Golfer has chance meeting with the family that helped save his life

Erik Compton’s improbable story is pretty well-known to golf-watchers at this point. He’s on his third heart, the two-time recipient of donations. The first came when he was a 12-year-old boy, and the second came in 2008 after he drove himself to the hospital while having a heart attack that was so dire he called family members to tell them he was dying.

The heart Compton received the second time was from Isaac Klosterman, a former volleyball player at the University of Dayton who was killed by a hit-and-run driver while on his motorcycle in Florida.

Compton has said he’s maintained a relationship with Klosterman’s family. But listening to Jim Nantz narrate this happenstance run-in with his server this week at the Memorial was probably the best part of Sunday’s broadcast. Jack Nicklaus’ and Nick Faldo’s stunned reactions as Nantz finished the story sum it up well.