Born and raised in , Zoeller was successful golfer while at , finishing as the runner-up in the 1970 state high school tournament. After completing his high school career, he attended  in Florida, transferred to the , and became a professional golfer in 1973. Zoeller won both of his two majors in playoffs: the 1979 Masters at  in a three-way sudden-death playoff with  and ; and the  at  after an 18-hole playoff with .In 1979, Zoeller became the first golfer since 1935 to win The Masters in his first appearance in the event. The only two other golfers to have won The Masters on their debut at Augusta were the winners of the first two Masters tournaments  and , in 1934 and 1935 respectively. It was the first sudden-death playoff at The Masters; the previous six playoffs were 18-hole rounds on Monday (except 1935, which was 36 holes).For much of his career, Zoeller was famous for waving a white towel in mock surrender from the fairway of the 72nd hole of the 1984 U.S. Open, after Greg Norman holed a long putt on the 72nd green to tie Zoeller for the tournament lead. At the end of the 18-hole playoff the next day between Norman and Zoeller (which Zoeller won by 8 strokes), Norman waved a white towel himself, returning the joke.Zoeller was voted the 1985 winner of the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the  in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf.Zoeller shared the 54-hole lead in the  after a 3rd round of 64, but finished the tournament in 3rd place, his best-ever finish in The Open. Zoeller missed an 8-foot birdie putt on the 18th green in his 3rd round at  which would have tied the record for the best single round at The Open.He competed at the 1979, 1983 and 1985 , collecting 1.5 points in 10 matches.In 2002, Zoeller joined the  and won the , a , that year. He also won the 2004 .In 2009, Zoeller began selling vodka under the brand name "Fuzzy's Vodka". Starting in 2012, the brand sponsored 's entries in the .