Fuzzy Zoeller R.I.P.

Fuzzy Zoeller, one of Golf's most colorful characters, passed away on Thanksgiving Day from a heart attack. He always had time to tell a golf story and sign his autograph. Of course, the media will remember, for one thing, that Tiger's Masters dinner was going to be fried chicken and watermelon. He's a racist, they all said. They forgot that he's the only person to win the Masters in his first start. Fuzzy liked a good drink and golf. That is the way I will remember him, and a heck of a good commentator.

He was an outgoing fella. I worked at a golf course in the Orlando area back in the day. Prior to the Masters they had a warm up event at a club in that area and all the golfers signed up came to practice at our place. To say that half the crew that were local pros were excited would be an understatement. On lunch me and the slacker I worked with picked up some clubs and hit the driving range balls back onto range. Those guys were the only ones that could reach our maintenance building off the practice tee. Anyway back to Fuz you could hear him thru out the course, he was a talker.

Fuzzy's win at the 1979 Masters was one of the biggest upsets ever. And as Booth mentioned, his innocuous joke about Tiger's Masters victory dinner was used to destroy his reputation although over a long period of time he was slowly "rehabilitated" ala the way it was done in more openly communist countries, though he always remained popular among golf fans. RIP