tour-lightning-saturday.jpg
USATSI

On a day when greatness was expected to be on display at the 2019 Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club, a dangerous, critical situation emerged instead. During a weather delay halfway through Round 3, multiple people were injured when lightning struck a tree near the 16th hole of the golf course.

Ambulances and first aid quickly arrived at the scene and treated six fans, including one child, according to FOX5. Most accounts describe the injured as "alert" and no casualties have been reported. The PGA Tour also noted that the situation at the moment does not appear to be life-threatening for anyone. 

At 4:45 p.m., there were two lightning strikes at East Lake Golf Club; a tree near the range/15 green/16 tee was hit, and debris from that strike injured four people. EMT tended to those fans and two others immediately and transported them from the property via ambulance for further medical attention. Our latest report is that their injuries do not appear to be life-threatening.

They confirmed this on Sunday as everyone was released from the hospital.

PGA Tour officials called play for the day at around 5:30 p.m., announcing it will restart at 8 a.m. ET on Sunday with the finish of Round 3 preceding Round 4 action. 

Play had previously been suspended at 4:17 p.m., but it was not expected at that point that the weather delay would last all day. Then the lightning hit. The tree near where these patrons were hit got sliced up by an unbelievable blast of electricity as well. Here's a look at the video and photos from the incident.

Play was then called for the day. The leaders were only thru five holes when play was suspended on Saturday. Here's how the top four looked.

  • Justin Thomas: -12 (5)
  • Rory McIlroy: -11 (5)
  • Brooks Koepka: -11 (5)
  • Xander Schauffele: -10 (5)

Sunday will now be a marathon as the likely eventual winner (one of the four golfers above) will play over 30 holes with nearly that many millions at stake. Whoever eventually comes out on top receives $15 million with the runner up getting $5 million. Only seven golfers are within five of Thomas' lead.