Tom Weiskopf’s golf talent went far past his 16 victories on the PGA Tour and his lone main at Royal Troon within the British Open. He was at all times candid, usually outspoken and unfailingly correct within the tv sales space. He discovered even higher success designing golf programs.
Weiskopf died Saturday at his residence in Massive Sky, Montana, on the age of 79, his spouse stated. He was recognized with pancreatic most cancers in December 2020.
Laurie Weiskopf stated Tom was working final week at The Membership at Spanish Peaks and attended a legacy luncheon on the signature membership the place he's designing “The Legacy: Tom’s Ten,” a set of his 10 favourite par 3s.
“He labored to the tip. It was wonderful,” she stated. “He had an enormous life.”
The son of a railroad employee in Ohio, Weiskopf as soon as stated he fell in love with the sport earlier than he even started to play. His father took him to the 1957 U.S. Open at Inverness and he was mesmerized watching Sam Snead make such pure contact.
“You had dinner with Tom and liked each minute of it,” Andy North stated Sunday. “The unhappy factor that will get misplaced his how good he was. Each time he hit a shot, it was lovely.”
Pure contact was his hallmark at Ohio State after which his profession on tour. At 6-foot-3 — tall for golf in that period — Weiskopf had a swing that was highly effective and rhythmic, pure and athletic. His greatest 12 months was in 1973, when he received seven occasions all over the world, together with the claret jug and the World Collection of Golf at Firestone earlier than it was an official tour occasion.
He was recognized equally for the majors he didn’t win and the competitors he confronted — significantly Jack Nicklaus, the star from Ohio who preceded him by a couple of years on tour and solid an infinite shadow over Weiskopf for his complete profession.
Weiskopf had 4 runner-up finishes within the Masters, essentially the most of any participant with out having received the inexperienced jacket. Most memorable was in 1975, when Weiskopf and Johnny Miller stood on the sixteenth tee as they watched Nicklaus gap a 40-foot birdie putt up the slope that carried him to a different victory.
He was well-known for saying of Nicklaus: “Jack knew he was going to beat you. You knew Jack was going to beat you. And Jack knew you knew he was going to beat you.”
Extra telling was his interview with Golf Digest in 2008 when Weiskopf stated: “Going face to face towards Jack Nicklaus in a significant was like attempting to empty the Pacific Ocean with a teacup. You stand on the primary tee realizing that your best golf may not be adequate.”
Weiskopf was lots good in so many areas, and but he usually stated he didn’t take advantage of out of his expertise. He attributed a lot of that to consuming, which he as soon as stated ruined his golf profession. He gave up alcohol in 2007 and regarded that one in all his nice victories.
Nicklaus as soon as stated of him, “Tom Weiskopf had as a lot expertise as any participant I’ve ever seen play the tour.”
He additionally stated he was by no means passionate sufficient about golf. His love was the outside, significantly looking and fishing. Weiskopf as soon as skipped the 1977 Ryder Cup so he might go sheep looking.
His free spirit and unfiltered ideas had been an enormous a part of his persona. His mood led to nicknames just like the “Towering Inferno” and “Horrible Tom.” A lot of it was traced to his excessive requirements when it got here to golf.
“I couldn't settle for failure when it was my fault,” he stated after successful the U.S. Senior Open in 1995 at Congressional. “It simply used to tear me up.”
Weiskopf’s first PGA Tour victory was the 1968 Andy Williams-San Diego Open Invitational, and his final was the 1982 Western Open. His final full 12 months on the PGA Tour was a 12 months later. He performed on the PGA Tour Champions, and maybe it was solely becoming his lone main was the Senior Open by 4 pictures over Nicklaus.
His commentary on TV for CBS on the Masters and for ABC/ESPN was all about candor.
He was working the 1986 Masters when Nicklaus was charging his strategy to victory at age 46. Nicklaus was on the sixteenth tee when CBS host Jim Nantz introduced in Weiskopf and requested, “What goes by way of Jack’s thoughts proper now?”
“If I knew the best way he thought, I'd have received this championship,” Weiskopf replied with fun.
Weiskopf partnered with golf course architect Jay Moorish and their first collaboration was Troon Nation Membership in Scottsdale, Arizona, which Golf Digest rated as one of the best new course of 1986. He did 25 programs with Moorish after which labored with Phil Smith.
Amongst 80 programs Weiskopf designed had been Loch Lomond in Scotland and in 2016 a renovation of the North Course at Torrey Pines that match his customary — difficult on the highest degree, satisfying for all.
A normal of his design is the drivable par 4. The inspiration got here from taking part in the Previous Course at St. Andrews, the place he might drive 4 of the par 4s, relying on the wind.
“I ought to have completed extra,” Weiskopf as soon as advised Golf Digest of his profession. “However I don’t dwell on it anymore. I'll say this, although: If it wasn’t for the truth that I really like a lot what I’m doing now (golf course design), I'd most likely be a really sad particular person.”