Growing up in Kansas, there are things that are drilled into your head from a very young age.
Don’t go outside during a tornado warning, don’t go outside during a hailstorm, and for gosh sakes, get out of the pool when it’s raining.
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11a If a player’s ball in motion accidentally hits any person or outside influence:
- There is no penalty to any player.
- This is true even if the ball hits the player, the opponent or any other player or any of their caddies or equipment.
And you either play the ball where it lies unless it’s on the animal or outside influence. Then you just place the ball within one club length of where it came to rest and count it as one stroke.
Strangely, there’s no rule for if your ball is destroyed during the process …
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Growing up in Ohio I learned that if there’s a tornado warning, go outside to check out the weird green-gray sky!
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This is Top Golf and not an open field. Balls are hit from inside a metal structure that’s pretty well grounded, so maybe it’s not quite that risky. They do say you can play in rain or shine. https://topgolf.com/assets/galleries/11375/15763_targets-topgolf-san-antonio.jpg
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I guess because the driving part is “indoors” that negates the risk? If not, Jesus, what to open yourself up to lawsuits.
Lightning doesn’t travel straight down so as long as you’re exposed to the sky there is a probability of getting hit
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Right. I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable holding a metal rod that close to the outside. But also, maybe they have lightning rods that are supposed to be better targets? Although clearly, not every time.
I just know on a golf course people would have packed it in. But not sure if they don’t pack it in because the risk has been mitigated, or if they are stupid.
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Looks like Boston.
And definitely don’t perform songs about how the lightning put you off your game. Nobody likes a Thor Luther.
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Amazing it struck the golf ball and not the golfer. He must have been using a one iron. Cause even God can’t hit a one iron.
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Well, these “driving ranges” are several stories tall and there is a bar behind the line of golfers on every floor (and a private bar on the roof). That probably has something to do with it.
Same growing up in Ohio.
I’ll never forget one time when I had first moved out here to CA, and there was a thunderstorm (which was very uncommon weather out here.)
A bunch of young adults in my co-op thought it was a great idea to go up on the roof and watch - you know I stayed my ass inside near a window where I could see them and still easily call for the EMT’s (no cell phone back then.)
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Airplanes are designed to channel lightning strikes through the outer aluminum skin to an extremity such as the tail, where its exits again – which is why you see the bolt discharge from the opposite side of the plane in the example footage they provided above. I believe the footage showed the strike hitting one of the poles holding up the nets that surround the driving range, which are thoroughly grounded.
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Reminds me of those crazy apocryphal hurricane party stories. What is it about rooftop gatherings that causes folks to ignore the danger?
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No clue.
Some people seem to think they are invincible… until reality eventually checks them with the reminder that they are NOT.
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If the lightning hit a pole, it one in the back of the course – per google earth, that’s about 800’ from the tee – there would have more of a delay with the thunder.
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Most curious indeed. I’d’ve thought the Scots of all peoples* would have considered such a thing.
*Disclaimer: My paternal grandfather’s father was a Highlander.
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Is there any footage showing that the young lad ever hit a golf ball at all? Maybe he was just doing a test swing that coincided with a nearby lightning strike?
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Selfies under a tree are quite impressive as well:
Molesey Lock: Lightning-strike selfie lands siblings in hospital - BBC News
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