Remembering 2025’s Losses: Fuzzy Zoeller

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The alphabetical list of other, non-musical individuals who passed away last year ends today as well. Today I’ll remember a guy who put my brother’s town on the map. And it wasn’t my brother! Here’s today’s local hero. Fuzzy Zoeller All you have to say is “Fuzzy.” Everyone around here knew who you were talking about. The pride of New Albany, Indiana, Fuzzy Zoeller made history when he won his first (and only) Masters in 1979: it was the first time he’d ever played in the Masters! He is one of only three players to ever win the Masters in his debut in the prestigious golf tournament (the other two times it happened was 1934 [the first year of the Masters] and 1935). Zoeller won a total of ten PGA tournaments in his career, including one other major, the 1984 U.S. Open. He also did what a lot of professional golfers do: he designed his own golf course. Two of them, actually. Covered Bridge and Champions Pointe are both in southern Indiana, a few miles north of Louisville. My brother and I went to Covered Bridge to watch a celebrity golf tournament, where I got to meet people like Bill Murray (don’t want to talk about him), Donny Most (“Ralph Malph” on Happy Days, a terrific person), and others. And, of course, Fuzzy was there to help. Despite being “golf clubs,” they are both public courses. No snooty stuff here. And that was Fuzzy. He was down to earth. He never left his roots here in the Kentuckiana area. And we’ll always love and remember him. Fuzzy Zoeller Born Frank Urban Zoeller, Jr., November 11, 1951, New Albany, Indiana Died November 27, 2025, New Albany, Indiana (heart attack) (age 74) Fuzzy making a hole in one in 2006: