Jerry Beard, who caddied Fuzzy Zoeller to '79 Masters victory, dies after fight with cancer
Jeriah “Jerry” Beard, who caddied Fuzzy Zoeller to victory in the 1979 Masters, died Friday.
According to family, Beard was fighting cancer and had recently been placed into hospice care.
“I lost a friend today,” Zoeller said Friday afternoon. “Jerry was a great person and a great caddie. I’ll never forget those years he was on my bag.”
When asked for his favorite memory from 1979, Fuzzy mentioned the 15th hole on Sunday afternoon.
“Jerry says, ‘If you see water, you gotta go,’” Zoeller recalled. “I’m 236-yards away, a 20-mile-per-hour wind in my face, so I stand on my tippy toes. I lean on Jerry’s back, and sure enough I see the water.
“I said, ‘Jerry, I see water.’ He said, ‘OK, then we gotta go.’”
Fuzzy struck a 3-wood to the middle of the green and two-putted for birdie. Zoeller and Beard would defeat Ed Sneed and Tom Watson in the first sudden-death playoff in Masters history.
It was Fuzzy’s first appearance at Augusta National.
“I read all the putts and pulled every club,” Beard said in 2022 when reflecting on their 1979 triumph. “I know what I did for him, and he paid me well for it.”
Beard, who looped his first Masters in 1957, worked full-time for Continental Can Company.
After retirement, Beard would spend time golfing at Augusta Municipal.
“Jerry was a great golfer and a great friend,” said Ira Miller, general manager at Augusta Municipal. “He just couldn’t chip worth 2-cents.”
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Jerry Beard, who caddied Fuzzy Zoeller to '79 Masters victory, dies
