PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Bob Rosburg, who won the 1959 PGA Championship and spent three decades with ABC Sports as the first reporter to call the shots from the golf course, has died. He was 82.

The PGA Tour said Rosburg died Thursday at home in Palm Springs, Calif. He had been battling cancer, but longtime friend Sal Johnson wrote on his blog that Rosburg died of head injuries after a fall.

Rosburg won six times on the PGA Tour, his biggest victory coming at the 1959 PGA Championship when he rallied from six shots behind at Minneapolis Golf Club to beat Jerry Barber and Doug Sanders for his only major.

He achieved greater fame through television.

Rosburg, known as “Rossie” by his colleagues, was hired by ABC Sports in 1974. Instead of sitting in a tower, the network decided it needed a golfer to call the action from the course. Today, every network has on-course reporters.