Ed Fiori: Journeyman Pro Who Bested Young Tiger

Ed Fiori won several tournaments on the PGA Tour in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But he is best-remembered for being the journeyman pro who tracked down and beat a young, first-year pro named Tiger Woods in 1996, well after Fiori had last been a threat to win.

Full name: Edward Ray Fiori

Date of birth: April 21, 1953

Place of birth: Lynwood, California

Date and place of death: July 6, 2025 in Houston, Texas

Nickname: "The Grip," because of his very strong (his right hand was rotated well to the right on the club's handle) grip technique.

His Biggest Wins

Ed Fiori won four times on the PGA Tour:

• 1979 Southern Open
• 1981 Western Open
• 1982 Bob Hope Desert Classic
• 1996 Quad City Classic

Off the tour, Fiori won the 1981 Southern California Open. And he recorded one victory on the Champions Tour:

• 2004 MasterCard Classic

In the Majors

Fiori got into 19 major championships, all but three of them from 1978 (his first appearance in a major was at the 1978 U.S. Open) through 1989. He finished higher than 33rd only twice, but both of those were Top 10 finishes.

Fiori went into the final round of the 1980 Masters in solo second place, although seven strokes behind the leader, Seve Ballesteros. He finished tied for sixth place. And Fiori tied for ninth place in the 1989 PGA Championship.

More About Ed Fiori

While Ed Fiori's unorthodox grip produced the nickname ("The Grip") by which he was known for most of his competitive career, from 1996 on he was just as likely to be referred to as "the Tiger killer." That's because Fiori's final PGA Tour victory was a comeback win against the hot young phenom Tiger Woods in the 1996 Quad City Classic, and when Fiori died in 2025 many of the obituaries in golf media led with that fact. For example, the Associated Press obit of Fiori began this way: "Ed Fiori, who for 13 years was the only player to rally from a 54-hole deficit to beat Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour, died Sunday ..."

At that 1996 Quad City Classic (the tournament later known as the John Deere Classic), Woods was 20 years old and making his third start since turning pro. Fiori was the overweight, 43-year-old journeyman who hadn't won since 1982 and was mulling retirement.

And Woods led Fiori by one stroke entering the final round. But in that last round, Fiori scored 67 to Woods' 72, and Fiori won by two strokes while Woods slipped to fifth place.

It was Fiori's first PGA Tour win in 14 years, eight months and two days — at the time the second-longest gap between successive wins in PGA Tour history. And Woods? He got his first career win two starts later and went on to a spectacular career. And it wasn't until the 2009 PGA Championship that anyone else beat Woods in a PGA Tour tournament that Tiger led entering the final round.

Fiori got started in golf by sneaking onto a course in Downey, California, and hitting balls with clubs he'd been given by a neighbor.

Fiori didn't initially attract any attention from college golf recruiters. Out of high school he worked odd jobs and continued playing golf. On one golf trip, Fiori entered a tournament in Mexico and wound up in a playoff against Craig Stadler (the eventual winner) and Jack Newton. A University of Houston alumnus was there, and recommended Fiori to the school, which at the time was one of the collegiate golf powerhouses.

So Fiori, about four years older than his teammates, became a college golfer. In 1977, Houston won the national championship, with a team that in addition to Fiori also included two other future PGA Tour pros, David Ishii and Mike Booker. Fiori won the Southwest Conference individual championship that year and was named All-American.

Later in 1977, Fiori was medalist at the PGA Tour's Fall Q-School, and 1978 was his rookie year on the tour. He recorded one Top 10 finish in 25 PGA Tour starts in 1978, the first of 20 consecutive years in which he made at least 15 starts on tour.

Things picked up quite a bit in 1979: Fiori earned his first PGA Tour victory, sinking a 13-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole against Tom Weiskopf to win the Southern Open. He finished 65th on the money list.

His second win on tour was in the 1981 Western Open, which he won by four strokes. Fiori finished 36th on the money list that season.

"I don't watch myself on TV for fear of picking up even more bad habits." — Ed Fiori

His third win — three wins in his first four years on tour — was in the 1982 Bob Hope Desert Classic. There he won another playoff, beating Tom Kite on the first extra hole by making a 40-foot putt.

Fiori finished 45th on the money list in 1982, then a career-best 26th in 1983, but he fell to 119th at end of 1984. He rebounded somewhat in following years, finishing as high as 58th again in 1988, when he had a runner-up finish to Joey Sindelar in the Honda Classic. But he never finished that high again. The only year after 1989 that he finished in the Top 100 again was 1996, when he won that Quad Cities Classic title.

In his career on the PGA Tour, Fiori made 583 starts. In addition to his four victories, he was runner-up twice and third-place five times. He had 17 total Top 5 finishes, and 38 Top 10 finishes.

His one win on the Champions Tour was also via playoff. He beat Graham Marsh on the third extra hole at the 2004 MasterCard Classic, after coming from seven strokes behind to start the final round and force the playoff. That gets Fiori on the list of golfers with the biggest final-round comebacks on the Champions Tour.

On the Champions Tour, Fiori made a total of 58 starts from 2003-2005. His one victory was his only Top 5 finish on the senior circuit, but he did post four additional Top 10 finishes. He was unable to play the senior tour beyond 2005 due to spinal fusion surgery late that year.

Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Alliss, Peter. The Who's Who of Golf, 1983, Orbis Publishing.
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf, Volume 2, 2009, McFarland and Company.
espn.com. "Ed Fiori, four-time winner on PGA Tour, dies at 72," The Associated Press, July 6, 2025, https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/45686380/ed-fiori-four-winner-pga-tour-dies-72.
Livsey, Laura. "Four-time PGA Tour winner Ed Fiori passes away," PGATour.com, July 6, 2025, https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/latest/2025/07/06/pga-tour-winner-ed-fiori-passes-away.
PGA Tour. The Tour Book 1985, Biographies, Ed Fiori.
PGA Tour. 1996 John Deere Classic, JohnDeereClassic.com, https://johndeereclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1996.pdf.
PGA Tour. 1998 PGA Tour Media Guide, Player Biographies, Ed Fiori.
PGATour.com. Players, Ed Fiori, Career, https://www.pgatour.com/player/01346/ed-fiori/career.