Jim King, PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions player dies at age 86
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Jim King, a PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions player, died of causes incident to COVID-19 on August 10 in Jupiter, Florida. King was 86.
King, born September 7, 1937 in Chicago, attended college at Western Illinois, where he played both golf and was a linebacker on the football team. After finishing third at the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Golf Championship, he qualified for the 1957 NCAA Championship. Two years later, he was the IAAC medalist. On the football field, the 1959 Leathernecks, under the direction of future NFL head coach Lou Saban, went undefeated (9-0), outscoring their opponents 303-104. Other future NFL head coaches on the coaching staff were Red Miller and Joe Collier. For his collegiate athletic success, WIU inducted King into its Hall of Fame in 1987.
While football was not in King’s future after graduation, golf was. After turning pro, he made periodic PGA TOUR starts, playing in 27 tournaments between 1960 and 1963. He made his TOUR debut at the 1960 Yorba Linda Open in California, tying for 60th. His best finish that season was a tie for 43rd in late-November, at the Mobile Sertoma Open in Alabama. King joined the U.S. Army at the conclusion of the 1963 season, and he served in the military for three years, as a paratrooper. He returned to the TOUR for one tournament in 1967—the Western Open—followed by his most prolific year of play in 1968, when he played in 13 tournaments, making a career-high 10 cuts.
That season, King enjoyed his first top-10 when he tied for eighth at the Magnolia Classic played opposite the Masters tournament in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He had two additional top-10s, both coming in 1972—a tie for sixth at the Shreveport Classic and a tie for 10th at the Buick Open. King would play off and on for the next 15 years while serving as a PGA professional at various Florida golf courses. His final made cut came at the 1983 PGA Championship at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. He finished 87th.
King also courted controversy during his career, the PGA TOUR suspending him from the USI Classic in Sutton, Massachusetts. During the second round at Pleasant Valley Country Club, King allegedly grabbed rules official Pete Sesso by the throat after Sesso had warned King of slow play and began timing him. Tournament Director Jack Tuthill, a PGA TOUR employee, disqualified King after the incident that took place near the 16th green, and Tuthill suspended King from playing “until further notice.”
King didn’t play in four tournaments following the USI Classic and returned to action in late-September, at the B.C. Open, where he tied for 35th.
When King wasn’t playing in PGA TOUR tournaments, he was active in state opens and competing on the TOUR’s satellite Tour.
King was a two-time winner of the Florida Open, in 1971 when he was the head pro at President Country Club in Boynton Beach, and again in 1976 after he had accepted the teaching-professional position at Pompano Beach’s Palm-Aire Country Club.
King turned 50 in 1984 and played 12 PGA TOUR Champions tournaments in 1984 and 1985. His first event was the 1984 Digital Middlesex Classic that resulted in a tie for 13th at Nashawtuc Country Club in Massachusetts. He added a tie for 14th at the Suntree Classic and a tie-for-13th finish at the Senior PGA Championship. He joined PGA TOUR Champions full time in 1986, posting one of two third-place finishes he would enjoy on the senior circuit. King shared third place with Charles Owens at PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida, earning $15,250. He would earn his largest paycheck a year later when he finished solo third at the Greater Grand Rapids Open in Michigan, an effort worth $17,800. King finished 22nd on the money list that year, his best performance. He ended his career with 130 total appearances, his final tournament the 2001 U.S. Senior Open.
King is survived by his daughter, Maria Ribeiro (Artur) and two grandchildren.
Funeral services will be August 22 at the Aycock-Riverside Funeral Home in Jupiter.