Ed Fiori

Who is Ed Fiori?

Edward Ray Fiori is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour.

Fiori was born in Lynwood, California. As a youth, Fiori would sneak through a barbed wire fence to a nine-hole course near his Downey, California home to practice his game. He attended the University of Houston where he played on the golf team. He turned pro in 1977 and joined the PGA Tour in 1978.

Fiori won four tournaments on the PGA Tour. His first win was at the 1979 Southern Open. His last victory at the 1996 Quad City Classic led to the postponement of his plans to retire from the game and become a charter-boat captain. Fiori's previous PGA tour victory was 14 years earlier, at the 1982 Bob Hope Desert Classic. Fiori's victory at Quad Cities denied a young rookie named Tiger Woods his first title. This would be the only time in his career that Woods would fail to win with an outright 54-hole lead until Y. E. Yang outplayed him in the 2009 PGA Championship.

At 5 feet 7 inches tall and 220 pounds, Fiori is a stocky man; and in recent years has been plagued with a host of weight-related health problems that have affected his play and limited his playing time, including spinal fusion surgery. Fiori is nicknamed "The Grip" because of his unusually strong grip on the club. He lives in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, Texas.