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A five-time winner on Tour who was the 1963
British Open runner-up in a playoff, Rodgers was best known for
his work as an instructor, including helping Jack Nicklaus
produce a late-career resurgence.
Nicklaus posted a lengthy tribute to Rodgers on Instagram,
writing Wednesday, "Today we lost one of golf's greats, one of
its most colorful individuals, and one of my dearest friends."
Nicklaus went on to detail some of the pair's history playing
against each other and together, and credited Rodgers for
helping him win the U.S. Open and PGA Championship in 1980 by
improving his short game.
At the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Rodgers made three bogeys in
his final six holes to finish two strokes out of a playoff with
Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. Nicklaus ultimately prevailed to win
his first major, 18 years before the pair of majors Nicklaus
credits Rodgers with helping him win.
Rodgers' closest call in a major came in the 1963 British Open,
when Bob Charles beat him in a playoff at Royal Lytham & St.
Annes.
Rodgers retired from competition in 1977 and became an
instructor, earning praise for decades as one of the best in the
world.
Nicklaus said he and Rodgers saw each other at the PGA Tour
Champions' Insperity Invitational in Houston this spring.
"He was struggling greatly, but it meant the world to me to see
him, even if it was briefly," Nicklaus wrote.
--Field Level Media
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