Fuzzy Zoeller, a two-time champion and one of golf’s most sociable characters whose career was tarnished 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 in 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 beaten him, but defeated 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 turning point in golf with the most dominant victory in Augusta National history. Zoeller had completed his round and had a drink in hand under the oak tree near the clubhouse when he was stopped by CNN and asked for his thoughts on the 21-year-old Woods en route to the most dominant victory ever at Augusta National.
“That little boy drives well and he sets well. He does everything he can to win. So you know what you guys do when he comes in here? You pat him on the back, congratulate him and enjoy it, and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Understand?” said Zoeller.
He smiled and snapped his fingers, and as he walked away he turned and said, “Or kale or whatever they serve.”
That moment haunted him for the rest of his career.
Zoeller apologized. Woods was traveling and took two weeks to comment as the controversy continued. Zoeller later said he received death threats for years afterward.
Writing for Golf Digest in 2008, he said it was “the worst thing I’ve ever experienced 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 their way,” Zoeller wrote. “I have cried many times. I have apologized countless times for words said in jest that simply do not reflect who I am. I have hundreds of friends, including people of color, who will testify to that.”
“Yet I have come to terms with the fact that this incident will never go away.”
It marred a career that included 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 did it. Zoeller played fast and still had an easy-going nature in the way he approached the game, often whistling between shots.
He made his Masters debut in 1979 and found himself in a three-way playoff when Ed Sneed bogeyed the final three holes. Zoeller beat Sneed and Tom Watson with a birdie on the second playoff hole, throwing his putter high in the air.
“I’ve never been to heaven, and when I think back on my life, I probably won’t get a chance to go there,” Zoeller once said. “I think winning the Masters is the closest.”
Zoeller was locked in a duel with Norman at Winged Foot in 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, in a moment of good sportsmanship, started waving a white towel.
Only later did he realize it was par, and Zoeller made par to force a play-off. Zoeller defeated him by eight shots in the 18-hole play-off (67-75). Zoeller’s only regret was giving the towel to a child after he finished regulation.
“If you happen to see a dirty 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 was given the same name. He played at a junior college in Florida before joining Houston’s powerful 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 received the USGA’s Bob Jones Award in 1985, the organization’s highest honor for outstanding sportsmanship.
