Phil Rodgers, a five-time PGA Tour winner who was denied a major tournament victory when he lost in a playoff at the 1963 British Open, died on Tuesday at his home in San Diego. He was 80.
The PGA Tour announced his death. He had been treated for leukemia for many years.
Rodgers recorded his tour victories from 1962 to 1966; in one, the 1962 Los Angeles Open, he won by a commanding nine strokes. But after turning 28, he never won again.
Blond-haired and pudgy, Rodgers was known for his outspoken self-regard. “He was supremely confident about his ability, as well he should have been,” a friend and golf partner, Chuck Courtney, told The San Diego Union-Tribune.