Remembering golf notables who died in 2025

PGA Tour golfer JC Snead passed away on Apr. 25, 2025 after a struggle with cancer; he was 84. The nephew of golfing legend Sam Snead, Jesse Carlyle Snead played in 1,097 professional tour events, making the cut in 915 of them.

Snead graduated from East Tennessee State University and turned professional in1964. He earned his tour card in 1968 and won his first tournament at the 1971 Tucson Open. His shining moment in major tournaments came in 1973 when he finished second at the masters.

Snead played on three American Ryder Cup teams—1971, 1973 and 1975. When he reached age 50 in 1990, he joined the senior tour. He won his first of four PGA Tour Champions events in 1993. JC wasn’t as great or well-known as his uncle, but his golfing work did land him in the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

He was regarded as one of the tour’s most consistent players, with more than $7 million in career earnings. He is survived by his wife Suzie, son Jason and two grandsons.

Roundly regarded as the best amateur golfer of the modern era, Jay Sigel died Apr. 19, 2025 of pancreatic cancer. He was 81. As an amateur, Sigel won consecutive U.S. Amateur titles in 1982 and1983, and the British Amateur title in 1979.

He also won three U.S. Mid-Amateur titles in 1983, ’85 and ’87. [Bobby Jones was the greatest amateur golfer of the pre-World War II era.] He did compete in several PGA Tour tournaments as an amateur. Sigel also competed in nine Walker Cup tournaments (American team vs Great Britain and Ireland team), the most of any player in the event’s history.

Two of those appearances came as a playing captain. As an amateur Sigel competed in 11 consecutive Masters tournaments from 1978 through 1988, making the cut four times, and winning low amateur honors in 1980, 1981 and 1988.

Sigel was born and raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and grew up playing golf at Aronimink Golf Club. He was the first golfer to earn the Arnold Palmer Scholarship to Wake Forest and graduated in 1987.

He worked in the insurance industry, both his private agency and later as a corporate executive. After turning 50, Sigel turned pro, joining the PGA Tour Champions and won eight tournaments. He is survived by his wife Betty and his three daughters.  

Jo Ann Prentice, a six-time LPGA winner, died May 18, 2025, at age 92. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama, turned professional in 1956 and joined the LPGA tour that year. She remained winless for almost a full decade until breaking through at the 1965 All State Ladies’ Invitational in Jackson, Mississippi, where she beat Kathy Whitworth by a single shot.

Her most notable victory came in 1974 at the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle tournament at Rancho Mirage, California, the event which would become the LPGA first major of the season, the Chevron Championship. That win represented the largest winning check in women’s golf at the time.

“Jo Ann was a fierce competitor, feisty and not afraid to share her opinion, but also one of the kindest, sweetest people you would ever want to meet,” recalled 27-time LPGA winner Jane Blalock.

Judy Bell, a golf trailblazer, died on Nov. 3, 2025, at 89. Originally from Wichita, Kansas, she took up golf at age seven and became a fine amateur golfer, playing for the U.S. team in the Curtis Cup in 1960 and 1962.

Bell became a USGA volunteer in 1961, then became a tournament rules official. She later served on the Women’s Committee and in 1987, became the first woman on the Executive Committee. In 1996 Bell was elected as the 54th president of the USGA.

She has been inducted into 11 halls of fame, including the World Golf Hall of Fame.

“All of us celebrate the extraordinary life of a woman whose impact will continue for generations,” said Mike Whan, CEO.