Death Tees Off

golf

October 30, 1927
Los Angeles County

What should have been a happy father-son bonding session ended in tragedy today at the Fox Hills Country Club. Forty-year-old Ben H. Wesley was helping his 12-year-old son on the practice fairway when young Donald accidentally clipped his father on the neck with his club. The blow caught the elder Wesley just below the base of the left jawbone; police speculate he was either standing "at the left and slightly to the rear or directly in front" of his son, or perhaps was bending down to reach for a ball rolling from the tee. Country club attendants and players ran to Wesley’s aide upon hearing his son’s screams but he died a few moments later. Donald was rushed home by friends.

A coroner’s inquest is planned, but all are certain Wesley’s death was but a cruel accident.