'50,000 golf balls hit at once': Massive hail rains down in Howell

Massive hail damages businesses in Howell

Golf ball sized hail fell from the sky Thursday evening, destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars in crops and forcing a golf course to close to clean up.

HOWELL, Mich. (FOX 2) - Thursday evening's thunderstorms brought a tornado to Monroe County and massive hail to Livingston County with some the size of golf balls that wreaked havoc on businesses in the area.

"Basically a nasty hail storm came through about 4:45 yesterday. The storm came out of nowhere (and) within 15 minutes, 3 inches of hail was on the ground. Every crop I have on this farm," said CJ Turner, owner of Bentley Lake Farms.

Mother Nature can be nasty at times and the hail received on Thursday was magnificent to behold and devastating in effect Turner, who said he had 85 acres of crops destroyed.

"Sweet potato, melon, tomatoes, onions, green beans, everything you can think of," Turner said. "It’s a big hit in my back pocket. I’ll have to recover. It’s too late to plant, other things I can replant."

In total, he says he lost $500,000 worth of crops.

"I’m not looking for sympathy. Some want to start a GoFundMe. I’ve said absolutely not," Turner said.

He wasn't the only one who is cleaning up. At Timber Trace Golf Club, the golf course looks like a bunch of hackers forgot to replace their divots. But the holes in the fairways are all from the hail.

"It’s as if 50 thousand golf balls hit it all at once," Clif McLellin said.

The golf course closed on Friday and Saturday to assess and repair but see a silver lining: they'll be ready for Sunday.

"This week with Father’s Day coming up is our busiest day of the year," he said. "Bad things happen… no one's hurt… We got some property damage. (They are) all things we can fix. Gonna work hard and get back to where it was."