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Two-time major winner Frank Urban “Fuzzy” Zoeller Jr., died, according to the USGA. He was 74.
Zoeller, who was born in Indiana, was a 10-time PGA Tour winner who captured victories at the Masters in 1979 and the U.S. Open in 1984. Zoeller is survived by his four children: Sunny, Heidi, Gretchen and Miles, as well as multiple grandchildren.
His win at Augusta marked the second time a player won the green jacket in their debut. Gene Sarazen also accomplished the feat in 1935.
How Fuzzy Zoeller won the Masters
In 2009, Zoeller spoke with Golfweek's Jeff Rude about his Masters win over Tom Watson and Ed Sneed in a playoff.
When Zoeller took his power draw to power-draw-friendly Augusta National in 1979, his goal was to make the top 24. But after a few practice holes, he told Hale Irwin, “This course was laid out for me.”
What’s more, Zoeller was assigned caddie Jariah (Jerry) Beard, who, starting in 1957, would loop there for a quarter century. Beard coached the rookie shot by shot. “He led me around like a seeing-eye dog,” Zoeller still says. The golfer’s faith was such that he never bent down to read a putt.
Zoeller had played well coming in, having won his first Tour title at the San Diego Open. That initial look and Beard’s knowledge increased his confidence. Seventy-four holes later, he defeated Tom Watson and Ed Sneed on the second hole of the tournament’s first sudden-death playoff, making an 8-foot birdie putt after an 8-iron approach from 150 yards at the 445-yard 11th.
When Zoeller’s ball came to rest on that green, Beard repeated what he had all week: He read the putt from the fairway. “That’s a right-edge putt,” Beard informed. “Concentrate on your speed.”
“He did that every time,” Zoeller marveled. “Every time. That’s pretty damn impressive – to stand there 180 yards or 150 away and the man’s telling you how the putt breaks.”
Sneed began Sunday five strokes ahead of Watson and six up on Zoeller. Zoeller looked like an improbable champion as late as 16 after Sneed, in the group behind, matched Zoeller’s birdie at 15. But Zoeller would birdie 17 and save par from 7 feet at 18 while Sneed bogeyed the last three on a pair of three-putts and a missed 6-footer.
Zoeller’s shot of the tournament was a 3-wood approach at 15, where he faced a 235-yard carry into a stiff wind. He pulled it off and made a two-putt birdie, but not before deliberation in the fairway. “I told him, ‘You gotta go if you want to win the tournament,’ ” recalls Beard, now 68 and a longtime waste-and-water operator at a local paper company.
Back then, an unwritten rule governed second-shot decisions at the 15th: If a player could see the fronting water, the green light was on and layup off. So Beard asked Zoeller if he could see water.
“Hell, no, I don’t see water,” Zoeller said.
“Get on my shoulders and tell me if you can see it now,” Beard responded before adding, “We gotta go.”
“All right,” Zoeller finally agreed. “Let’s go.”
That decision aligns with what Zoeller considers the foundation of his career. “I’m not scared to screw up,” the 10-time PGA Tour winner said. “Too many of these kids today are afraid they’re going to screw up. You can’t play this game scared.”
Zoeller and Beard remained united on why it's difficult for first-time contestants to pull off the feat. Beard says Tour caddies, who began working Augusta in the early 1980s, don’t read the greens as well as National loopers, adding, “That’s the whole key to the course.” Zoeller seconds the value of education. “There’s a lot of local knowledge, so there’s a positive in taking one of those caddies. To have that second opinion and know it’s right, there’s something to that.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Two-time major winner Fuzzy Zoeller dead at 74: here's how he won the Masters
Reporting by Tim Schmitt, Golfweek / Golfweek
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