Andy Bean, who gained 11 instances on the PGA Tour winner and thrice was a runner-up in main event play, died on Saturday in Lakeland, Fla. He was 70.
The PGA Tour stated the trigger was problems of double-lung substitute surgical procedure, which he underwent in September. He was reported to have developed extreme respiratory issues after a bout with Covid-19.
At 6-foot-4 and about 210 kilos, Bean was an imposing presence on the tour. In 1978, the columnist Dave Anderson of The New York Instances known as him “certainly one of golf’s most interesting gamers.”
“He’s large and robust and emotional,” Anderson wrote. “Whether or not it’s a tee shot or his annoyance at a nasty shot, he lets all of it hang around. The opposite touring execs name him Li’l Abner for his power.”
He was identified to win bets in bars by biting a bit out of the duvet of a golf ball.
Bean’s greatest 12 months was 1978, when he gained thrice, together with back-to-back weeks at Quail Hole, in Charlotte, N.C., for the Kemper Open after which on the Danny Thomas Memphis Traditional in a playoff over Lee Trevino. He completed third on the cash checklist that 12 months.
His 11 victories — he additionally gained twice on the Japan Golf Tour — coated 1977 to 1986. In March 1986, Bean grew to become the primary golfer on the tour to win the Doral Japanese Open, in South Florida, thrice, defeating Hubert Inexperienced on the fourth gap of a sudden-death playoff. Bean had come again from 5 strokes behind with 9 holes to go in regulation to power the playoff.
His eleventh and ultimate tour victory, by one stroke, got here that Could, on the Byron Nelson Traditional, exterior Dallas.
Bean additionally performed on the Ryder Cup groups in 1979 and 1987.
In main tournaments, he made a late cost at Royal Birkdale, in northwest England, within the 1983 British Open, ending one shot behind Tom Watson. In 1980, he completed second to 40-year-old Jack Nicklaus within the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y. And he was runner-up by one shot to Payne Stewart within the 1989 PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes, exterior Chicago.
A 3-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions, Bean retired from competitors in 2014 due to wrist accidents from a automobile accident.
Thomas Andrew Bean was born on March 13, 1953, in Lafayette, Ga., close to the Tennessee border, and grew up in Jekyll Island, on the Atlantic coast. His father, Tom Bean, was a membership professional. The household moved to Florida, settling in Lakeland when Andy was 15. He performed golf for the College of Florida on a crew that included Gary Koch, Woody Blackburn and Fred Ridley, the previous U.S. Beginner champion and now chairman at Augusta Nationwide.
He’s survived by his spouse, Debbie; their three daughters, Ashley, Lindsay and Jordan; and grandchildren.
Other than biting chunks out of golf balls, Bean was identified for having as soon as subdued an alligator whereas making an attempt to qualify for the PGA Tour. The story obtained out that he had wrestled with the animal and threw it right into a pond.
However he threw chilly water, so to talk, on that story. The incident “was nothing large,” he instructed Anderson, for his Sports activities of The Instances column. “I simply noticed just a little 5‐foot alligator as soon as close to a water gap in Florida and flipped it over by its tail. That’s simple. However the man I used to be taking part in with made it sound like I wrestled it.”
The Related Press contributed reporting
