Florida’s Ponte Vedra Beach.According to the PGA Tour’s website, Ed Fiori passed away on Sunday. For 13 years, he was the first player to overcome a 54-hole deficit and defeat Tiger Woods. His age was 72.
According to the tour, Fiori had been fighting cancer. It gave no more information.
The 1996 Quad City Classic, now known as the John Deere Classic, was the most memorable of the four PGA Tour victories. A 20-year-old Woods was ahead of Fiori by one shot heading into the final round at Oakwood Country Club, three tournaments into his professional career.
Woods suffered a four-putt double bogey on the seventh hole and a quadruple bogey on the fourth. He trailed Fiori by four shots after shooting 72 to tie for fifth place. Later, in Las Vegas, Woods won two starts. Until Y.E. Yang defeated him in the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine, he had never lost a 54-hole lead in another event sanctioned by the PGA Tour.
In a European tour event in Germany in 2000, Lee Westwood overcame a deficit to defeat Woods.
In the playoffs, Fiori also defeated two other Hall of Famers: Tom Kite in the 1982 Bob Hope Classic and Tom Weiskopf in the 1979 Southern Open.
He faced up against future members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, most notably Tiger Woods in 1996, in the closing stages of three of his four PGA Tour victories. Miller Brady, president of the PGA Tour Champions, stated, “I know he battled cancer with that same determination until the end. That grit and resolution in the face of immeasurable odds is incredibly admirable in every aspect of life.” All of us on the tour will miss him.
After turning fifty, Fiori participated in the senior circuit just fifty-eight times, winning in Mexico in 2004.
In a 2019 interview with Golf.com, Fiori stated, “My back was always a problem, but I hung on for a few more years and played on the senior tour for a while.” After undergoing spinal fusion surgery in 2005, I found it difficult to reach 80.
But don’t feel sorry for me. In a game I adore, I’ve had an amazing existence. It was never simple. “I was on that flight going home on Friday nights a lot of the time,” he said. However, I wouldn’t exchange it for anything. I’m still referred to as the Tiger Killer. I don’t mind that they don’t always have their facts straight. That weekend at the John Deere is something I will always remember.
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