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Six people were injured at the East Lake Golf Club on Saturday when lightning struck a tree near the southern end of the course. The incident occurred within 30 minutes of stopping the third round of the PGA Tour Championship for weather reasons.
The PGA Tour has released an updated statement on the crash Sunday:
The Atlanta Police Department and the Atlanta Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that five people were injured and transported to nearby hospitals; a sixth person was treated and released at the scene. All were released from the hospital last night.
The safety and well-being of our fans and our players is our top priority, and we were with those who were treated until they were released from hospitals in the area. We are deeply grateful that the injuries are no more serious and we are proud of the on-site team's collective efforts to quickly take care of our fans during this frightening incident.
In addition, last night late afternoon, officials were brought on site to assess the integrity of the attacked pine and determined that it was safe. In addition, several ShotLink equipment parts were damaged by lightning and were replaced during the night.
CNN was able to get in touch with one of the injured spectators, who described how the experience had been felt:
Rumors of bad weather arriving in the afternoon swirled throughout the region all day Saturday, but the circuit championship continued as planned. They started at 1 pm, with Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas, the two leaders of the competition, taking off at 3:20 pm. Mark Russell, Vice President of Rules and Competitions for the PGA Tour, more or less told ESPN that, although they know about storms, officials played the same probabilities of deciding to let play.
"We had a situation where there were local storms," said Mark Russell, vice president of rules and competitions for the PGA Tour. "We have a meteorologist among our staff. We can monitor that. And often, we are lucky and we are not hit by thunderstorms, especially when it comes to making pop-ups like that.
"That's what we faced. So, let's see if we can deal with it. We can suspend the game and keep the players away if that happens, but we are often on the positive side, hoping to play golf and be lucky not to be on the way to these storms. "
When asked why departure times had not been increased much earlier in the day, Russell said, "I think if we did this every time we had thunderstorms in the southeast, we would would do practically every time we play golf. "
The third round resumed Sunday at 8 am and the fourth will continue in the afternoon, as originally planned.
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