George Edward "Buddy" Marucci Jr (born March 6, 1952) is an American businessman and amateur golfer. He has played in more than 50

USGA The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...

amateur championships, and is perhaps best known for battling 19-year-old

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...

in the final round of the 1995

U.S. Amateur The United States Amateur Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Amateur, is the leading annual golf tournament in the United States for amateur golfers. It is organized by the United States Golf Association and is currently held each August ov ...

, losing by two holes and forcing the defending champion to the 36th (and final) hole. Marucci owned four car dealerships in the

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, area in 2006, including a Mercedes-Benz dealership, and was the longtime co-owner of a luxury car dealership in West Chester. His business dealings made him wealthy enough to afford memberships in some of the most famous private golf clubs around the country, including

Winged Foot Winged Foot Golf Club is a private golf club in the northeastern United States, located in Mamaroneck, New York, a suburb northeast of New York City. The club was founded in 1921, by a group largely made up of members of The New York Athletic Clu ...

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...

, Pine Valley, and

Cypress Point Cypress Point Club is a private golf club located in Pebble Beach, California, at the northern end of the Central Coast. Its single 18-hole course has been named as one of the finest in golf, best known for a series of dramatic holes along th ...

Amateur career

Born in

Malvern, Pennsylvania Malvern is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania. It is west of Philadelphia. The population was 3,419 at the 2020 census. The borough is bordered by Paoli Pike on the south, Sugartown Road on the west, Willistown Township on the east, and ...

, the son of a certified public accountant, Marucci attended

Haverford High School Haverford Senior High School is the public high school of Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, United States, operated by the School District of Haverford Township. It is at 200 Mill Road in Havertown. The school serves the entirety of Haverford To ...

, and was a 3-time PIAA state golf champion. He went to the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

on a golf scholarship. He is a four-time Pennsylvania Amateur champion (1982, 1983, 1987 and 1991), two-time winner of the Philadelphia Amateur, and competed in the 1996 Masters Tournament. Marucci was introduced to the national golf audience in 1995 when he battled 19-year-old

down to the final round of the

, losing by two holes. Marucci played on the U.S.

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

teams in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, going 3–0 in foursomes and 1–1–1 in singles, leading the U.S. to victory in 1997. He was the captain for the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and

2009 Walker Cup The 42nd Walker Cup Match was played on September 12 and 13, 2009 at the Merion Golf Club (East course) in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Team United States won 16½ to 9½ for its third consecutive win. Format On Saturday, there are four ...

team victories for the United States. In 2008, Marucci won the

U.S. Senior Amateur The United States Senior Men's Amateur Golf Championship is a national tournament for amateur golf competitors at least 55 years of age. It is operated by the United States Golf Association (USGA). The tournament starts with 36 holes of stroke pl ...

where he beat

George Zahringer George Zahringer III (born April 23, 1953 in Saginaw, Michigan) is an amateur golfer and stockbroker from New York, New York. He attended Stonehill College. Tournament wins ''this list may be incomplete'' *1980 Long Island Amateur *1982 Metropolit ...

in the final, 2 up, at Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas – his first and only USGA Championship. Marucci has been a longtime member of the

Merion Golf Club Merion Golf Club is a private golf club located in Haverford Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, a township bordering Philadelphia to the northwest along the historic Main Line. The club has two courses: the East Course, and the West Course ...

. In 2013, he was the vice-chairman of the 113th U.S. Open held at the Merion. Marucci was fully exempt for the

U.S. Senior Open The U.S. Senior Open is one of the five major championships in senior golf, introduced in 1980. It is administered by the United States Golf Association (USGA) and is recognized as a major championship by both the PGA Tour Champions and the Eu ...

with his win at the 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur. He was a quarterfinalist at the 2007 U.S. Senior Amateur, reached the match play portion at the 2006 U.S. Mid-Amateur and was a two-time quarterfinalist at the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur.

Broadcasting career

In 2017, Marucci joined

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...

as a golf analyst, offering his thoughts from the course as well as the studio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marucci, Buddy American male golfers Amateur golfers Maryland Terrapins men's golfers Golfers from Pennsylvania Sportspeople from Chester County, Pennsylvania 1952 births Living people