Julius Boros, Catalyst of Senior Tour, Dies at 74 : Golf: Heart attack claims two-time U.S. Open and PGA champion on course near home.

Julius Boros, whose easy-going style belied the competitive fire that made him one of golf’s top players, died Saturday of a heart attack while riding a cart on one of his favorite courses. The two-time U.S. Open and PGA champion was 74.

Boros was on the golf course when a club member went into the office to report that someone had apparently passed out, said Ron Sharpe, director of golf at the Coral Ridge Country Club.

“An assistant went out, and he had obviously died at the time,” Sharpe said. “He’s had a bad heart for a long time. I don’t know if he had a stroke or a heart attack.”

Boros died about 2 p.m., about half an hour after his wife, Armen, had picked up the golf cart for him at the club, Sharpe said. Boros no longer played but he lived on the course and often rode around in a cart, he said.

Boros’ son, Guy, who is on the PGA Tour, was playing in the Colonial at Ft. Worth, an event his father won in 1960 and 1963. Guy Boros was informed about his father’s death shortly before his tee time but completed his round. It wasn’t known whether he would compete today.

Boros, who always had a toothpick or piece of grass perched on his lip while playing, was PGA player of the year in 1952, when Ben Hogan and Sam Snead were the biggest names, and in 1963, when Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player were the game’s celebrated “Big Three.” He won the U.S. Open in 1952 and ’63 and the PGA in ’68.

Boros won 18 tournaments on the PGA Tour, leading in earnings in 1952 and 1955. As one of the most popular players of the 1950s and 1960s, he helped get the Senior PGA Tour started in 1980.

“He’s one of the greatest to ever play the game,” said Miller Barber, another of the players whose popularity spawned the over-50 tour. “He will be dearly missed. He was a great inspiration to the senior tour and a great ambassador to the game.”