Former TOUR winner, rules official Bert Weaver passes away at 90

Bert Weaver, who beat Jack Nicklaus to win his lone PGA TOUR title, has passed away at the age of 90. Weaver’s family confirmed his passing.

Weaver was the winner of the 1965 Jacksonville Open, shooting 285 in cold, windy conditions to finish a stroke ahead of four players, including Nicklaus. Sam Snead was among the players who finished two strokes back of Weaver that week.

“I was thinking about this all night. For some reason, I thought I was going to win this one,” Weaver told reporters following his victory. “I never felt like that before even though I have been in contention.”

A native of Beaumont, Texas, who played collegiate golf at LSU, Weaver played nearly 300 TOUR events before playing on PGA TOUR Champions and becoming a rules official on that circuit. Weaver finished in the top 100 of the PGA TOUR’s money list from 1957-1967, including seven finishes in the top 60. His best season was 1965, when his lone victory propelled him to a 27th-place finish on the money list.

Weaver had 36 top-10 finishes on TOUR, including a career-high six in both 1962 and 1965. Injuries curtailed his 1970 season and 1971 was his final season making at least 10 TOUR starts. He also won the 1975 Tennessee PGA Championship and while the head pro at host Colonial Country Club, he was the 36- and 54-hole leader of the 1972 Danny Thomas Memphis Classic.

Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino, who was coming off his famed Triple Crown season during which he claimed the U.S., British and Canadian opens, were two back of Weaver at the halfway mark in Memphis. With his family watching in the gallery, Weaver took a one-shot lead into the final round but closed with a 74 to finish T3. Trevino’s final-round 67 gave him a four-shot win over John Mahaffey. The Memphis Classic was one of just three TOUR starts Weaver made that season.

In addition, Weaver had success playing on the PGA TOUR-sanctioned Caribbean/Latin America circuit, an unofficial set of events that helped lay the groundwork for later official PGA TOUR, Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR Latinoamérica tournaments. Weaver won the 1967 Panama Open, defeating Art Wall by three shots in Panama City. In his two previous starts prior to his win in Panama, at tournaments in Venezuela and Colombia, Weaver finished third and second, respectively.

A year after his win in Panama, he traveled to Venezuela and took the Caracas General Motors Open by a stroke over Wes Ellis. In 1971, Weaver again won in Venezuela, this time in Maracaibo, edging Juan Pinzon for the Ford Maracaibo Open championship.

Weaver also had three runners-up in his PGA TOUR career.

He played in six major championships, with a best finish of T27 at the 1963 U.S. Open. He finished T31 in his lone Masters appearance in 1965, which he qualified for after his win in Jacksonville. He also made 33 starts on PGA TOUR Champions between 1982-84, including two top-10s, before working for the TOUR from 1985-1998.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.