HEART-BREAKING: Massachusetts Club Pro Dies In Awful Accident

There’s a lot of happiness in the golf world right now with a consistent schedule being played on the PGA TOUR, without many hiccups from COVID-19. But today, there’s some sad news to report on the local golf front.

It was reported this week that the head golf pro at Wyantenuck Country Club in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Tom Sullivan, passed away in a horrible accident while on the course. There was a massive storm that went through Massachusetts this week and forced all golfers to leave the surrounding courses. Sullivan was assisting the club by taking a cart out onto the course to make sure that no stragglers remained and that’s when disaster struck.

According to the local media, police received a call from a resident that lives near the course that reported there was a tree down on top of a cart on the course. When police responded, they found Sullivan collapsed on the ground with a few fallen trees on the top of his cart. He was not able to be revived at the scene. Sadly, Sullivan was only a few weeks away from retirement when this incident took place.

Tom Sullivan, the ultimate salt-of-the-earth head pro at Wyantenuck CC, the course where I learned the game, was tragically taken from us yesterday.

It’s comforting to know others in the @PlayMassGolf #MassGolf community will remember him as I did: https://t.co/MfZEfmKayr pic.twitter.com/XcH9SnTB8z

— Jonathan Coe (@jonathanmcoe) October 8, 2020

“It was quite a shock,” Paul Sullivan, 70, the brother of Tom said. “The silver lining, I think, is that he died on a golf course. Dying on the course is really appropriate if you’ve got to die. And it was without fault. It wasn’t a drunk driver hitting him and it wasn’t him doing anything to precipitate this. It was really an act of God.”

It is truly sad to see such a great man taken away so quickly. Sullivan had been at Wyantenuck Country Club for over 20 years. He was also voted NENY Golf Professional of the Year in 2017 and elected to the NENY PGA Hall of Fame in 2018. It just goes to show that no one is safe from mother nature’s wrath, even when taking all the right precautions.

This is the second golf pro to have been killed by falling debris in a thunderstorm just this year. So for all the players out there, please stay safe, and please don’t push the limits when playing a friendly round. Our thoughts are with the Sullivan family as they deal with this tragic news.

Cover Image via Twitter