TOUR Championship 2019: Could weather issues have been prevented?

The TOUR Championship was once again delayed on Saturday, this time with several fans injured by lightning. Could the Tour have done more to prevent this?

The TOUR Championship was hit by yet another weather delay on Saturday at East Lake, but the tighter finishing schedule to decide the FedEx Cup was the last thing on most people’s mind.

Six people were injured when lightning struck on the grounds of East Lake, east of downtown Atlanta in DeKalb County, Georgia. At about 4:45PM Eastern, according to multiple media reports, one strike hit a maintenance area at the course, and another struck a fan zone near the 16th tee box. It was the latter of the two that caused the injuries, with debris (likely from a tree that was struck) flying about.

According to the PGA TOUR in its most recent statements, none of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening, but it was certainly a scary situation. Tour officials on site acknowledged that both they and the TOUR Championship leadership have safety plans in place, but it’s basically impossible to prevent this entirely.

More from Pro Golf Now

• Golf Rumors: LIV set to sign Masters Champion in stunning deal
• Fantasy Golf: Grant Thornton Invitational DFS Player Selections
• Brutal return leaves Will Zalatoris looking towards 2024
• Stars You Know at World Champions Cup Starts Thursday at Concession
• Fantasy Golf: An Early Look at the 2024 Masters Tournament

"“We put on the scoreboard the weather was approaching and tell fans to take shelter, but often times they don’t,” said Mark Russell, PGA TOUR head of Rules and Competition. “We opened up hospitality areas that are grounded, a lot of other places like that. You’ve got a lot of people, and you have to do that quickly, and sometimes people don’t take shelter.”"

Look, I get that entirely, and he’s not wrong. With the volume of assembled fans, not to mention players, media, and the rest of the people with significant investments in these events you just can’t prevent all accidents, and that’s precisely what this was. Especially when it comes to the weather, you simply plan ahead and hope for the best.

But I have to admit, I don’t love the fact that the Saturday tee times weren’t moved up at least a bit to address the possible weather moving in. With a 30-player field and basically perfect morning weather, there’s really no good reason why the first tee time wasn’t until 1 PM Eastern, with the leaders going off at 3:20 PM. Even with a four-hour round, you’ve got people pushing 7:30 Eastern to finish, and that’s if everything goes off without a hitch.

The argument is all over Twitter that the Tour just wanted more of the prime Saturday afternoon and evening advertising revenue, and I’d tend to believe they’re right, at least to some degree. I’m certainly not privy to advertising contracts between NBC, the PGA TOUR and the rest, but following the money is never a bad course of reason.

That said, we’re now at a point where our leaders have finished just five holes, and they’ll have a 31-hole marathon to the finish on Sunday. Play will resume at 8 AM Eastern, so at least there’s a good chance they still finish this weekend. But would it have killed anybody to move the tee times up at least a couple hours? I’m pretty sure everybody’s used to early tee times for guys who are 15-plus off the lead, no matter the event.

Heck, it’s not even an uncommon practice for tournaments to move up tee times to get in before the bad stuff hits. Get started at 9 AM, finish around 4 PM and move on with your afternoon. I don’t think too many people would mind, especially the fans. It’s the TOUR Championship, people will watch even if its not in “prime time” or whatever.

They got the format right, but if the Tour isn’t going to be a little more proactive in its planning, we still end up with a giant mess. No, they couldn’t control the weather, but they could have done more to keep things from going off the rails, too.