Lightning hits Golfer and Golf cart

Saw this at another forum.. S'pore has very high occurrence of lightning , so better be aware..

"Lightning hits a golf bag


What can happen to golfers who wait it out !
A man got hit by lightning Monday morning on a golf course in Madison , WI . The following are pics of what was left of his bag. Please pass this along to your golfing buddies. Read the what the policeman says, then take a look at the pictures.

I have been a police officer for 18 yrs and have seen a lot of gruesome and disturbing scenes (if you can imagine it, I have probably seen a variation of it) ... This one was different because it hits close to home and some of us have been in this situation.

This 75 year old golfer (no pictures of him) was out on the course with 3 other retired guys for a regular weekly tee time, and the weather forecast didn't even predict rain at 10pm the night before.
They teed off and got around to the back nine when it started to rain, and when there was a little lightning way off in the distance so they headed in. They waited under a tree half way in when the rain became very heavy. When it let up a little bit three of them then continued in but one guy decided to wait it out under a 50' pine with an overhang of 10' while standing next to his bag.
Minutes later a lightning bolt struck his bag and push cart as he was holding onto one of his clubs killing him instantly.
On the top of the first photo you will see what was left of his driver ... Also in a later photo are little brown clumps which used to be golf balls.
Most of the items in the bag simply disintegrated from the heat and intense initial zap - including the labels to his ping irons and Cleveland woods (which all popped off). The electricity burned holes into the bottoms of the clubs.
The strange thing is the tree under which he was standing had no sign of a lightning strike. The bolt literally went sideways under the tree to the golf clubs.
Lesson to be learned - If you are caught out on the course or water ... Distance yourself from anything metal OR graphite.
(Did you know that lightning rods are often made of graphite?)
Put your cart 50' away from you! When you see lightning off in the distance GO IN IMMEDIATELY, DON'T WAIT."

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2009/post-76902-1245384684-1.jpg

scary.........

everything becomes "chao-ta"

Are you sure this is for real?

Anyway, I have a friend who was playing in JB not too long ago when lightning struck and killed 2 of his friends in the same flight. The mental trauma is unbelievable. When it rains, seek shelter ASAP! Golf clubs, bag, game etc can be re-bought/replayed some other time. Safety is paramount.

Technospaz wrote:

Are you sure this is for real?

Anyway, I have a friend who was playing in JB not too long ago when lightning struck and killed 2 of his friends in the same flight. The mental trauma is unbelievable. When it rains, seek shelter ASAP! Golf clubs, bag, game etc can be re-bought/replayed some other time. Safety is paramount.

Sir, i saw this at another forum... this type of thing don't joke want lah.....

Lamts18 wrote:

Technospaz wrote:

Are you sure this is for real?

Anyway, I have a friend who was playing in JB not too long ago when lightning struck and killed 2 of his friends in the same flight. The mental trauma is unbelievable. When it rains, seek shelter ASAP! Golf clubs, bag, game etc can be re-bought/replayed some other time. Safety is paramount.

Sir, i saw this at another forum... this type of thing don't joke want lah.....

Just asking cause the damage to the clubs/bag etc looks so unreal. I agree, no joking about this. Painful.

Update
See this thread where people are wondering if the damage was from a fire rather than lightning (though the story is real, the pics may not be).

Anyway, more pics here:

http://www.stracka.com/golf-blogs/blogs_post.asp?id=3671092

Retief Goosen has been struck twice... Lee Trevino once.... Thats where the 1 iron comment came from...

"if you are ever in a thunder storm hold up your 1 iron, cos even God cannot hit a 1 iron"

shorthitter wrote:

Retief Goosen has been struck twice... Lee Trevino once.... Thats where the 1 iron comment came from...

"if you are ever in a thunder storm hold up your 1 iron, cos even God cannot hit a 1 iron"

SH, this is a good one Goosen and Trevino must be holding a putter when the lighting strike them, because even god have problem with the putter some of the day.

Aside from the "no joke" part, this 75 years old man is good! He is using an 8.5* driver!!!

By Jove! He must have offended the gods on Mount Olympus.

(If U understand this, U R smarter than I am.)

That's what U get for being in Wisconsin in the first place instead of playing golf in better states like Illinois, Indiana or Michigan! (Just joking! It's US regional humour.)

Note: 100,000 volts ain't something to fool around with.

SEA is also a high lightening strike region.

CK

In case people are wondering... if you are struck by lightning, you won't die from the pain. Instead, your heart will stop. Well, that's what I've been told.

Wonder if it could be the origins of 'spontenous human combustion' (SHC) incidences?

Weird and terrifying at the same time.

Be worried if you ever see a small blue-coloured flame appear anywhere on your body for no reason. Wihin minutes, you could be reduced to ashes in broad daylight and without being anywhere near fire!

Do an Internet search to see the results!


CK

35 dead as lightning strikesJune 30, 2009 - 9:24AM
At least 35 people including eight children were killed after they were struck by lightning in the adjoining eastern Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand, officials said.

Around 18 people were killed late on Sunday by bolts of lightning across Bihar, including six children, State Disaster Management Minister Devesh Chand Thakur said.

"The children were playing in the pre-monsoon showers when lightning struck them," Thakur said from the state capital Patna.


Mr Thakur also told local media most of the victims were either farmers or the homeless who were outdoors.


Twelve others who were injured were taken to hospital, he said.

Torrential rains accompanied by strong winds uprooted trees, damaged houses and brought down power cables across the impoverished state on Sunday night, he said.

In neighbouring Jharkhand, 17 people including two children were killed by lightning strikes, also late on Sunday night, a disaster management spokesman said in the capital Ranchi.

Lightning strikes during the June-September monsoon season are common, with villagers housed in bamboo-and-grass huts most at risk of death and injury.

Earlier this month nine people from villages in the Vadodara region died on a single day after a series of lightning strikes.

Jaswant Wajisinh Baria, a farmer, was sleeping under a tree when a bolt of lightning struck his thatched house, killing him instantly, the Indian Express reported.

His wife, Sumitra, suffered burns at several places and needed treatment, while Baria’s three-year-old buffalo was also killed, the paper said.

In the last two years, about 60 people have died from lightning strikes each year in the state of Jharkhand alone.


In the state of Orissa, about 250 people lost their lives to lightning each year, and the "death roll" was rising, Padmanabha Behera, under-secretary with the office of Special Relief Commissioner, told The Hindu.

Globally, about 100,000 people are injured and 10,000 people killed by lightning - more than the number killed by floods, hurricanes or tornadoes - the British weather bureau, the Met Office, says.

The US National Weather Service says the odds of a person being struck by lightning are one in 5000.

Lightning hotspots in the world include central Africa and near the Himalayas, National Geographic magazine says.

AFP and Arjun Ramachandran

Benjamin Franklin was extremely lucky he was not zapped!

CK

clarencekim wrote:

Benjamin Franklin was extremely lucky he was not zapped!

CK

He was trying to on purpose.....