Compiled 89 professional wins, 29 PGA Tour wins and six major championships in his career. He was named PGA Player of the Year in 1971 and inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981.
He started working in cotton fields to help his family at the age of five. He was raised by his mother and grandmother, never having met his father Joseph, who abandoned the family.
He had one of his best years in 1971, winning both the U.S. Open and the Open Championship.
He had six children with his wife Claudia Bove, whom he married in 1983.
He won every major event except for the Masters, falling just short of a grand slam championship that Tiger Woods was later able to attain.
