Andy Bean, an 11-time PGA Tour winner and three-time runner-up in majors, died Saturday in Lakeland, Florida. He was 70 years old.
The PGA Tour said the cause was complications from the double lung replacement surgery he underwent in September. He was reported to have developed severe respiratory problems after a bout with Covid-19. He was a longtime resident of Lakeland.
At 6-foot-4 and about 210 pounds, Bean was an imposing presence on tour. In 1978, New York Times columnist Dave Anderson called him “one of the most attractive golfers.”
“He’s big and strong and emotional,” Anderson wrote. “Whether it’s a tee or his annoyance at a bad shot, he lets it all out. The other tour pros call him Li’l Abner for his strength.”
He was known to win bar bets by biting off a piece of the cover of a golf ball.
Bean’s best year was 1978, when he won three times, including back-to-back weeks at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, NC, for the Kemper Open and then the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic in a playoff over Lee Trevino. He finished third on the money list that year.
His 11 victories – he also won twice on the Japan Golf Tour – spanned 1977 to 1986. In March 1986, Bean became the first golfer on the tour to win the Doral Eastern Open, in South Florida, three times, defeating Hubert Green on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff. Bean had come back from five strokes behind with nine holes in regulation to force the playoff.
His 11th and final tour win by one stroke came in May at the Byron Nelson Classic outside Dallas.
Bean also played on the 1979 and 1987 Ryder Cup teams.
In majors, he made a late charge at Royal Birkdale in northwest England at the 1983 British Open, finishing one shot behind Tom Watson. In 1980, he finished second to 40-year-old Jack Nicklaus in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York.
A three-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions, Bean retired from competition in 2014 due to wrist injuries sustained in a car accident.
Thomas Andrew Bean was born on March 13, 1953, in Lafayette, Ga., near the Tennessee border, and grew up on Jekyll Island, on the Atlantic coast. His father, Tom Bean, was a club professional. The family moved to Florida, settling in Lakeland when Andy was 15 years old. He played golf for the University of Florida on a team that included Gary Koch, Woody Blackburn and Fred Ridley, the former US Amateur champion and now president of Augusta National.
He is survived by his wife, Debbie; their three daughters, Ashley, Lindsay and Jordan; and the grandchildren.
In addition to biting chunks out of golf balls, Bean was known for once subduing an alligator while trying to qualify for the PGA Tour. The story became that he had wrestled with the animal and thrown it into a lake.
But he threw cold water, so to speak, on this story. The incident was “no big deal,” he told Anderson, for his Sports of The Times column. “I just saw a little five-foot alligator near a water hole in Florida and knocked it over by its tail. That is easy. But the guy I was playing with made it sound like I fought it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this post
