Andy Bean, who won 11 times on the PGA Tour, has died after undergoing a double-lung transplant. Check out his Cause of death here.
Andy Bean : Death | Cause of death | Net worth
Bean turned professional in 1975. He finished inside the top 35 on the money list from 1977 to 1986. In five of those years he was in the top seven.
His first PGA Tour victory was at the Doral-Eastern Open in 1977, and his last was at the Byron Nelson Golf Classic in 1986. In 1978 he won three times.
Bean played on the United States Ryder Cup team in 1979 and 1987 and spent several weeks ranked in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings in 1986 and 1987.
Bean never won a major championship but he finished second three times. He had a solo second-place finish behind Jack Nicklaus at the 1980 PGA Championship.
At the 1983 British Open, Bean and Hale Irwin finished tied for second, one stroke behind Tom Watson; and in the 1989 PGA Championship, Bean, Mike Reid, and Curtis Strange tied for second, one stroke behind Payne Stewart.
Andy Bean Death
Andy Bean, an 11-time PGA Tour winner, has died at the age of 70 after reportedly suffering complications from a double lung transplant.
Bean had respiratory issues after a bout of Covid and had the transplant last month. He is survived by his wife Debbie and their three daughters and many grandchildren. Bean died in his hometown of Lakeland, Fla.
As well as multiple PGA tour triumphs, Bean played for the United States in the Ryder Cup in 1979 and 87. He never won a major but was runner-up three times, in the 1980 and 89 PGA Championship and the 1983 British Open.
Bean’s first PGA Tour victory came in 1977 at the Doral-Eastern Open in Miami. The last of those 11 came in 1986 at the Byron Nelson Golf Classic in the Dallas area. He was also a three-time winner on the Champions Tour.
Reflecting on his life and career in golf in an interview with The Ledger in 2015, Bean said: ‘We all have a chance to have our time. You hope you make the most of it.
‘I’ve been able to travel the world, to see things and have privileges that other people only dream about.
‘I’ve been able to support my family and do things that I enjoy. How could anybody complain about that?’
Bean was involved in a car accident in 2011 that hurt his right index finger and wrists. It ultimately led to him stepping away from golf in 2015.
‘It’s hard giving up something that you worked all your life to achieve. But everybody has to do it,’ he said.
Andy Bean Cause of death
A cause of death was not given but Tour officials said he died in his hometown of Lakeland, Florida, NBC Sports reported. Bean had been recovering from double lung replacement surgery in late August in Orlando, Golfweek reported.
Bean had lung replacement surgery in September. His friend, Alan Pope, posted on Facebook at the time that Bean’s lungs had been damaged from COVID-19.
Bean was a giant of a man on the PGA Tour at 6-foot-4, and he once earned the reputation for wrestling an alligator at Q-school, a story he explained a few years later was little more than swatting it on the tail while playing alongside a player who had never seen a gator.
He never won a PGA Tour major, but Bean placed second three times. He was alone in second place at the 1980 PGA Championship, and shared runner-up spots with Hale Irwin at the 1983 British Open and with Mike Reid and Curtis Strange at the 1989 PGA Championship, according to the PGA Tour.
Bean also had three wins on the tour’s senior circuit, the PGA Tour Champions, including the 2008 Charles Schwab Cup Championship when he was 55, NBC Sports reported. He also was a member of the 1979 and 1987 U.S. Ryder Cup teams, according to the news outlet.
Bean’s lungs had been badly damaged from a bout with COVID-19, according to a Sept. 1 post on Facebook by his friend, Alan Pope. He underwent surgery at Advent Health Hospital in Orlando on Aug. 31, Golfweek reported.
Former Tour member and fellow University of Florida alumnus Larry Rinker paid tribute to Bean on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“He was larger than life when I met him on a recruiting trip to Gainesville as a senior in high school,” Rinker wrote. “A kind and generous soul.”
Bean was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame in 1978 and was enshrined in the Florida Sports Hall of Fame two years later.
He is survived by his wife, Debbie, his three daughters and his grandchildren, according to NBC Sports.
Net worth
Andy Bean’s net worth at the time of his death is $6 million.
The primary source of his fortune is the result of his successful professional golf career.