A HELICOPTER has helped move 80 tonnes of rock to rebuild the seventh hole at Shipley golf club.

The hole was severely damaged in the Boxing Day floods after Harden Beck burst its banks, washing away a large chunk of the green there.

Today, a helicopter was deployed to carry 80 rocks all weighing around a tonne each to the seventh green to rebuild the hole and help protect it against potential flooding in the future.

Glyn Brown, the director of greens at the club in Beckfoot Lane, Bingley, said bringing in a chopper had been a light-hearted suggestion at first.

"Using a helicopter started as a joke, but after we looked into the prices it was actually quite a favourable option.

"The seventh green is the furthest point on the course from the car park, so to use wagons to transport the rocks would have been a nightmare.

"We had to do something because if we had not protected the green we would only have 17 holes, and the seventh is our signature hole, bordered by the beck."

The rocks will reinforce the banking over the summer months and the golf club will have bushes and other greenery planted in September to recreate the original hole.

Mr Brown said the work cost around £22,000 and the helicopter transported the rocks and completed the work in the space of just a few hours.

"We pre-prepared all the rocks, drilling and shaping them so all the helicopter had to do was drop them into place," he said.