Golf Club Safety in Action: Two New Weather Examples

Aug 22, 2018

Golf Club Safety and Earth Networks

Severe weather is one of the top golf club safety concerns for courses around the world. Lightning, heavy rains, and hurricanes can compromise playing surfaces, injure golfers, and even kill. Taking severe weather seriously is one of the greatest ways to improve your overall golf club safety.

While golf course managers can’t control the weather, companies like Earth Networks provide tools and solutions that make it easy for your country club to mitigate weather-related risks all season long.

We work with golf courses all over the country to help them do just that. Keep reading to learn how we work together with two golf courses on the East Coast to protect them from thunderstorms, flooding, hurricanes, and other forms of dangerous severe weather.

The Breakers at Palm Beach

Located on the southeast coast of Florida, The Ocean Course at The Breakers is the oldest existing 18-hole golf course in Florida. They also are in one of the most active areas for severe weather in the United States. Florida is the “Lightning Capital” of the U.S. Typically, the highest amount of lightning injuries and deaths happen in Florida while people are taking part in recreational or leisure activities, like golf.

For many years, the decision-makers at The Breakers Palm Beach struggled with severe weather decisions. They switched over to Earth Networks Outdoor Alerting Systems to help them protect guests and employees out on the course and the pool. These loud horn systems, which rely on Earth Networks Total Lightning Network, send out loud blasts that force guests to take them seriously.

To further the importance of lightning and severe weather safety, The Ocean Course also has Sferic Maps. This web-based weather visualization tool is on display in the Pro Shop to show golfers why they have to wait. They found that when their employees can show golfers the thunderstorms moving in and out of the area that the golfers respect the safety precautions more. The Ocean Course at The Breakers has been relying on this strategy since 2014.

Tim Collins, Director of Golf at The Breakers had this to say:

I’ve been clearing the golf course for 17 years and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to go out on the golf course and beg people to come off and they still stay out there when severe weather in imminent. Since we’ve had the horn, I have not had that conversation.

Army Navy Country Club

Up the coast in Virginia, Army Navy Country Club also made the switch to Earth Networks for their two locations in Arlington and Fairfax. Established in 1924, this prestigious 500 acre country club is member-owned and consists of 54 championship golf holes.

Like The Breakers, Army Navy also battles severe weather like lightning. In fact, our Total Lightning Network detect 230 cloud-to-ground strikes at Army Navy’s two locations. That 230 chances for guests or employees to get hurt.

Army Navy’s personalized Earth Networks solutions includes seven Outdoor Alerting Systems, two on-site professional-grade weather stations, and Sferic Maps and Mobile. This comprehensive solution helps them protect everyone from thunderstorms at their country club.

Patrick King, General Manager, had this to say about his club-wide severe weather solution:

We originally installed the system for golf, but we’re using it for everything now. Between tennis, aquatics, and outdoor events, knowing what weather is coming is a big help. Using the mobile application helps us make decisions hour-by-hour for outdoor activities.

Protect Your Golf Course With Total Lightning Detection

If you want to improve severe weather safety at your golf club, follow The Breakers and Army Navy Country Club’s lead by relying on total lightning detection. Occasionally, we come across a club that swears by lightning prediction. However, this is an outdated technology that puts your golfers, staff, and club at risk.

Your golfers aren’t still using clubs and bags from the 1970’s so you shouldn’t be using severe weather safety technology from the 1970’s either.
Total lightning detection is the best and only way to ensure your country club has the fastest lead time for severe weather alerts. This will give you golfers plenty of time to get to safety.

To find out more about the difference between total lightning detection and lightning prediction, look at this free, educational ebook.