How To Act During Thunderstorms

How far is the thunderstorm away?

If you count the time passed between lightning and thunder, every second is equivalent to about 330 meters travelled by the thunder.

For example: if you count to three, the storm is about one kilometer away.

Where can I seek shelter?

It is the absolute safest to stay indoors during storm and especially thunderstorms.

But should you not be able to return to the Clubhouse or don`t have any shelter huts in sight, then you should seek cover within depressions, defiles or a recess within the ground.

Within these dips you should not lay or sit down, you should rather crouch down, lay your arms around your knees and tuck your head. It is also adviced to stay clear of stumps and branches if you get caught by the storm inside of a forest.

Remind yourself of the following!

  • keep clear of water streams
  • don`t go near single trees, small tree groupings nor the forest`s edge
  • avoid hilly parts of the course
  • don`t stay in the proximity of metal (i.e.: your clubs, fences, bridges, etc.)
  • and also keep some distance to your fellow golfers

Where to put your clubs

Golfclubs and Carts are both made from metal, therefore are a huge risk, because of that they shouldn`t be taken near or even inside of our shelter huts. You should keep atleast 30m between you and your equippment.

Suspension of play in case of grave danger (rule 5-7)

If the direction of play suspends the round because of high risk for the players so, flights in between holes are not allowed to pick up play again, until the direktion of play allows it. If a round is suspended while you are playing a hole, you are obliged to abandon the hole and cannot start again until play is picked up again.

If any player fails to abide to the signals given by the direction of play, he is instantly diqualified provided that this punishment is justified by ruling 33-7!

The signal for instantaneous game suspension in case of inpending danger is: one long acoustic signal.

The signal to pick up the game again is: two short acoustic signals