PGA Tour player Erik Compton has been arrested and charged over serious allegations of assault and theft.
Compton and his wife allegedly had a heated argument at the weekend at their house in Miami when Compton’s wife took out a mobile phone and began recording around 9.30pm on Saturday, according to officials from the Miami police department.
The golfer, 43, is then alleged to have snatched the phone and threw it in a pool and grabbed his wife by the shoulder and threw her into a wall, leaving her with small bruises on her left arm. She then fled their home in the 6800 block of Southwest 70th Avenue in the Glenvar Heights area and went to a friend’s, where she called the police.
Compton was later arrested on a strong-armed robbery charge, which is a felony, and a misdemeanour battery charge.
The pro, who has made over $4m on the PGA Tour, invoked his right to an attorney and declined to speak with officials about the alleged incident, according to the police after he was taken to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami and later bailed for $9,000.
Compton is best known for overcoming viral cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart becomes inflamed and cannot pump blood effectively. He was diagnosed with an enlarged heart muscle at the age of nine, receiving a donor heart three years later and a second aged 28 after nearly dying from a heart attack in 2007 when he admitted himself to hospital.
Yet in spite of major hurdles, Compton reached the PGA Tour and famously finished in a tie for second behind Martin Kaymer at the 2014 US Open.
Compton has since struggled and lost full-time status in 2016. He had made 45 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour the previous two seasons but has not registered a start this campaign.
This season Compton has made two appearances on the PGA Tour, finishing T-29 at the Corales Puntacana Championship in March and then T-63 at the Charles Schwab Challenge in May.
He has been held in high regard on the PGA Tour, which in 2013 bestowed on him the inaugural Courage Award by the Player Director’s Panel and PGA Tour Commissioner. The award is given annually to a "player who, through courage and perseverance, has overcome extraordinary adversity."
He also helps fund the Erik Compton Foundation which is a not for profit organisation dedicated to increasing awareness and advocacy of organ donation by supporting medical based research, increasing donor education and the development of youth support programs.
Golf Monthly has contacted Erik Compton's representatives for comment.
