PINEHURST, N.C. — John Derr, who reported from the Masters a record 62 times and broadcast from the 15th green when it first was on television, died of an apparent heart attack, his daughter said Sunday. He was 97.
Cricket Gentry said her father watched the Belmont Stakes as American Pharoah won the Triple Crown. She went to his house after the race Saturday night and found him in his chair in front of the TV.
Derr attended his first Masters in 1935 and was in the clubhouse when Gene Sarazen made his albatross on the par-5 15th hole.