Former pro golfer Tom Weiskopf, a 16-time PGA Tour winner, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 79.
Between 1968 and 1982, he won the PGA Tour, including a memorable victory in the British Open at Royal Troon in 1973. In the Masters, he came in second place four times, and held a tie for second place at the U.S. Open in 1976.
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This was no small feat, the Tour noted in a statement, given that he was up against the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller and Lee Trevino. For his four runner-up finishes at the Masters, he was just one of three golfers — the other two being Ben Hogan and Nicklaus — to hold that status the same number of times.
His Royal Troon Golf Club win was his one big major-championship victory. It came during the 1970s, his most successful decade. By the end of 1973 he was ranked as the world’s second-best player.
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He won The Open by just three strokes, beating England’s Neil Coles and American Johnny Miller, who had won the U.S. Open just a month earlier. Weiskopf’s record of four rounds totaling 12 under par at 276 was the same as that set by Arnold Palmer in 1962, about a decade earlier.
Weiskopf moved on to golf course design after his professional career, starting by partnering with golf course architect Jay Moorish. Their first project was the course at the Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., which was dubbed the best new course of 1986 by Golf Digest.
He would design 80 courses, including Loch Lomond in Scotland and a 2016 renovation of the North Course at Torrey Pines.
Weiskopf also narrated golf on television, for CBS at the Masters and then for ABC and ESPN. He was working for CBS when the team called Nicklaus’s historic victory in the 1986 Masters. When asked what he thought the golfer’s thought process had been in the last few holes, Weiskopf famously replied, with a laugh, “If I knew the way he thought, I would have won this tournament.”
The PGA Tour said his contribution to the game went way beyond his prowess on the course.
“The PGA TOUR is saddened at the passing of Tom Weiskopf, a towering figure in the game of golf not only during his playing career but through his accomplished work in the broadcast booth and golf course design business,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement. “Tom is leaving behind a lasting legacy in golf. The beautiful swing he showcased during his 16-career PGA TOUR victories is still being emulated today, while his golf courses remain as testaments to his love for the game. Our hearts and deepest sympathies are with the entire Weiskopf family during this time.”
“Golf, to me, was always such a great challenge of the mind, and there were times I wish I had handled that challenge a little better,” Weiskopf told Gold Digest last year. “But I love the game. I love talking about it and thinking about it and to me it is endlessly fascinating.”
Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2020, Weiskopf died Saturday at home in Big Sky, Montana, his wife, Laurie Weiskopf, told The Associated Press. As recently as last week he’d been working at The Club at Spanish Peaks and showed up at a legacy luncheon at the signature club where he was designing “The Legacy: Tom’s Ten,” a collection of his 10 favorite par 3s, AP said.
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“He worked to the end. It was amazing,” Laurie Weiskopf said. “He had a big life.”
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