If there’s one thing you don’t want to mess with on the golf course, it’s lightning. While the odds of being struck are slim, Mother Nature doesn’t care about your chance to break the course record or the last wedge you just laid the sod over. When she’s rolling through you best take cover. Unfortunately, this one English golfer wasn’t so lucky and felt her wrath.

The Daily Mail has the full report:

A golfer has died in hospital after being struck by lightning while playing a round of golf. Philip Shard, 60, was left with serious injures after being struck at 10.50am on May 27 at the Fynn Valley Golf Club, near Ipswich, Suffolk.

Fellow players and paramedics tried desperately to resuscitate the IT consultant after he collapsed on the course and his heart stopped beating.

Golfer killed by lightning on golf course https://t.co/U7KQuGrXTu pic.twitter.com/6idzk4stKz — Golf Monthly (@GolfMonthly) June 6, 2017

Mr. Shard, of Rushmere St Andrew near Ipswich, was taken by road ambulance to the critical care unit at Ipswich Hospital but he died last Wednesday.

Tony Tyrrell, club owner and secretary, said: “Everyone at the club is horrified. It’s a dreadful thing to have happened and our thoughts are with his family.”

The club is now warning players to be vigilant of thunderstorms and “take action at the first signs of any electrical activity.”

Just because you’re an amateur doesn’t excuse you from having common sense.

[Daily Mail]

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