Jimmy Buffett died Friday from Merkel cell skin cancer, an affliction he had been battling for four years, according to a statement on his official website. He was 76.
And while he was best known for spending time on the beach, Buffett also had been bitten by the golf bug in a big way.
He was known for dropping in golf course visits in the middle of his rigorous concert tours. For example, while playing a gig in Dublin, Buffett snuck in a round at Portmarnock Golf Club, and while headlining in Paris he posted pictures from St. Cloud Country Club.
Also, the musician was on hand for a 2018 U.S. Senior Women’s Open practice round, serving as a caddie for competitor Patricia Ehrhart. That tournament was contested at Chicago Golf Club yet he performed at Wrigley Field later that week.
According to a story from USA Today, the singer died “peacefully … surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs.”
Buffett struggled with an undisclosed health issue starting in 2022, when he was hospitalized and forced to cancel several shows. In May and June 2023, he canceled more concerts after revealing he was “back in the hospital to address some issues that needed immediate attention.”
Along with his 1977 breakthrough “Margaritaville,” the languid ode to relaxation with a buzzy bent that was submitted to the National Recording Registry in 2023, Buffett penned a bonanza of pop culture staples in the 1970s and 1980s.
“Come Monday,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” “A Pirate Looks at Forty” and “Pencil Thin Mustache” were alternately contemplative and silly. But all bore Buffett’s signature sound that became known as “trop rock,” or, as Buffett called it, “Gulf and Western,” with acoustic guitar, steel drums and pedal steel guitar injected into their backbone.
Born on Christmas Day 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Buffett grew up in nearby Mobile, Alabama, where he developed a love of sailing from his grandfather.
Here’s a look at some of Buffett’s documented golf excursions, including a look at a post that proclaimed he had a hole-in-one.