Ed Fiori's 1979 WGA Championship Contestant Badge/Clip

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Ed Fiori's 1979 WGA Championship Contestant Badge/Clip

Then future Western Open Champion, coming two years later in 1981, Ed Fiori's 1979 tournament contestant badge is presented here. Larry Nelson would emerge victorious at this tournament in a playoff over Ben Crenshaw at Butler National. This clip is in similar condition to when it was issued in 1979. A signed letter of provenance from Ed Fiori comes with this lot. Once considered a major, the Western Open was first played in 1899 continues as the FedEx playoffs tournament the BMW Championship

Ed Fiori Collection

'If you want something enough you can get it', is how the old saying goes. A youngster in the Los Angeles Suburb of Downey, California took it upon himself to get some work in at the local 9-hole golf course. It would be through a barbed wire fence that Ed Fiori would gain entry to that course in the early 1960's. Fast-forward over thirty years and Fiori found himself on the same tee box as the newly professional 20-year-old Tiger Woods in the final round of the PGA Tour's Quad City Classic. Holding the trophy at the end of that day and denying the dazzling Woods his first professional win was all worth it. It would be one of four trophies that Ed Fiori would hoist after his University of Houston collegiate career. The 1979 Southern Open, 1981 Western Open, 1982 Bob Hope Desert Classic and last, but not least, the 1996 Quad City Classic tied up a successful golfing career at the hands of "The Grip." That nickname came naturally to him, as he squeezed the club significantly harder than his tour cohorts. While small in stature at 5'7," Fiori would leave a large golfing legacy when he took down Tiger Woods, which until 2009, would be the only 54-hole lead snatched away from Woods. The Ed Fiori Collection includes prized possessions earned from his sticktoitiveness on the PGA Tour scattered with triumphs along the way.