CHASKA, Minn. — Their memories come rushing back more frequently now that the PGA is back at Hazeltine, where they nearly lost their lives taking shelter from the rain 11 years ago.
They never will forget June 13, 1991. A lightning strike on the first day of the U.S. Open killed spectator Billy Fadell and left five others hospitalized after they stood under a tree during a driving rainstorm on the 16th fairway.
With a major tournament returning to Minnesota for the first time since 1991, at the same course no less, the survivors are thinking even more about what happened.
"The one thing that still haunts me is that the Fadell boy was only 27," said survivor Ray Gavin, a retired sales manager from Mendota Heights, Minn. "I was just one week shy of my 50th birthday. Why was he killed and not me?"
Glenn Engstrom, who lives in the St. Paul area, also survived the strike.
"I just thank God every day that I'm still around," Engstrom said. "It was a really sad deal. That kind of stuff shouldn't happen. This is a festive-type event."
Engstrom, 47, will be at the tournament this weekend with tickets courtesy of Hazeltine. He watched practice Monday and went with some friends to the spot where the lightning bolt hit.
The tree was cut down shortly after the accident, but it's not something that fades easily from memory.
Gavin and John Hannahan, who on Friday plan to make their first visit to the course since that weekend, were facing east on the ridge overlooking Lake Hazeltine and the 16th fairway when Gavin was startled by the sight of a blimp suddenly veering away from them.
"I was like, 'What the heck is going on?"' Gavin said. "Then John told me to look over my shoulder. It was like night and day — I've never seen anything like it. The sky was green. It was like someone was pouring water out of a pail."
"Before we knew it," Hannahan said, "it was an all-out, belly-washing thunderstorm."