‘RIP My Friend’: Grieving Tiger Woods Joined by LPGA & PGA Tour to Mourn Death of Golf Writer Steve DiMeglio

The New Year begins on a sad note for the golf world. Longtime PGA Tour writer Steve DiMeglio, whose work appeared in USA TODAY and Golfweek for decades, has passed away at his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He was 63. DiMeglio had been diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2022, which had subsequently spread to his liver. Throughout his treatment, which included numerous rounds of chemotherapy, he remained open about his journey, even keeping track of his treatments by referencing the jersey numbers of sports legends. He shared every bit of his progress on his social media platforms, trying to inspire people to sign up for cancer screenings in the hopes of staying in touch with his friends in the golf world.

DiMeglio graduated from Mankato West High School and then went on to pursue higher studies at Minnesota State University. He began his journey as a journalist in 1994 at the Palm Springs Desert Sun. His first significant move was making it to Gannett in 1999, after a year of joining USA Today.  After a couple of years, he became a full-time golf beat writer. In 2016, Gannett took over Golfweek and that was when his bylines started appearing under the banner in 2019. He worked for them till 2023. The famous writer, as mentioned had many close relationships in the golf world. But he was the proudest to have a deep relationship with the golfing legend Tiger Woods. During his battle, Woods checked on him consistently and would send him advance copies of his video games too.

Over the past year, DiMeglio traveled to several tournaments, including the Hero World Challenge in December in the Bahamas, an event hosted by Tiger Woods. He shared on social media how happy he was to catch up with Woods and caddie Joey LaCava during the event. On Wednesday, Woods took to Twitter to pay tribute to his friend. “Unfortunately the golf world lost part of our family today, beloved golf writer Steve DiMeglio. I was always very close to Steve and we texted and talked about how he needed to keep fighting to get better so we could see each other in the Bahamas last month. And we did. I am so grateful for that. This a very sad day for all of golf. We have truly lost a friend,” he wrote.