Gay Brewer, 1967 Masters champ, dies at 75
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Gay Brewer, the 1967 Masters champion who won 11 times on the
PGA Tour, died Friday at his home after a fight with lung cancer. He was 75.
Brewer, who retired from the Champions Tour in 2000, had been battling cancer since
October, fiancee Alma Jo McGuire said.
“It was incurable,” she said. “It was easier on him and the family that it didn’t go any
longer than it did.”
Brewer won the 1967 Masters for his lone major title a year after he lost an 18-hole
playoff to Jack Nicklaus. In 1966, Brewer three-putted the 72nd hole to fall into the
playoff with Nicklaus and Tommy Jacobs.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Gay Brewer,” said Billy Payne, chairman of the
Masters and Augusta National Golf Club. “Gay was a wonderful champion and individual and
will be dearly missed in April. We express our heartfelt sympathy to his family.”
In June, Picadome Golf Course in Lexington, where Brewer learned to play, changed its name
to honor him. Brewer played college golf at the University of Kentucky.
“He was just really personable,” McGuire said. “I don’t know anybody who didn’t like
him.”
McGuire said services would be Wednesday at Kerr Brothers Funeral Home in
Lexington.