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Tom Weiskopf’s golf skill went far beyond his 16 victories on the PGA Tour and his lone major at Royal Troon in the British Open. He was always candid, often outspoken and unfailingly accurate in the television booth. He found even greater success designing golf courses.
Weiskopf died Saturday at his home in Big Sky, Montana, at the age of 79, his wife said. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2020.
Laurie Weiskopf said Tom was working last week at The Club at Spanish Peaks and attended a legacy luncheon at the signature club where he is designing “The Legacy: Tom’s Ten,” a collection of his 10 favorite par 3s.
“He worked to the end. It was amazing,” she said. “He had a big life.”
The son of a railroad worker in Ohio, Weiskopf once said he fell in love with the game before he even began 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 loved every minute of it,” Andy North said Sunday. “The sad thing that gets lost his how good he was. Every time he hit a shot, it was beautiful.”
Pure contact was his hallmark at Ohio State and then his career on tour. At 6-foot-3 — tall for golf in that era — Weiskopf had a swing that was powerful and rhythmic, natural and athletic. His best year was in 1973, when he won seven times around the world, including the claret jug and the World Series of Golf at Firestone before it was an official tour event.
He was known equally for the majors he didn’t win and the competition he faced — particularly Jack Nicklaus, the star from Ohio who preceded him by a few years on tour and cast an enormous shadow over Weiskopf for his entire career.
