KAPOLEI — A tornado that stretched several hundred feet into the air touched down and ripped through a section of the Kapolei Golf Course yesterday afternoon, sending a course employee to the hospital and damaging the facility.

Witnesses said the tornado materialized about 1 p.m. in the employee parking lot on the Waipahu side of the golf facility. Within a matter of minutes, it had flung a maintenance cart into a tractor, tore roofing tiles off the clubhouse roof and scooped up tree limbs, branches and leaves and water from a lake.

It appeared to weaken and dissipate after causing some damage at the Kekuilani Villas townhouse condos next to the golf course.

The injured employee, Kapolei assistant pro Neil Bernard, was released from Hawaii Medical Center West a few hours after a gust apparently blew him against a glass door as he was trying to exit the clubhouse. Bernard suffered what appeared to be a slight concussion, a sore hip and possibly whiplash, said Ken Terao, his supervisor.

The National Weather Service preliminarily categorized the event as an EF0 rating tornado, with winds estimated at 65 to 85 mph, said Robert Ballard, science and operations officer for the Honolulu office.

"In this case, we had some strong thunderstorms that developed over the center part of the island and moved south, and as they moved south, the shifting winds along the boundary that they moved south on caused a brief tornado," he said.

Terao, the Kapolei golf operations manager and head golf pro, said he and another employee were in front of the administrative building off to the side of the clubhouse watching another tornado in the distance and trying to determine whether to close their course when they saw a smaller one form nearby in the employee parking lot.

"It almost seemed like it went from the ground up," Terao said.

When they ran into the small, wooden administration building, they saw a maintenance cart lifted and flung about 20 yards into a small tractor, Terao said.

At that point, he said, he called his course marshal to quickly direct the golfers, numbering about 150, into the clubhouse and close the course.

Terao said Bernard, in his 30s, was walking out the door of the clubhouse to aid a woman who appeared to be in distress outside when Bernard was blown back. Bernard was "walking and talking" for a bit, but then became unconscious for a while, at which point an ambulance was called.

"He said it picked him up and threw him backward," Terao said of Bernard, whom he described as 6-feet-1 and 250 pounds.

After ripping some tiles from the roof of the clubhouse, the tornado headed to the lake where it picked up water, making it even larger. It then proceeded through the course, ripping up trees, limbs and branches along the 11th, 13th, 14th and 15th holes, Terao said.

He said the base of the tornado was about 15 to 20 feet around with a "dust halo" around it. After absorbing water from the lake, it began to rain "and once it dissipated, the sky cleared up," he said. "It was exactly what you would see in the movies.

"It was probably over in a matter of minutes. The main thing I'm happy about is everyone got off the course OK."

Brandon Page, who shot photos of the tornado from the far end of the course, said it appeared to rise 300 to 500 feet into the air. "We thought it was smoke at the beginning," he said.

"One of the guys we were with said he saw a duck picked up."

Milton Aifili was working outside at the Kapolei Medical Park on Farrington Highway about 1 p.m. when he saw what he thought was a line of smoke about a quarter-mile away toward the golf course.

"I thought it was smoke from a fire, but it got bigger and bigger and I saw rubbish flying around," Aifili said. "The smoke was dirt."

Lauren Davis, an 'Ewa resident, was at a stoplight at the corner of Farrington Highway and Fort Barrette Road when she saw the funnel cloud, which she said was the size of a house.

"It touched down on Farrington Highway," Davis said. "It was really cool. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I've seen these before in Texas, but I've never seen one touch the ground."

The state gets one to two tornadoes a year, Ballard said. Yesterday's was the 11th reported since 2000. The last occurred Dec. 13 on Kaua'i near Hanap'p', Ballard said. Before that, there was one on Lana'i in 2006.