Simon John Mariani, Franklin Lakes, N.J man dies from lightning strike while playing golf at the Ballyowen Golf Course in Hardyston as his golfing buddy, Brian Delia claims the players weren’t given any warnings when rapid storms developed.
A golfer has died after being struck by lightning during a tournament at a New Jersey course last week.
Simon John Mariani, 28, of Franklin Lakes, 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 his injuries on Monday, according to an online obituary.
Brian Delia, Facebook.
Golf buddy blames club for failing to sound alarm
Fellow golfer Brian Delia told ABC 7 that he filmed the menacing clouds as they darkened the sky minutes before Mariani 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 performed CPR on Mariani before he was rushed to a hospital by medevac, News 12 NJ reported.
A spokesperson for Crystal Springs Resort, which operates the golf course, said the weather conditions at Ballyowen developed rapidly and that staff had sounded the alarm warning golfers to get to cover from lightning.
Delia claims 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.
Was there really ever need for an alarm? Wasn’t it obvious for all golf players that storms were rapidly descending and that common sense dictated to seek cover?
Mariani graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2019 with an undergraduate degree in accounting in economics before he returned, earning his master’s in finance in 2024, according to his obituary.
He was most recently working as an associate at MTS Health Partners in NYC.
A funeral Mass has been scheduled for Friday at the Church of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Franklin Lakes.
Mariani is survived by his parents, Scott and Kathleen Mariani, and his two sisters.
