Tony Lema
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Anthony David "Tony" Lema (February 25, 1934 – July 24, 1966) was an American professional golfer.
Lema was born in Oakland, California. His father died when Tony was three years old, and his widowed mother struggled to raise the family of four children on welfare. He began playing golf as a boy, but at age 17 enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served in Korea. After his discharge from the military in 1955, he obtained work as an assistant to the club professional at a San Francisco golf club.
By 1957, Lema had developed his skills sufficiently enough to earn his way onto the PGA Tour. He struggled until 1962, when he began an impressive performance between then and 1966 that saw him win ten PGA tour events, finish second on 11 occasions, and third four times. In 1963 he finished second by one stroke to Jack Nicklaus at The Masters. In 1964, he won the Bing Crosby Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, California and then captured one of the major championships by taking that year's British Open at St. Andrews, Scotland. Lema was a member of the 1963 and 1965 United States Ryder Cup teams.
Lema was nicknamed "Champagne Tony" for his habit of celebrating a tournament victory with a bottle of champagne. In 1966, he was flying with his wife, Betty, to an exhibition match in Chicago, Illinois, when their chartered twin-engine Beechcraft Bonanza ran out of fuel and crashed, coincidentally, on the seventh hole of a golf course in Lansing, Illinois. All four people on board were killed.
Lema and his wife were buried in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Hayward, California.
Contents |
[edit] Quotes
- "A buoyant, positive approach to the game is as basic as a sound swing."
- "Golf is like solitaire. When you cheat, you only cheat yourself."
- "In choosing a partner, always pick the optimist."
- "You build a golf game like you build a wall, one brick at a time."
- "If I had to cram all my tournament experience into one sentence, I would say, "Don't give up and don't let up!""
[edit] PGA Tour wins (12)
- 1962 (3) Sahara Invitational, Orange County Open, Mobile Sertoma Open Invitational
- 1963 (1) Memphis Open Invitational
- 1964 (5) Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, Thunderbird Classic, Buick Open Invitational, Cleveland Open, The Open Championship
- 1965 (2) Buick Open Invitational, Carling World Open
- 1966 (1) Oklahoma City Open Invitational
Major championship is shown in bold.
[edit] Other wins (4)
probably incomplete
- 1957 Imperial Valley Open
- 1961 Hesperia Invitational Open, Mexican Open
- 1962 Mexican Open
[edit] Results in major championships
| Tournament | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Masters | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | 2 | T9 | T21 | T22 |
| U.S. Open | 50 | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | CUT | T5 | 20 | T8 | T4 |
| The Open Championship | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | 1 | T5 | T30 |
| PGA Championship | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | WD | T13 | T9 | T61 | T34 |
DNP = did not play
WD = withdrew
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.
