THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 26, 1994 TAG: 9410260575
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN E. QUINONES MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
A no-nonsense guy is how friends describe former PGA player Claude King. Ask him to give you the shirt off his back and he'll hand it to you gladly - but don't try to just take it from him.
King, 62, who underwent open-heart surgery at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital on Monday, believes in defending himself and his property. He had suffered a heart attack Sunday morning after fighting with a man police think is about one-third his age.
At 5 a.m. Sunday, King, golf pro at Lake Wright Resort and Convention Center, had just arrived at work and was following his usual routine, getting the course ready for play.
He walked to the shed that houses electric golf carts and noticed that someone had broken into the building. He found that one of the carts was missing.
He walked to the green near the 10th tee and found two young men and a young woman joy riding on the missing cart.
King, who had turned 62 on Saturday, confronted the trio, according Jim Matthews, Lake Wright's general manager.
``One of the men got out of the cart, and he and Claude became involved in fisticuffs,'' Matthews said.
The three young people ran way after the incident, and King walked back to the pro shop, cut, bruised and suffering a heart attack.
``The people in the shop called 911 and an ambulance,'' Matthews said.
King was taken to Sentara Leigh Hospital, where doctors found he had six blocked valves, according to hospital spokeswoman Angela Jernigan. He was transferred to Sentara Norfolk General, where he was in stable condition Tuesday after undergoing surgery for four hours Monday to clear the blocked valves.
The man who assaulted King was described aswhite, about 21, between 5-feet-10 and 6 feet tall, and weighing about 155 pounds. He had short hair and was wearing light-colored clothing. The second man was described as white, 21, about 5-feet-10 with dark clothing. The woman was said to be about 21, wearing white shorts and shirt.
King, a former fullback at East Carolina Teachers College, now East Carolina University, resigned as a football coach at the old Virginia Beach High School in the early 1960s to join the PGA tour. He left the tour in 1966 to become the golf pro at Lake Wright.
King won the State Professional Golfers Association Open once, was runner-up three times and won the Virginia State Golf Association Open three times. In 1986 he was named Virginia Golf Pro of the Year by the state chapter of the PGA.
Michael Waugh, golf pro at Ocean View Golf Course, and a former assistant to King, said the golfing veteran is known as an honest and friendly man who took his profession seriously. But, Waugh said, King definitely is a no-nonsense guy.
``It doesn't surprise me that he would approach the three people if they took something that belonged to him or the club,'' Waugh said. ``Claude was one of those people from the old school. He's going to make a stand.'' MEMO: Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to call the
Crime Line at 441-5100.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERY ASSAULT by CNB