Ed Fiori, the only player to run from a 54-hole deficit, died Sunday after defeating Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour. He was 72 years old at the time. The Tour said Fiori has been battling cancer. It has no other details.
Four-time winners on the PGA Tour are nothing more memorable than the 1996 Four City Classic (now John Deere Classic). He has three games in his career, with a 20-year-old Woods entering the final round of the Oakwood Country Club at Fiori.
Woods had four bogeys on the fourth hole and a four-fold bogey on the seventh hole. He fired 72 to lead fifth, four shots behind Fiori. Woods then won two starts in Las Vegas. He never lost a 54-hole lead in another PGA Tour approved match before beating him in the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine.
Lee Westwood overcame the deficit that beat Woods in the 2000 European Tour in Germany.
Fiori also beat two other Hall of Famers in the playoffs, Tom Weiskopf in Southern Open in 1979 and Tom Kite in Bob Hope Classic in 1982.
“In the four wins of the PGA Tour, he duels against future World Golf Hall of Fame members, most notably Tiger Woods in 1996,” said PGA Tour Champion President Miller Brady. “Faced with immeasurable odds, this perseverance and solution is incredible in every aspect of life, and I know he fought cancer with the same determination until the end. We will all be missed by all of us on the tour.”
Fiori played only 58 times on the senior track after she was 50 and won in Mexico in 2004.
“I hung up for a few years and played on the premium tour for a while, but my background was always a problem,” Fiori said in an interview with Golf.com in 2019. “I had a spinal fusion surgery in 2005 and since then, I’ve worked hard to break the 80.”
“Don’t feel bad for me, though. I’m living a great life in the games I love. It’s not easy. A lot of the time, I’m flying home on a Friday night.” “But I won’t swap it for anything. Even today, people call me a tiger killer. They don’t always get the truth, but I don’t mind. I’ll never forget that weekend with John Deere.”
