Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. – Ed Fiori is the only player to rallise from a 54-hole deficit in the PGA Tour for 13 years, beating Tiger Woods, and died Sunday, the tour said on its website. He was 72 years old. Tour said Fiori was fighting cancer. It did not provide any other details.
Four-time PGA Tour winners, the 1996 Quad City Classic, now the John Deere Classic, has no more wins than the 1996 Quad City Classic. Three tournaments into his professional career, the 20-year-old Woods took a one-shot lead over Fiori, who entered the final round of the Oakwood Country Club.
Woods had a quadratic bogey in the fourth hole and a 4-putt double bogey in the seventh hole. He shot 72 and tied the fifth four shot behind Fiori. Woods won two starts in Las Vegas. He didn’t lose a 54-hole lead in another PGA Tour sanctioned event until he defeated him in Hazelteen at the 2009 PGA Championship.
Lee Westwood overcomes the deficit in 2000 to beat Woods at a European tour event in Germany.
Fiori also defeated two other Hall of Fame members in the playoffs, Tom Wiscoff of the Southern Open in 1979 and Tom Kite of the Bob Hope Classic in 1982.
“In three of his four wins on the PGA Tour, he dueled alongside future World Golf Hall of Fame members, especially Tiger Woods in 1996,” said Miller Brady of the PGA Tour Champions. “That grit and resolution in the face of immense odds is extremely admirable in every aspect of life and I know he fought cancer with the same resolve until the end. He’s missed by all of us on tour.”
Fiori only played 58 times on the senior circuit after turning 50. He won in Mexico in 2004.
“I strolled around for a few more years and played on the Senior Tour for a while, but my back was always an issue,” Fiori said in a 2019 interview with Golf.com. “I had spinal fusion surgery in 2005 and have struggled to beat the 80 since then.
“But don’t feel sorry for me. I had a great life with the games I love. It was never easy. Often I went home on a Friday night,” he said. “But I don’t trade that at all. Even today, people call me a tiger killer. They don’t always keep their facts straight, but I don’t care. I will never forget my weekend at John Deere.”
