One man can stop a PGA tournament in an instant
He’s among the most important people at this week’s Wells Fargo Championship, but he might go a whole day without seeing a single golf shot.
While fans and tournament officials follow the PGA’s best golfers around the Quail Hollow Club, Wade Stettner most likely will be sitting in a trailer not far from the second fairway, keeping an eye on any of three computer screens.
“Yeah, I don’t see much of the tournament,” Stettner said. “But that’s not what I’m here for.”
Stettner, 49, is the meteorologist assigned to work for the PGA this week at the Wells Fargo event, which begins Thursday and runs through Sunday — weather permitting.
With thunderstorms in the forecast Wednesday through Friday, and a chance severe weather on Wednesday and Thursday, Stettner figures to have his work cut out for him.
“The latter part of the tournament, Saturday and Sunday, looks really nice, from a weather standpoint,” Stettner said. “But those first few days will bear watching.”
Golf and bad weather don’t mix, and tournament officials, TV networks and golfers and their fans will pay close attention to what Stettner sees on those three screens.
A SERIOUS MATTER
The PGA takes weather seriously. Some of that dates back to 1991, when lightning killed a spectator at the U.S. Open in Minnesota and again later that year at the PGA Championship in Indiana.
The PGA and several other sports organizations contract with DTN, a weather consulting company, to supply a meteorologist at every tournament. Stettner is senior risk analyst for the company and spends about 40 weeks a year working at PGA, LPGA or Champions Tour events.
While he provides updates on
potential heavy rain or gusty winds, Stettner’s primary concern is thunderstorms.
“Lightning is the big danger, but those storms also can produce damaging winds,” he said. “There are times when people need to get off the golf course.”
Stettner, who grew up in Minnesota and earned a meteorology degree at North Dakota University, doesn’t make the final call on whether a tournament will be suspended. That’s the decision of PGA referee Gary Young. But Young and other PGA officials listen closely to what the scientists tell them.
“The nature of the business has changed,” Stettner said. “Nowadays, everyone has a weather app on their cell phones. So we meteorologists have moved away from straight forecasting, and into analysis. We’ll tell them what we expect.”
For example, he said, weather apps on phones can tell someone if lightning is detected within a certain distance. But, he added, the app doesn’t specify if the storm is approaching or moving away.
The primary source of information, of course, are those three computer screens. Stettner monitors weather radar, which provides information on precipitation, wind strength and lightning strikes. During a conversation earlier this week, he rarely went more than a few minutes without turning to look at the weather radar.
LIGHTNING DETECTOR
And about 15 yards away from the trailer, he has set up a weather station. That CS-110 station includes an electric field meter, which measures electrical charges near the ground. That helps tell Stettner if there is potential for lightning nearby.
“Naturally, we’ll watch lines of storms that approach,” he said. “But when we get into the warm weather season, we have to be careful about storms that develop overhead. Lightning can develop in 20 minutes. The electric field meter can give us a heads up.”
Stettner has his phone and a portable radio to contact tournament officials. If he sees a lightning threat — or some other kind of threat — he immediately contacts Young or other PGA officials. Then horns will sound across the Quail Hollow Club, and that’s a signal for everyone to get off the course.
Stettner also communicates with club officials about potential flooding, although he said greenskeepers have a much better idea of how much rain their courses can handle.
He stays in touch with golfers about wind speed and direction, so players have an idea of what to expect.
All of this comes from someone who fell in love with weather as a teenager who became fascinated with Minnesota’s summer thunderstorms.
After earning his degree, he spent five years in aviation meteorology with DTN and then switched to sports.
‘WE’VE ALL MISSED SOME’
His first tournament assignment was in 2005 in Hawaii. A rainstorm that he predicted arrived several hours early.
“Every forecast has some error in it,” he said. “We’ve all missed some.”
But he also got everyone off the golf course and into shelter in time a few years ago, when a tornado touched down 5 miles from a golf tournament in Memphis.
He gets plenty of feedback, especially when the forecast is wrong.
“I’ve heard it all,” he said.
“In the beginning, it would annoy me,” he said of the criticism. “People would say, ‘You’re not from around here, so how can you predict our weather?’ “
Stettner said DTN meteorologists keep detailed logs about their visits to various cities, and he has plenty of data to use when he’s in Charlotte or at any other tournament stop.
And, no, he doesn’t play much golf.
“I have other hobbies,” he said. “But one day, when I retire, I think golf is something I’ll take up. I guess I’m just too close to it right now.”