DeWitt Weaver, longtime PGA Tour golfer, dead at 81

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DeWitt Weaver, a longtime PGA Tour competitor who won two events on the circuit during his golf career, died Thursday of heart failure. He was 81.

Weaver played on the PGA Tour from 1967 to 1976 and finished in the top 25 on the Tour’s money list in 1971. He won the 1971 Liggett & Myers Open Match Play Championship and the 1972 Southern Open, though he never finished better than 18th place during any major (1974 British Open).

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He would later compete on the Senior PGA Tour and pick up a win over J.C. Snead in the 1991 Bank One Senior Classic in a playoff.

Weaver was inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and the National Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2003, according to the PGA Tour’s website.

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Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus paid his respects to Weaver in a tweet Tuesday.

"Barbara and I are saddened to hear of the passing of our friend DeWitt Weaver. He was a truly wonderful man, and I was blessed to be able to call him a close friend for a very long time. We played a lot of golf together, and I thoroughly enjoyed our time on the course and off," he wrote.

"Our hearts go out to Sheri, his wife of 58 years, and their entire family. The golf world lost a terrific champion and even better friend in DeWitt Weaver, and he will be greatly missed."

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Before playing golf professionally, Weaver was a bigtime high school football prospect in Texas. He earned a scholarship to play at SMU and was a backup to future NFL star Don Meredith.