner two doors down from the Parnells. Like their yard, limbs also fell from the trees into that backyard and damaging the fencing that was set up for the event.

“Right before the tournament. Isn’t that crazy? Well, hopefully it won’t happen tonight. You know, we won’t have any strong winds come through here and just start, do it all over again," he said.