Windsor golfer, businessman was driven to succeed in both sports and enterprise
He was a golfer, a scholar and a financial guru.
Stunned friends and family are mourning the sudden death of Nathan Komsa, a well-known golfer in two countries and the co-owner of several downtown bars and restaurants.
“He was one of the best,” his father Marty Komsa said Tuesday. “The Windsor and Essex community has lost one its finest young men. He was a devoted brother, a devoted son and a devoted uncle to his nieces and nephews. We are certainly going to miss him.”
Nathan died suddenly on Saturday. His family did not want to discuss the circumstances surrounding his death. He would have turned 34 in December.
He leaves behind his father, Marty, and Marty’s wife, Janis, and mother, Christine Adams, and her husband, Gerry, along with brothers Matthew and Christian.
For many years, Nathan was a fixture in downtown Windsor where he and his brothers ran businesses including The Bull & Barrel, The City Grill and Level 3 Vodka Emporium. More recently, he became a financial adviser at Sun Life Financial Canada.
“The brothers and myself were very accommodating and said, ‘absolutely Nate, you deserve what you want to do in life,’ ” said Komsa.
There wasn’t much he didn’t want to do. A voracious reader, Nathan was as comfortable debating history as hitting a golf shot. After graduating from St. Anne high school, he studied marketing at Ohio’s Youngstown State University on a four-year golf scholarship.
“He proceeded in his second year there to win the Horizon League Championship as certainly a very, very large underdog,” Komsa said.
His father was there to watch the entire tournament. Nathan birdied four of the last five holes to come from behind for a stunning upset.
“It will go down in the history of Youngstown State as one of the more prominent wins for a Youngstown State golfer,” Komsa said. “It was unbelievable. Janis and I were very proud of our son. I will never forget his smile when he found out that he actually won the tournament.”
After his college days, Nathan went on to be an accomplished amateur golfer, winning the Ontario Mid-Amateur Championship,
“Again, unheralded,” said Komsa. “Certainly was not supposed to win and probably beat one of the best Ontario and Canadian champions, a guy by the name of David Bunker, to win the championship.”
He loved golf, but Sunday was for football. Komsa said his son hardly ever missed a Dallas Cowboys game. He was also a zealous baseball player who “studied” his beloved Toronto Blue Jays.
Komsa said his son’s love of sports and admiration for great athletes reflected the young man’s need to challenge himself.
“He was an avid Dallas Cowboys fan, he was an avid Toronto Blue Jays fan,” said Komsa. “He was very passionate about his sports and always wanting to succeed. He was a very driven individual. A quiet person who just loved to compete and loved to win.”