Virginia Golfer Jul / Aug 2020 | Page 13

Member Clubs “We believe our outreach (through National Lightning Safety Awareness Week) has made a huge difference since lightning-related deaths on golf courses have decreased by 75 percent,” said John Jensienius, a retired lightning safety specialist with the National Weather Service in a report on the NOAA website. CEDAR POINT CC NEW TECHNOLOGY Cedar Point has a Thor Guard early lightning detection system. Derco had more than six years of experience with a Thor system at International CC in Fairfax before coming to Cedar Point. “Basically we have it set at a 5-mile radius, and it detects lightning electric activity in the sky. Once it gets over an unsafe lightning hazard level within our bubble, it will show me a caution on my screen on the unit and then it will trigger a red alert automatically,” Derco says. “We have a fog horn on top of our building as well as a satellite fog horn in the middle of the golf course. One long blast is red alert; three intermittent blasts is all clear. All clear happens after 10 minutes of no electrical activity at a safe lightning hazard level.” Cedar Point upgraded its system a year ago. The standard system communicates through AM radio waves and requires line of sight to the satellite station. Tree foliage played havoc with that so the club changed the antennas to FM for a higher signal that doesn’t need line of sight. Thanks to the technology and Derco’s knowledge of it, members can check on the lightning hazard status of the club in real time from their phones. “Safe or unsafe is so subjective. You can have yellow over you on the Doppler but Thanks to upgrades in weather apps, golfers and administrators alike can keep abreast of severe weather during play. Cedar Point Country Club in Suffolk features a Thor Guard early lightning detection system. there might not be any electricity in it. It’s very comforting for me; it’s very comforting for our members. We have this state of the art system that lets us know when it’s safe to play and when it’s not safe,” Derco says. IT’S YOUR CALL Initial expense, yearly subscription fee, annual maintenance or tune-up fee and higher liability insurance premiums for the system can put a big dent in budgets. Daily fee and resort courses are more likely to operate on the play-at-your-ownrisk plan when it comes to weather. Liability is in the hands of the players, and it is that way in VSGA tournaments because through the Rules of Golf, the player has the ability to stop play if they believe there is danger from lightning (Rule 5.7). Sycamore Creek GC in Manakin-Sabot and Laurel Hill GC in Lorton are popular public courses without an early warning system. Jeff Allums, general manager at Sycamore Creek, says, “We do have radar, and we try to give as much information as possible, but if you happen to be on the course and it thunders, we haven’t been calling anyone in. If they want to go out, they go out. If they want to come in, they come in.” Situating a warning system at Sycamore would be difficult because the course routing goes in different directions, has elevation changes and plenty of trees. Laurel Hill GM Ryan Carmen says, “As a staff, we all have a weather app (paid or free) of some sort on our phones to track storms. From that we are able to educate our golfers should a storm be present or soon-to-be present.” vsga.org J ULY/A UGUST 2020 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 11