Jim Colbert, 8-time PGA Tour winner with bucket hat, dies at 85
Jim Colbert, renowned for wearing his bucket hat while winning eight times on the PGA Tour and 20 times on the PGA Tour, has died, the PGA Tour announced. He was 85. Colbert died on Sunday.
The tour did not list a cause of death. Colbert was a teenager playing a tournament in Kansas when he nearly collapsed from sunstroke, leading doctors to insist he start wearing a hat to protect himself. He chose a bucket hat, which became his trademark during his PGA Tour.
Born in New Jersey, Colbert went to Kansas State on a football scholarship. He turned all his attention to golf after an injury and was runner-up in the NCAA Championship in 1964, and two years later was on the PGA Tour. He won the first of his eight PGA Tour titles in the 1969 Monsanto Invitational Open.
He had a pair of top 5s in the majors in 1974, a tie for fourth in the Masters and tied for fifth in the U. S. Open at Winged Foot.
His best season on the PGA Tour was in 1983 when he won twice and was 15th on the money list. Colbert was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996, had surgery to remove his prostate and was back on the course two years later, winning The Transamerica. He also was active in business.