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