Saturday’s third round of the PGA Tour Championship was suspended after a lightning strike at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, left six spectators injured.

Play had already been halted at 4:17PM, with the final group out on the course, Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka, having completed the fifth hole.

Just shy of half an hour later, with spectators still on the course and hoping for a possible return of play, two further lightning strikes occurred.

This from the PGA Tour’s official site:

One strike occurred near the maintenance area, while another struck a tree near the 16th tee. Debris from that strike injured six people.

Five fans were transported from the property via ambulance to area hospitals for further medical attention. One other fan was treated and released on-site and did not require transportation to a hospital.

An updated statement from the PGA Tour adds that all five people have since been released from hospital.

Let’s see that strike:

There was a fair amount of chaos in the immediate aftermath:

Again, everyone has since been discharged from the hospital, so that’s some consolation.

The suspension of play meant the golfers had a long Sunday ahead, completing both the third and fourth rounds, and it was Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy who came out tops.

His payday is pretty impressive, as was the payday for most of the players that qualified for the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship. Forbes reports:

McIlroy’s haul of $15 million is the biggest prize in professional golf history and $5 million more than he made when he won the FedExCup title three years ago. McIlroy joins Tiger Woods as just the second two-time winner of the PGA Tour’s massive playoff bonus payout. But the 30-year-old Northern Irishman wasn’t the only one who was paid handsomely at East Lake, where $60 million in bonus prize money was shared by the 30 players who qualified for the final playoff event.

Four other players collected more at the Tour Championship than any winning payout this year on the PGA TOUR. Schauffele received $5 million as the runner-up, while Thomas and Koepka each got $3.5 million. The $2.5 million that Paul Casey pocketed for finishing fifth was more than the $2.25 million winning payouts at this year’s U.S. Open and Players Championship.

In total, eight players topped more than $1 million in bonus money at East Lake, the others being Adam Scott ($1.9 million), Tony Finau ($1.3 million) and Chez Reavie ($1.1 million). The two players who tied for last in the 30-man field – Dustin Johnson and Lucas Glover — got $400,000 apiece.

Golf is one of those sports where only a tiny minority of those who play it manage to make a living.

Make it to the very top, however, and you’ll be doing just fine.

A shout-out is also in order for South African golfer Erik van Rooyen, who claimed his first-ever European Tour title at the Scandinavian Invitation in Gothenburg yesterday.

Last season’s European Challenge Tour Graduate of the Year put on a superb show to pip Matthew Fitzpatrick to the title, as well as the €250 000 (R4,25 million) prize.

Here are his highlights from the final round:

[sources:pgatour&forbes]