The story behind one of our club’s most iconic photos
Originally published in 2016.
Photo in 2014.
By Brian Oar
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Buuuzzzzzzz, Buuuuzzzzzz, Buuuuzzzz went my 4:20am alarm as eyes opened from my warm and oh so comfortable cabin bed.
It was a brisk June morning on the prairie, and I tiredly peeked out the window to the southwest to see if I could see any stars, or if the skies were even slightly clear.
Nope, just clouds, and breezy. Not exactly encouraging for a golf course photographer.
Weather report was calling for storms and the area had seen some wild weather over the past few days.
I’d seen many mornings like this shooting golf courses on location all over the world, including torrential downpours, fog, frost and even snow.
But, I knew better than to just go back to bed without physically going outside and check the horizons and the skies to the east of the Dunes course.
I climbed up the hill in my pajamas from the cabin to survey the whole sky, it was just barely getting light. To my dismay, I saw nothing but overcast, and appeared to look like heavy rain was coming, with blasts of lighting in the distance.
As I rounded the corner of the lodge to the east, I saw an unreal looking small sliver of clear skies opening up to the east. I stopped dead in my tracks, spun around and ran back to the cabin.
“I had better saddle up the horses quick, cause’ this has the makings of something special!” I said to myself.
Minutes later at 4:40am I was flooring a cart down the dusty trails toward the Dunes.
I had been dreaming about shooting #11 on the Dunes Course at first light for a couple years, but had not quite hit the location just right.
On this morning, I knew exactly where I had to be, and knew light was only going to’ last for a few minutes if at all, and I had to be set up and ready as soon as the sun crested over the horizon.
That damn cart couldn’t drive fast enough, my foot couldn’t push any harder on the gas pedal. I was racing time, wind, rain, and lightning just hoping for a 20 second blast of sunlight.
I knew the spot and angle I needed, and if the sun graced me for just a few seconds this one was gonna’ be good.
I can’t quite explain the feeling I had when the sun lit up the skies that morning, the colors were unreal, the scene was unbelievable. I pretty sure I heard singing at one point, but I was smiling from ear-to-ear, a little bit scared and frantically checking focus and film speeds and exposures.
As the sun hit full strength the lightning strikes and thunder came in perfectly on cue and I couldn’t snap the shutter fast enough. “Wow” I kept saying out loud.
The heavenly golden prairie light lasted for all of 4 minutes, then it was gone in a hurry, and so was I in a very magical moment at The Prairie Club.
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Explore Brian’s work at www.BrianOar.com