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11/27 15:52 CST Fuzzy Zoeller, two-time major champion haunted by racist joke
about Tiger Woods, dies at 74
Fuzzy Zoeller, two-time major champion haunted by racist joke about Tiger
Woods, dies at 74
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
Fuzzy Zoeller, a two-time major champion and one of golf's most gregarious
characters whose career was tainted by a racially insensitive joke about Tiger
Woods, has died, according to a longtime colleague. He was 74.
A cause of death was not immediately available. Brian Naugle, the tournament
director of the Insperity Invitational in Houston, said Zoeller's daughter
called him Thursday with the news.
Zoeller was the last player to win the Masters on his first attempt, 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.
But it was the 1997 Masters that changed his popularity.
Woods was on his way to a watershed moment in golf with the most dominant
victory in Augusta National history. Zoeller had finished his round and had a
drink in hand under the oak tree by the clubhouse when he was stopped by CNN
and asked for his thoughts on the 21-year-old Woods on his way to the most
dominant win ever at Augusta National.
"That little boy is driving well and he's putting well. He's doing everything
it takes to win. So, 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?," Zoeller said.
He smiled and snapped his fingers, and as he was walking away he turned and
said, "Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve."
That moment haunted him the rest of his career.
Zoeller apologized. Woods was traveling and it took two weeks for him to
comment as the controversy festered. Zoeller later said he received death
threats for years after that moment.
Writing for Golf Digest in 2008, he said it was "the worst thing I've gone
through in my entire life."
"If people wanted me to feel the same hurt I projected on others, I'm here to
tell you they got their way," Zoeller wrote. "I've cried many times. I've
apologized countless times for words said in jest that just aren't a reflection
of who I am. I have hundreds of friends, including people of color, who will
attest to that.
"Still, I've come to terms with the fact that this incident will never, ever go
away."
It marred a career filled with two famous major titles, eight other PGA Tour
titles and a Senior PGA Championship among his two PGA Tour Champions titles.
More than winning was how he went about it. Zoeller played fast and still had
an easygoing nature to the way he approach the game, often whistling between
shots.
He made his Masters debut in 1979 and got into a three-way playoff when Ed
Sneed bogeyed the last three holes. Zoeller defeated Sneed and Tom Watson with
a birdie on the second playoff hole, flinging his putter high in the air.
"I've never been to heaven, and thinking back on my life, I probably won't get
a chance to go," Zoeller once said. "I guess winning the Masters is as close as
I'm going to get."
Zoeller was locked in a duel with Norman at Winged Foot in the 1984, playing in
the group behind and watching Norman make putt after putt. So when he saw
Norman make a 40-footer on the 18th, he assumed it was for birdie and began
waving a white towel in a moment of sportsmanship.
Only later did he realize it was for par, and Zoeller made par to force a
playoff. Zoeller beat him by eight shots in the 18-hole playoff (67-75).
Zoeller's lone regret was giving the towel to a kid after he finished in
regulation.
"If you happen to see a grungy white towel hanging around, get it for me, will
you?" he once said.
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 organization's highest
honor given for distinguished sportsmanship.
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