Ken Venturi was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame earlier this month, but he was not able to attend due to surgery that required a stay in the hospital. He died yesterday at the age of 82.

He lived one of the fullest lives the golf world has ever known. He played with Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan throughout his competitive career. He was also a close friend and drinking buddy of Frank Sinatra. 

Venturi won the 1964 U.S. Open and was runner-up twice at the Masters.

He won 14 PGA Tour titles over his illustrious career, but will be most remembered for his 35 years on television as the lead golf announcer for CBS.

Venturi is also is the last living link between the earliest of days of American golf and the modern game. His life-long friend Eddie Lowery had been the 10-year-old caddy for Francis Ouimet when Ouimet became the first American to win the U.S. Open in 1913.

Lowery introduced a young Venturi to Byron Nelson and Nelson became Venturi’s friend and mentor. Lord Byron helped develop the swing that would produce Venturi’s U.S. Open victory.

Lowery also initiated the famous golf match immortalized in Mark Frost’s book, “The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever.”

Ben Hogan recognized the ultimate competitive nature of the young Venturi and they played many practice rounds together over the years.

Even though Venturi was forced to spend time away from his golf and serve his country in Korea as a soldier in the U.S. Army, he nearly won the 1956 Masters as an amateur before a final round 80 in very windy conditions gave the title to Jackie Burke.

Perhaps Venturi’s greatest contribution to the game of golf, however, was his expert and concise descriptions of the game to the audiences of the CBS television network.

His longtime broadcast partner, Pat Summerall died in April this year and Jim Nantz accepted his Hall of Fame induction earlier this month.

If a man’s life is measured in the friends he has known and events that he has witnessed throughout his life, Ken Venturi definitely had a Hall of Fame life.

RIP Ken Venturi, May 15, 1931 – May 17, 2013.