By Torleif Sorenson on 5/22/15

Stonebridge Golf Club in West Valley City, Utah is gaining some fame and notoriety this week, including the above report from KSTU-DT in Salt Lake City. It all started with this photograph by GCSAA member Matt Isbell:


The course superintendent at Stonebridge, Isbell (whose name is being misspelled in news reports and social media as "Isabel") took this photograph of the second green at Stonebridge, showing the effects of a lightning strike that occurred on Monday afternoon after club employees cleared patrons off the course. The pattern is called a Lichtenberg figure, named after the 18th century German experimental physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.

A friendly reminder

Do NOT, under any circumstances, stay out on a golf course when an thunderstorm approaches. As the National Weather Services explains, people are killed, maimed, and injured every year by lightning strikes. The best way to view the effects of lightning is by looking at photographs afterward.

We at SkyGolf offer a hearty tip of the proverbial hat and 1,000 points to Matt Isbell, who is not only a smart super, but a pretty good golfer himself. The man won the 2014 Intermountain Golf Course Superintendents Association Chapter Golf Championship in a playoff.


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Hat-tip: Executive Women's Golf Association

Image via Reddit, Matt Isbell, GCSAA