Police say a New Jersey golfer died after a tree fell on him while he tried to retrieve an errant ball from the backyard of a home adjacent to an exclusive country club.
Alpine police identified the man as Sung Paik, 60, of Union City.
Capt. Michael LaViola tells The Record newspaper that Paik entered the yard where workers were removing a dead tree Sunday afternoon.
“He had sliced the ball into the woods on the third hole near the northern edge of the course and replaced it with another ball to finish the play,” LaViola told the paper. “Then, as he walked toward the fourth hole, he apparently stepped into the yard looking for the ball that he had lost.”
LaViola says the workers yelled for Paik to move but the tree gave way on its own.
Paik's golfing partner and a physician who was also on the course at Montammy Golf Club performed CPR but Paik was pronounced dead at a hospital.
LaViola called the death accidental although local ordinances bar homeowners from hiring workers for such work on Sundays.
