Ed Fiori, who for 13 years was the only player to rally from a 54-hole deficit to beat Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour, died Sunday, the tour said on its website. He was 72.
The tour said Fiori had been battling cancer. It provided no other details.
A four-time winner on the PGA Tour, no victory was more memorable than the 1996 Quad City Classic, now the John Deere Classic. Three tournaments into his pro career, a 20-year-old Woods had a one-shot lead over Fiori going into the final round at Oakwood Country Club.
Woods had a quadruple bogey on the fourth hole and a four-putt double bogey on the seventh hole. He shot 72 to tie for fifth, four shots behind Fiori. Woods won two starts later in Las Vegas. He never lost a 54-hole lead in another PGA Tour-sanctioned event until Y.E. Yang beat him in the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine.
Lee Westwood overcame a deficit to beat Woods in 2000 in a European tour event in Germany.