Gay Brewer, who won the 1967 Masters as well as 10 other PGA Tour events during the 1960s and 1970s, died yesterday at his home in Lexington, Ky. He was 75.

The cause was lung cancer, said his fiancée, Alma Jo McGuire.

Brewer won his Masters title with a brilliant final-round 67 to finish one stroke ahead of his playing partner, Bobby Nichols. Brewer’s final score of 280 was four strokes better than Bert Yancey’s and five better than Arnold Palmer’s.

Brewer won more than the coveted green jacket with his victory. He also won redemption.

The previous year at the Masters, he had stood on the 18th green at Augusta National needing only to make a 6-foot par putt to win the tournament. He missed, dropping into a three-way tie with Jack Nicklaus and Tommy Jacobs. In the 18-hole playoff the next day, he faded with a 78 to finish eight strokes behind Nicklaus.

To make matters worse, Brewer traveled the next week to Las Vegas for the Tournament of Champions and lost in another playoff, this time by four strokes to Palmer.

The losses made Brewer realize that he needed to pay more attention to the mental aspects of the game, and he said he turned to Norman Vincent Peale’s “Power of Positive Thinking” to bolster his confidence. He even scanned sections of the book moments before stepping out onto the course for his final round of the 1967 Masters.

Gay Robert Brewer Jr. was born on March 19, 1932, in Middletown, Ohio, and grew up in Lexington, Ky.

An excellent high school golfer, he won the United States junior championship in 1949. He continued his amateur career at the University of Kentucky, but not on a golf scholarship because the university did not offer them. Instead, he joined the golf team on a football scholarship arranged by Bear Bryant, then Kentucky’s coach. Brewer tried out as a holder for the place-kicker.

Brewer joined the professional golf tour in 1956. A long hitter who bore a passing resemblance to Babe Ruth, he had an unusual swing — the result of a broken elbow sustained as a child — that made it difficult to consistently play well.

After five disappointing seasons, he finally emerged in 1961 with three tour victories and earnings of more than $31,000, good for seventh place on the money-winners list. He also won multiple tournaments in 1965 and 1967.

He was a solid contender in the United States Open from 1962 through 1973, finishing in the top 10 five times. In all, he had 12 top-10 finishes in major tournaments. He also represented the United States on its Ryder Cup team in 1967 and 1973.

His final PGA Tour win came in 1972 at the Canadian Open, and his final professional win was in 1984 at the Citizens Union Senior Golf Classic. He retired from the senior tour, now known as the Champions Tour, in 2000.

In addition to his fiancée, he is survived by his daughters, Kelly Allen and Erin Provence, and four grandchildren.

Gay R Brewer