Arnold Palmer, the king of golf, died Sunday, September 25, 2015. According to a statement from his company, he passed while awaiting cardiac surgery at a Pittsburgh hospital. Palmer was 87 years old.

Palmer was born in 1929 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and began golfing when he was a toddler. His father Milfred Palmer, a golf pro, shortened a set of clubs so that his son could play.

Palmer was a natural and by the time he was 17 years old, he’d won two state interscholastic championships. He earned a golf scholarship to Wake Forest University and won three Atlantic Coast Conference Championships.

In 1954, he won the Ohio Amateur championship, a US Amateur title, and by that fall he turned pro. He saw his first pro victory in ’55 at the Canadian Open. Then in ’58 he won the Masters Tournament in Augusta, GA as the youngest champion at the time.

By the early ’60s he was the best and most successful golfer in the world. From 1960 to 1963 he won 29 titles and was the captain of the winning US Ryder Cup team in ’63. His last major win was at the Masters in 1964, which made him the first golfer to win the Masters Tournament four times. He was also golf’s first big money winner, netting $1 million in total winnings by ’68.

In total, he won 93 titles and 7 major championships, which included four Masters and two British Opens.

He was a successful businessman, investing in automobile and aviation companies. Palmer was also one of golf’s best pitchmen.