{"id":204210,"date":"2025-11-28T04:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T04:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/204210\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T04:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T04:41:10","slug":"two-time-major-winner-fuzzy-zoeller-dies-aged-74-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/204210\/","title":{"rendered":"Two-time Major winner Fuzzy Zoeller dies aged 74 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Fuzzy Zoeller, who won two Major titles in playoffs, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/the-masters\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/the-masters\/\">the Masters<\/a> in his first appearance, has died at the age of 74.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">No cause of death was immediately available. Brian Naugle, tournament director of the Insperity Invitational in Houston and a long-time colleague, said Zoeller\u2019s daughter notified him of the death on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A 10-time winner on the PGA Tour, Zoeller won the Masters in a three-way sudden-death playoff with Ed Sneed and Tom Watson; and the 1984 US Open at Winged Foot Golf Club after an 18-hole playoff with Greg Norman. He was a three-time Ryder Cup participant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">After winning the Green Jacket, becoming the first rookie to win the tournament since Gene Sarazen in 1935, he said \u201cI\u2019ve never been to heaven and, thinking back on my life, I probably won\u2019t get a chance to go. I guess the Masters is as close as I\u2019m going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Zoeller\u2019s post-career was marred after making racially-insensitive remarks toward Tiger Woods at the 1997 Masters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Speaking to reporters in the shadow of Woods\u2019 record-breaking win, Zoeller ended his interview by remarking, \u201cSo, you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not serve fried chicken next year. Got it?\u201d As Zoeller walked away he added, \u201cOr collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">USGA CEO Mike Whan paid tribute, by saying he was \u201cone of a kind\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe are grateful for all he gave to golf. I hope we can all remember his unmistakable joy. The USGA is sending our deepest condolences to his family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe PGA Tour is saddened by the passing of Fuzzy Zoeller,\u201d PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cFuzzy was a true original whose talent and charisma left an indelible mark on the game of golf. Fuzzy combined competitive excellence with a sense of humour that endeared him to fans and fellow players alike.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe celebrate his remarkable legacy and extend our deepest condolences to his family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fuzzy Zoeller, who won two Major titles in playoffs, including the Masters in his first appearance, has died&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,14408,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-204210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-pga-tour","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115625491550844795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}