Playing golf in a thunderstorm?

What if you're playing a round of golf and it stards raining with thunder and lightning?

Surely carrying around metal golf clubs isn't safe?

You get to shelter as soon as possible. Golf clubs make for great lightning rods, as do you.

I know this thread might seem strangely random, but we've been having some thunderstorms lately and I wanted to go and play. Just wondering what you're supposed to do? Just drop your clubs and step away from them, or grab them and run inside or something?

Always best to be prepared imo

Has it ever happened to anyone here, or do they know of it happening?

I don't think carrying your clubs will make you more of a target than you already are. Lightning typically goes for the highest point, which would be the top of your head. Just dropping your clubs and stepping away will not necessarily make you safe. Best thing to do is high-tail it to the nearest shelter.

Happens all the time here. Enough so that some courses monitor local radar all day during monsoon season. My experience is they will call you off the course with an air horn long before the danger is close. But it really depends on what the storm is doing. Last Sat we played late afternoon and the forecast was clear. By the time we got to the course some dark clouds had rolled in. We heard thunder in the distance and there were a few light showers but never any lightning until the end of the round. I was on 17 at the time and the wind started blowing hard so we bee lined back to the shop, I blazed right past the slow old folks in front of us who elected to try and finish 18.

In just the time it took to get from the 18 tee to the clubhouse everyone on the course was either in front of the club house or in the process of bailing out. The pro shop lost power so the PA was inop. Pretty scary stuff. More than the lightning it would have been crazy to be out there in the wind, funnel clouds were spotted in the area. That storm moved too fast to call people in and they don't use radar there, the Sat afternoon staff is just kids. In the time it took me to drive home 7 miles south it was over and it was sunny again.

Get some graphite shafts and a rubber hat.

Never golf when there is lightning in the area!

Lightning usually arrives before the rain..........dead golfers are rarely wet..............

If this is a dumb question, then just remember I come from southern California where it doesn't rain ... and you can forget about thunderstorms.

If a lightning storm breaks out "all of a sudden" then would you be better off high-tailing it to shelter, perhaps across a few open fairways if you are far from the clubhouse, or would it be better to "hide" under a tree?

(Our version of this would be whether or not to bust ass outside when the earthquake hits, or if you aren't near an opening, just get in a doorway) :)

I am a golf course supt. if i hear thunder or see a cell coming I get my guys off the course asap. raking a bunker or mowing a fairway isnt worth dying for. the marshalls will sound air horns for the golfer but sadly some wont heed the warning.

The bad thing is that I can't hear the thunder when I'm on the tractor and many times I'm the only one there.

Yesterday there was a huge storm coming in, it was about twenty minutes away and I had five holes left. I was walking, and am a really quick player. It was pitch black to the northwest, but I was five under par; I had to try and finish. But there whet these two guys that could not even hit the golf ball, and where really stuck up and wouldn't let be pass. I makes my ball in 15 fairway and literally out ran the storm. When I got in the club house the storm hit, the wind was almost lifting the carts, and there was lightning real close. The two guys ahead of me where still playing golf

I know how that goes.

Honestly the best thing to do is hold your 1 iron in the air.  Even God can't hit a 1 iron.

I was an assistant superintendent, and if I could hear thunder I would get all the guys off the course, also. That is the way I do it when I play. It always blows my mind when players stay on the course too long.

Most courses here highlight the shelters on the course by marking it on the scorecard diagram. It's no mistake more often than not that shelter is the head, if they built a brick building. That's how you can tell if you're on an older course. The latter usually has a pavilion on each side, rod on top with copper ground, some sheds divided into quarters to offer four sides of protection. You pass the structures as you make your way around.