Comeau came prepared at The Haven
When Christian Comeau was hired on April 12 as head pro at The Haven Country Club in Boylston, the club already had been open for the season for two days.
Comeau was prepared nevertheless. He had been the lead assistant pro under Hal Jacobs for the previous three seasons, and he filled in as acting head pro until he was officially hired.
“It’s rewarding to know that the hard work paid off,” he said. “It’s a long road. It takes some mental fortitude to get it done in the golf world. There were some long hours as an assistant pro, working for not a ton of money as an assistant pro at times, and trying to balance playing and starting a family. It’s just good to know that the hard work does pay off and that good things happen.”
Comeau and his wife, Hilary, both graduated from Gardner High. They have a 3-year-old son, Lincoln.
Prior to joining the staff at The Haven, Comeau worked as an assistant pro for a year and a half at Hinsdale Golf Club in Clarendon Hills, Illinois, and for two seasons at Wannamoisett CC in Rumford, Rhode Island. He then spent a year as the foundation coordinator for the New England PGA, whose headquarters is located next to The Haven’s driving range.
Comeau, 30, said many of The Haven’s members vouched for him by writing letters of recommendation and making phone calls to Invited, which purchased the club last September from
Regan Remillard, who had owned the club for a decade.
“That kind of stuff makes you feel good,” he said, “and motivates you to improve for them, to put on the best show that you can for the people who wanted you to be there.”
Invited, which changed its name from ClubCorp last year, is based in Dallas and is the largest owner and operator of private clubs in the world.
Comeau said he works well with the new ownership.
“Like anything, there’s always a little bit of growing pains when you go with a new company,” he said, “but they’ve been very supportive. They listen when something is not up to the standard it should be.”
After serving as head pro at The Haven for a decade, Jacobs left to take the same position at Wellesley CC, where he was reunited with Brian Lynch, the WCC general manager. Lynch was the general manager at The Haven for three years and hired Jacobs there.
Comeau said Jacobs taught him to keep his cool. When a customer had a dispute, Jacobs tried to put himself in the customer’s shoes to better understand it.
“Hal was good at reframing difficult situations,” Comeau said.
Comeau tries to do the same thing. When someone calls the golf shop about the slow pace of play, he’ll do his best to solve the problem without upsetting anyone.
“There’s always a way to deliver information to make people feel good, to make people feel right, even if they’re not right,” he said. “Or at least make them feel heard.”
Comeau started a casual weekend sweeps this season.
“We’re not making it into a big formal event,” he said. “We’re trying to bring people together and give them something to play for, if they want.”
Comeau wanted to become a head pro ever since he played golf for Gardner High School. The high school coach, Mike Egan, was also the head pro at Gardner Municipal Golf Course, the school’s home course.
“He kind of took me under his wing,” Comeau said, “and showed me the business a little bit.”
After Egan died at age 59 after a fall at home in 2008, his son, Ben, succeeded him as head pro at Gardner for 51⁄2 years, and Comeau interned under Ben in the pro shop during his senior year. Comeau also was honored as the most valuable player on the Gardner High golf team that year.
Ben told him what to do to become a PGA pro, and Comeau and his mother visited Methodist, Campbell, North Carolina State, Mississippi State, Sam Houston State and the University of Central Oklahoma, all of which have PGA Golf Management programs. He graduated from Central Oklahoma in 2015.
Central Oklahoma is in Edmond, a city of nearly 95,000 people that is a suburb of Oklahoma City.
“It kind of sounds a little bit more in the middle of nowhere than it is,” Comeau said. “Oklahoma City is not Boston, but there was quite a bit to do. The University of Oklahoma was only a couple of miles away. It was fun.”
As far as Comeau’s knows, he and Ben Egan are the only head golf pros from Gardner. Egan has been head pro at Bay Pointe at Mattapoisett since 2017. The two head pros still keep in touch.
Patrick Sharron is the assistant pro at The Haven, and Joe Raimon is golf shop operations manager. Comeau and Raimon played golf together at Gardner High.
Heritage golfers remember Kevin Butler
Just about everyone at Heritage Country Club in Charlton got a kick out of Kevin Butler.
He was a member of the club for nearly 40 years and worked on the maintenance crew at Heritage for the past 20. When he wasn’t mowing or playing golf, he enjoyed making people laugh in the clubhouse. Everyone called him by his initials, “KB.”
So Heritage golfers were devastated to hear of his death at age 71 on Sept. 14.
“Tragic, tragic, tragic,” said Heritage owner Bill Plante, who considered him to be a close friend.
Butler was highly allergic to bees, and Plante said it’s believed that he was bitten while mowing the lawn at his home in Southbridge. Later that day, his companion, Tammi Cloutier, found him dead on the floor in the house with his EpiPen at his side.
“Everybody’s in shock over it,” Plante said.
Butler recently had learned he was cancer free after battling large B cell lymphoma for more than a year.
“To hear it was from a bee sting after he beat cancer,” Plante said, “and got a clean bill of health was just devastating to all of us. You don’t want to believe it.”
Last fall, Heritage held a dinner for Butler to boost his spirits while he battled the disease.
Plante said he hopes to hold a golf tournament in Butler’s memory either this fall or next year, and he’s considering erecting a plaque or monument in his name that will list deceased members.
“Just a loved guy around here, a character,” Plante said. “You liked to have him in your company because he was funny, and you could joke with him, and he could take the ribbing pretty well, and he could give it out.”
“Kevin was always the man that made everyone smile,” said Shane Bayer, former pro and general manager at Heritage, “that made everyone laugh, that made everyone feel as if they belonged. Kevin was a great man. We will all miss him for the smiles and love he brought to all of us.”
Plante organized golf trips for members to Cape Cod for the past 25 years, and Butler rarely missed.
Butler was a high handicapper, but he’s the only golfer to card holes-in-one on each of Heritage’s four par-3 holes.
“He loved to tease the better players in the club,” Plante said, “that he had four, and some of them had zero. I had one on the 13th hole, and he used to like to tell me that, too.”
Each year, Butler would announce that this would be the year he’d finally break through and become a good golfer.
At Marianhill High in Southbridge, Butler was known as the Golden Toe for his soccer exploits, and he also played baseball. He went on to get his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Assumption University and worked as a drug and alcohol counselor.
“He had a great heart,” Plante said. “He could drive you a little crazy at times, but then you’d hug and kiss him in the next hour because you loved him.”