Love at first sight in the championship of the tour causing 6 injuries

Doug Ferguson, Editor of Ap Golf

Update

22h28 PDT, Saturday 24 August 2019

ATLANTA (AP) – Six people were injured on Saturday during a lightning strike that hit a 60-foot pine in the Tour Championship. They sheltered from the rain and covered them with debris, police said in Atlanta.

The third round of the PGA Tour's end-of-season event was suspended for about 30 minutes due to storms in the area and supporters were asked to seek refuge. The strike touched the top of the tree just off the 16th start and blew the bark down below.

Atlanta's Brad Uhl was crammed under a hospitality tent to the right of the 16th hole that was open to the public.

"There was just a big explosion and then a reply so strong that you could feel the wind," said Uhl after the last of the ambulances pulled out of the golf course. "It was just a flash from the corner of the eye, it was raining and everyone was huddled near the tree."

Uhl said the people on the ground were moving before the ambulances arrived.

Atlanta Police spokesman James H. White III said five men and a young woman were sheltering under a tree struck by lightning. He said that they had been taken to the hospital for further treatment, all alert, aware and breathing.

Ambulances have entered the private club about 10 km east of downtown Atlanta, where 30 players are competing for the FedEx Cup and its $ 15 million prize . The players had already been taken to the club before lightning and shortly after, East Lake was hit by a thunderclap.

Mark Russell, Vice President of Rules and Competitions for the PGA Tour, said two lightning bolts were occurring in the maintenance area and in the 16th hole tree.

Justin Thomas, who had a one-hit lead over five holes when the game was interrupted, said the players were eating in the clubhouse when "we had the impression that everything the club was shaken "after the thunderclap.

"The first time I heard about it, it was from one of my friends who had come to watch," Thomas said. "He said" Dude, I think someone was hit by lightning right next to us. "And then the news started to spread."

Thomas said that he had left tickets for another friend who was on the other side of the place where the tree had been touched.

The PGA tour canceled the rest of the golf on Saturday and the round will resume at 8 am on Sunday, followed by the final.

Russell stated that signs were posted on the bulletin boards indicating that the severe weather was approaching.

"When we suspend the game, we encourage everyone to leave and go to the shelter wherever they can," Russell said. "We have open well anchored reception areas, many other similar places, you have a lot of people, you have to do it quickly and sometimes people do not shelter."

The start times of the third round were moved back more than two hours and ended at 19 hours. on NBC Sports. Russell said they were aware of the forecast storms, but he described them as "instant storms".

"We have a meteorologist on site, we can monitor that," he said. "And often we are lucky and we are not struck by thunderstorms, especially when it's a situation where they are pop-ups like that."

Last week at the BMW Championship in suburban Chicago, Phil Mickelson was delayed to go to the golf course when lightning hit the top of his hotel, causing evacuation as a precaution.

Lightning has not killed PGA Tour sanctioned events since the summer of 1991. A man was killed and five others were injured by lightning at the US Open in Hazeltine, near Minneapolis. Two months later, a man was struck and killed by lightning who headed to his car during a late storm at the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick, in Indiana.

Retief Goosen was struck by lightning as a teenager in South Africa. He survived and won two American Open. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in June.

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