A golfer has died after he was struck by lightning during a tournament at a New Jersey course, according to reports.
Simon John Mariani, 28, was struck on the 15th hole at the Ballyowen Golf Course in Hardyston on Tuesday, July 8, as severe storms rolled through the area.
He died from injuries on Monday, according to an online obituary.
Fellow golfer Brian Delia, told ABC 7 that he filmed the menacing clouds as they darkened the sky minutes before Mariani, of Franklin Lakes, was struck about 300 yards in front of him.
“I started filming, and he was right in front of me, and all of a sudden the lightning strikes and I ended the video recording and we immediately just started heading back to the clubhouse,” Delia said.
Fellow golfers and an off-duty firefighter jumped into action to perform CPR on Mariani before he was rushed to the hospital by medivac, News 12 NJ reported.
A spokesperson for Crystal Springs Resort, which operates the golf course, said that the weather conditions at Ballyowen developed rapidly and they had sounded the alarm warning golfers to get to cover from lightning.
Delia said his group never heard any such alarm.
“Nobody did say anything to us, we didn’t hear any horns to get off the course at all. They started blowing the horns when we were back at the clubhouse and that was after the police were already out there,” he told ABC 7.
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