Eight-time PGA Tour winner Jim Colbert has died at the age of 85.
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Colbert died on Sunday, with the PGA Tour confirming the news. Officials have not released the cause of death.
The golf icon became widely recognized for his trademark bucket hat, which he wore throughout a career that produced eight PGA Tour victories and 20 Champions Tour wins.
Golf Legend Dies After Decades-Long Career on the Course
Colbert's famous bucket hat dated back to a frightening incident during his teenage years.
While competing in a tournament in Kansas in 1957, he nearly collapsed from sunstroke.
Doctors later advised him to begin wearing a hat for protection, leading him to adopt the bucket hat style that would become synonymous with his career.
Originally attending Kansas State University on a football scholarship, Colbert shifted his focus to golf after suffering an injury.
He finished runner-up at the NCAA Championship in 1964 before joining the professional ranks on the PGA Tour just two years later.
Colbert secured his first PGA Tour title at the Monsanto Invitational Open in 1969.
He also enjoyed success at major championships, recording a tie for fourth at The Masters and a tie for fifth at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 1974.
In 1983, Colbert won twice on tour and climbed to 15th on the PGA Tour money list with earnings of $223,810.
Business Success and Cancer Comeback Defined Later Years
Away from the course, Colbert built a successful business career tied closely to golf.
He purchased his first golf course in Las Vegas in 1980 before launching Jim Colbert Golf, a company that eventually owned 23 courses, employed around 700 people, and generated roughly $50 million in gross revenue.
Colbert also earned multiple honors throughout his life, entering the Kansas State Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame in 2019.
Health challenges followed him later in life after doctors diagnosed him with prostate cancer in 1996.
Following surgery to remove his prostate, Colbert returned to professional golf just two years later and won The Transamerica.
He spent much of his later life in Las Vegas while maintaining strong ties to Kansas State University.
The school's men's and women's golf teams continue to play at Colbert Hills Golf Club in Manhattan, a course he helped design before it opened in 2000.
