Golfer Suffers Fatal Heart Attack, but Group Asked to Play Through

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. —  The golf course officials covered Donald DeGreve’s body with a sheet right where he had died, putting on the 16th green, and his neighbors were asked to play through.

“We told them they had to skip from 15 to 17,” said Bob Sheffield, Winter Haven’s director of leisure services.

DeGreve, 65, suffered a heart attack and could not be revived by a nurse or rescue workers. His wife could not be found immediately and his body remained on the green for more than two hours until police finally contacted her.

“What occurred was that in an effort to contact the widow, time just got by,” Police Chief Ron Martin said Friday. “Our officers were trying to do the right thing.”

DeGreve was playing at the city-owned Willowbrook Golf Course with about 40 neighbors on Oct. 15 when he collapsed. A nurse who was playing the course ran to help, but DeGreve died before an ambulance arrived.

DeGreve’s three partners abandoned their game, but the rest of the group continued. “Life goes on,” said Robert Alexander, who coordinates the league. “So we had to keep going.”