HARRISON, Ohio (WKRC) — Mother Nature found its way onto the green of a Harrison golf course, and it left a mark.
Circling Hills Golf Course Clubhouse Manager Bob Schulman says it happened just before 10 p.m. on Monday.
“We’ve had trees hit, things like that, in the past, but nothing on the ground that did this much damage,” said Schulman.
Schulman’s home sits about 700 yards from the second hole on the course.
“I was sitting in a room that’s all windows, and, all of a sudden, I get this really bright flash of lightning, and the thunder was instantaneous, like it was right after the lightning,” said Schulman.
It wasn’t until the next morning that you could see what the lightning strike hit.
“The maintenance people saw the hole in the ground on this side where the sprinkler head was, and then they saw the spidering across the green that basically showed that the lightning had struck this green,” said Schulman. “My assumption is it hit the ground where the sprinkler head was and then shot over to the hole, which had a fiberglass pole in it, but it does have metal in the bottom of the pole.”
The damage can be seen on other parts of the course. At the fourth hole, about 300 yards away, the door on a sprinkler control system was blown open by the strike.
Schulman is thankful this happened when no one was playing.
“And how dangerous it would have been if somebody would have been on the golf course? Because they could have been over there and been hurt,” said Schulman.
He says the second hole was temporarily closed Tuesday morning but has been playable for golfers since. Bob Thien played the course Tuesday and Thursday.
“I thought it was more scary because we’ve golfed here and there’s been lightning around us, and you see it and you just sort of ignore it. Those little setoff sirens alert to tell you that there’s lightning in the area and make us get off the course,” said Thien.
He says he didn’t notice much of a difference on the green.
“It was still smooth, and they switched. Every day, they’ll switch holes, moving around the greens so that hole was not being used; they fill them in every day,” said Thien.
Local 12 asked if it helped his score or made it worse.
“Oh, nothing can help my score,” Thien said.
Maintenance crews repaired some damaged piping. Schulman says they’re hoping the grass on the green will grow back.