Google News Tom Weiskopf dies after a battle with pancreatic cancer
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Tom Weiskopf, a golf legend, has passed away after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Weiskopf had a brilliant career full of successes. The fact that he won 16 PGA Tour titles is enough. His friends and relatives are in great sadness after the death of such a legend.
Tony Jacklin spoke only in superlatives about Weiskopf and his achievements. “He had a helluva career,” Jacklin said, as quoted by golfweek. “He was unfortunate that he ran into Nicklaus so often. He held Jack in such high regard”.
Tom Weiskopf enjoyed what he was doing. He felt great love for golf as a sport. Golf was an escape from everything bad. Weiskopf's motive was also money and to provide for himself and his family. In an interview with Golfweek, he revealed more details.
“I didn’t really have the passion or the effort that I wanted to put into it and everyone kept pushing me to put into it. Golf was more a means to an end for me. It was a way to give my family the best possible life they could have.
Hunting and fishing and the outdoors was more important to me. Getting the grand slam of sheep was more important. That’s why I gave up a Ryder Cup one year so I could get my grand slam,” he said
Tom Weiskopf and early career
Weiskopf might have had an even longer career considering that sometimes he didn't take golf seriously.
He was a cheerful man, a party-goer, who enjoyed all aspects of life. “I challenge myself all the time: Why couldn’t I have done that? Why couldn’t I have worked out? Why did I drink? Well, I’m 20 years sober.
It’s my greatest accomplishment. Because I was a partier, a good time guy. I had so much talent that I could turn it on at times when I wanted to, when I needed to, but it wasn’t important to me,” he said. Johnny Miller thinks Wesikopf deserves to be in the Hall of Fame “Definitely.
A lot of guys get into the Hall but they were never the best, just the body of work was Hall of Fame worthy. But when you have a run like Tom had (in 1973), there’s two ways of looking at greatness, it’s not just always being consistently good but there’s some point in your career where you might have been the best in the world. That’s big to me”.