Fuzzy Zoeller: Two-time major golf champion dies at 74

Fuzzy Zoeller, a two-time major champion, has passed away aged 74.

Zoeller was the last player to win the Masters on his first attempt, in a three-man playoff in 1979. He famously waved a white towel at Winged Foot in 1984 when he thought Greg Norman had beat him, only to defeat Norman in an 18-hole playoff the next day.

Zoeller had a career filled with two major titles, eight other PGA Tour titles and a Senior PGA Championship among his two PGA Tour Champions titles.

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However, it was the 1997 Masters that changed his popularity after he was embroiled in a racism incident for a comment he directed towards Tiger Woods on his way to victory.

Zoeller apologised for the comment but later said it haunted his career and wrote in Golf Digest in 2008 that it was “the worst thing I’ve gone through in my entire life.”

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He was born Frank Urban Zoeller Jr. in New Albany, Indiana. Zoeller said his father was known only as “Fuzzy” and he was given the same name. He played at a junior college in Florida before joining the powerful Houston golf team before turning pro.

His wife, Diane, died in 2021. Zoeller has three children, including daughter Gretchen, with whom he used to play in the PNC Championship. Zoeller was awarded the Bob Jones Award by the USGA in 1985, the organisation’s highest honour given for distinguished sportsmanship.

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