Nov 28, 2025
3 min read
Fuzzy Zoeller, a two-time major champion and one of the nicest men in golf, whose career was marred by a racially insensitive joke about Tiger Woods, has died, according to a longtime colleague.He is 74 years old.
Fuzzy Zoeller, a two-time major champion and one of golf's gregarious characters who made a career with an ill-advised joke about Tiger's wood, died in a pile-up.He is 74 years old.
The cause of death was not available.Brian Nagle, pageant director at Insperity Indraalational in Houston, said Zoeller's daughter called him Thursday.
Zoeller was the last player to win the Masters in his first attempt, a three-man playoff in 1979.He waved a white towel at Winged Foot in 1984 when he thought Greg Norman had beaten him, defeating 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 Golf's biggest win of all time in Augsta National News.Zoller finished chi e china and was drunk in an oak tree under the Crohown forest when he was stopped in the forest for 21 years on his way to Win the Highest National Championship in the state of Australia.
"This little kid drove well and showed good results. He did everything he could to win. So you know what you're doing when you get it, and I tell you not to serve fried chicken next year.'' Zeller said.
He pointed and snapped his fingers, and as he walked away he turned and said, "or green rags, or whatever they can fill them with."
That moment haunted him throughout his career.
Soller apologized.Woods was traveling and took two weeks to comment when the controversy raged.Soller later said he received death threats for years after that.
In 2008, he said that his enjoyment of golfing was "the worst thing I've ever had in my entire life".
"If people wanted me to feel the same pain I projected onto others, I'm here to tell you they got theirs," Zeller wrote."I've cried many times. I've apologized countless times for words spoken in jest that don't fit who I am. I have hundreds of friends, including people of color, who will attest to that."
"But I know this situation will never go away."
It capped a career filled with two prestigious major titles, eight other PGA Tour titles and a senior PGA Championship between his two PGA Tour titles.
He won more than he lost.Zoelller played quickly and yet it was easy to argue with his handling of the game, often whistling between shots.
He made his majors debut in 1979 and entered a three-way playoff by birdying the last three holes.Zoller sends snead and tom watson into the air with a birdie and tom watson on the second hole in the suit.
Zoeller once said, "I've never been to heaven, and thinking about my life, I probably won't get a chance to go."“I think winning the Masters is the closest I'll ever get.”
Zoller lost a duel with Norman in 1984, playing with the group and locked Orth up on the court after a road trip.So when he took a 40-footer at Norman, he went for birdie and at one point started to find white sports medicine gloves.
It was not until later that he realized it was a par and Zoller did it and made it into a qualifier. Zoller beat him by eight strokes in an 18-hole qualifier (67-75).
"If you happen to see a dirty white towel lying around, get it for me, okay?"he said once.
Frank Urban Zoeller Jr. was born.In New Albany, Indiana.His father is said to be known only as "fuzzy".He played junior college in Florida before joining the powerful Houston Golf Club before turning pro.
His wife, Diane, died in 2021. Zoeller had three children, including daughter Gretchen, with whom he played in the PNC tournament.The USGA awarded Zoelleler the Bob Jones Award in 1985, the organization's highest honor for an outstanding athlete.
