Fred Walter Marti (born November 15, 1940) is an American

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

Early life and amateur career

Marti was born in

Baytown, Texas Baytown is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within Harris County, Texas, Harris and Chambers County, Texas, Chambers counties. Located in the Greater Houston, Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area, it lies on the nor ...

. He played college golf at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

with

Homero Blancas Homero Blancas, Jr. (born March 7, 1938) is an American professional golfer who has played on both the PGA Tour and the Senior PGA Tour (now known as the Champions Tour). Amateur career Blancas, who is of Mexican American descent, was born in H ...

, Dick Crawford,

Babe Hiskey Bryant "Babe" Hiskey (born November 21, 1938) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. Hiskey was born in Burley, Idaho. He won the Idaho Amateur three times. He attended the University of Houston an ...

Rocky Thompson Rocky Lee Thompson (born August 8, 1977) is a Canadian former ice hockey right wing, who currently serves as the head coach of theBridgeport Islanders of the American Hockey League. He was most recently an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Fl ...

, and

Kermit Zarley Kermit Millard Zarley, Jr. (born September 29, 1941) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. He is also an author of several books on Christianity, Jesus, and the Bible. Biography Zarley was born ...

. He was a member of the 1962 team that went undefeated and won the NCAA Division I Championship.

Professional career

In 1964, Marti turned professional. He played the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

from 1964 to 1980. His best finishes were a trio of second places: 2nd at the 1971

Kaiser International Open Invitational The Michelob Championship at Kingsmill was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 1968 PGA Tour, 1968 to 2002 PGA Tour, 2002. It was played in Virginia at the River Course of Kingsmill Resort, Kingsmill Golf Club outside of Williamsburg, Virginia ...

, 2nd at the 1972

Colonial National Invitation The Colonial National Invitation, titled for sponsorship reasons as the Charles Schwab Challenge since 2019, is a professional golf tournament in Texas on the PGA Tour, played annually in May in Fort Worth at Colonial Country Club, which organiz ...

, and 2nd at the 1978

Ed McMahon-Jaycees Quad Cities Open The John Deere Classic is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played annually in July, usually the week before The Open Championship, at TPC Deere Run in the Quad Cities community of Silvis, Illinois. History The tournament beg ...

. His best finish in a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

was a T-9 at the

1971 PGA Championship The 1971 PGA Championship was the 53rd PGA Championship, played February 25–28 at the original PGA National Golf Club, presently known as BallenIsles Country Club (East Course) in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Jack Nicklaus won the second of h ...

. After retiring from the

in 1980, Marti replaced

as the head golf professional at Silverbell Golf Course in

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

. He was recognized by the Southwest Section of the PGA as Teacher of the Year in 1989. In 1996, Marti returned to his hometown of

after accepting the head professional position at Evergreen Point Golf Course. Though retired, he continues to coach PGA Tour player Shawn Stefani.

Professional wins

''this list may be incomplete'' *1971 United Air Lines-Ontario Open (unofficial PGA Tour event) *1981

Arizona Open The Arizona Open Championship is the annual open state championship of golf in Arizona. The competition is 54-holes of stroke play (3 rounds on an 18-hole course), with the winner being the player with the lowest total number of strokes. Following ...

References

External links

* American male golfers Houston Cougars men's golfers PGA Tour golfers Golfers from Houston 1940 births Living people 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-golf-bio-stub