Opinion & Analysis

Champagne Time: On the 50th anniversary of the death of Tony Lema

Published

10 years ago

Jul 26, 2016

One afternoon a lifetime ago, in a scraggly bit of park between a suburban New York commuter railroad station and the dire Bronx River, a skinny little young teen was working on his short game. With his trusty 9-iron, the kid hit pitches from target to target: tree, bare spot, piece of litter. And then Masters champion Doug Ford came along, asked the kid what he was aiming at — “That tree there?” — and with the kid’s club stiffed it.

I tell this story to explain, in sentimental part, why I recently tracked down a copy of Ford’s 1963 Wedge Book. (Let me also add that Doug Ford did have local connections, which makes his appearance there in a patch of southern Westchester train-station scrub less golfus ex machina than you might have thought it.) That hard-practicing kid’s once stellar short game has gotten maddeningly erratic, this near-half-century later, and in looking around for guidance I discovered Ford’s little volume, previously unknown to me. It contains advice that is still very helpful — and it also contains, in Julius Boros’s Preface, a sentence that left me nearly as open-mouthed with wonderment as Ford’s no-practice-swing bullseye left my younger self. Boros, himself a three-time major champion, mentions having worked his way up with Ford on the post-war pro circuit “amid some pretty fine company — Jackie Burke, Ted Kroll, Tommy Bolt and Jerry Barber, to name a few.” And then Boros, writing in September 1963, adds this:

“Doug Ford and I both feel that the current crop of young golfers, including Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tony Lema, is the best to come up since that group a decade ago.”

The King, the Black Knight, the Golden Bear — of course the Big Three, all still happily with us, did go on to be “the best” of that golfing generation (and then some). But that there might have been a Big Fourth? What about the last-named member of Boros’s then-young foursome?

Smooth swing

Well, I knew that Tony Lema had a nickname, too — although “Champagne Tony” is definitely under-dressed for keeping company with the Big Three’s era-bestriding monikers. And I also knew that Lema’s nickname accurately reflected his life-of-the-party lifestyle. (As today’s parlance would have it, he owned his choices: “I have never denied myself a drink or a good dinner or a party while I am out on Tour.”) What I had not known, prior to turning from Boros to Wikipedia and beyond, was the extent to which Tony Lema’s tragically-short career had justified lofty expectations, right up to Big Four-dom.

The biographical basics I discovered are as follows. Anthony David Lema was born in Oakland in 1934, five years after Palmer, a year before Player, six before Nicklaus. Raised on the wrong side of the tracks, he learned golf at a local muni, becoming good enough to win the Oakland City championship at 18. He served overseas in the Marine Corps, then came home to work at the San Francisco Golf Club and a Nevada nine-holer. By 1957-58, Lema was out on the pro circuit, with financial backing from Eddie Lowery, otherwise known to golfing history as Francis Ouimet’s 10-year-old caddy at the 1913 U.S. Open.

With, as Peter Alliss described it, “an elegant swing of rare beauty” — so sweet and smooth “you could pour [it] on popcorn,” in another admirer’s words — Lema enjoyed some early pro success. (Video of that swing, with commentary by Hale Irwin, is available on YouTube.)

Lean years followed, but then came the breakthrough. He won three times in the fall of 1962, once in 1963, and in 1964 went on a streak that saw him win the Crosby at Pebble in January, the Thunderbird Classic and the Buick and Cleveland Opens in June, and the Open Championship (by five strokes over Nicklaus in second) at St. Andrews in July. (Lema chronicled his early tour experiences in Golfer’s Gold, which George Plimpton applauded as showing “considerable flair for the written word.”)

A couple more titles followed in 1965, and a final victory in May of 1966. Add a second-place finish at the ’63 Masters; a 9-1-1 record in two Ryder Cup appearances (’63 and ’65 — the best record of any competitor with at least two appearances); 50 percent top-10 finishes from ’63 through ’66; and a win over Palmer, Ken Venturi, and Bobby Nichols at the 1964 World Series of Golf (taking home $50K, which was then the game’s largest purse), and Lema’s career certainly seemed to be tracking toward Hall of Fame status.

Instead, too-soon his time ran out: on July 24, 1966, after his final round in the PGA Championship at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Lema headed with his pregnant wife for Chicago to play the next day in an exhibition in Crete, Illinois. Less than a mile from arrival, the twin-engine charter crashed … on a golf course, just short of the green of a par three.

As veteran N.Y. Times journalist Dave Anderson was to note, Tony Lema’s death “saddened even casual followers of golf because of his appeal.”

And his appeal was considerable

Tall, handsome, and personable, Champagne Tony lived extra-large — with “effervescence,” was Anderson’s memorable choice of adjective, although he could well have simply chosen “extravagance.” Lema boasted that although he finished second in tournament earnings in 1965, he finished “first in spendings.” (He took home just over a hundred thousand in prize money that year.)

With an outgoing style “that let others in on the enjoyment of his victories,” Lema became almost as popular as his good friend, the game’s charismatic King, achieving the type of crossover celebrity not previously enjoyed by professional golfers in the pre-Palmer era. So the nickname Champagne Tony was made to order for such a “colorful and endearing character.” He had been christened with it after his first big win at the Orange County Open in the fall of 1962. An excited Lema, hungering for a validating title at long last, promised the press corps after 54 holes that “if I win this thing, guys, it’ll be champagne all around, not beers, tomorrow.” And next day, sure enough, the playoff victory was Lema’s and the bubbly went to the writers — although, as he later admitted, “all the sportswriters there couldn’t have drunk as much as I did that night.”

(But at least that time he waited: an earlier, unofficial win had come after a playoff for which he’d prepared with three quick post-round highballs, thinking his workday already done. On the other hand, he would later go ahead and tempt fate by serving up the bubbly at the halfway point of his victorious ’64 Open Championship, when he held a two-stroke lead over the field.)

In short, whether taking driver out a 12th-floor hotel window during a late-night party, or exchanging club for baton during a TV appearance at the helm of Lawrence Welk’s “Champagne Music Makers,” Champagne Tony, off the course and away from the game, was always the life of the party.

Memorials

Lema’s friends and fellow pros kept that party going in his honor for many years. Beginning a year or two after his death, and continuing until 1980, the Tony Lema Memorial attracted top names in the worlds of sports and entertainment, as well as many of golf’s greats — 50 celebs, 50 pros, 100 amateurs. The one-day invitational, with gala dinner the night before, was held on Marco Island, Florida, at what was then the Marco Island Country Club, where Lema had been the first, albeit unofficial, club pro. According to local reporter Tom Rife, writing in 2006 in memory of the Memorial, “Not before, and not since has Southwest Florida known anything like it.”

Nor, as it turned out, had that golf-crazy youngster mentioned earlier known anything like the Marco Island course, when he and his father came to tee it up there in the spring of 1969. My scorecards from their two rounds are, I suppose, my most-prized golf mementoes. As the scores themselves attest (125 and 126, 118 and 121), neither I nor my father, whose own recent introduction to the game had opened the door to my taking it up, had ever played such an overwhelmingly challenging course. Indeed, handling the cards, a memory annotates the rounds: so many balls lost in the seemingly-ever-present water we had to suspend play to ride in to get more!

So that, anyway, is why one golfer, on this July 24th, celebrated the half-century anniversary of Tony Lema’s death with thoughts not only about what might have been, in Champagne Tony’s case, but also with reflections on what has been, in the lifetime of that kid who, amazingly now almost 50 years a golfer, is still trying to better his short game.

Opinion & Analysis

Brandel Chamblee PGA Championship Q&A: Rose’s huge McLaren risk, distracted LIV pros and why Aronimink suits the bombers

Published

1 day ago

May 12, 2026

Gianni Magliocco

PGA Championship week is here, and Brandel Chamblee did not hold back in our latest discussion ahead of the season’s second major.

In our 2026 PGA Championship Q&A, golf’s leading analyst made the case that PIF pulling LIV’s funding has left its players competing in a state of confusion, called Justin Rose’s mid-season equipment switch a huge risk at 45, and explained why Aronimink will be a bombers’ delight this week.

Check out the full Q&A below.

Gianni: With the PIF confirming that they’re pulling funding from LIV at the end of the season, what impact do you expect that to have on the LIV players competing at the PGA Championship?

Brandel: I would imagine that they have all been thrown into a state of confusion, and will be distracted, not knowing where they are going to play next year and not knowing exactly their road back to either the DP World Tour or the PGA Tour. Or in Rahm’s case, being tied to a sinking ship for the next few years, likely playing for pennies on the dollar in events that no one cares about or watches.

I doubt this would put him in the best frame of mind to compete at his highest level. Keeping in mind, however, that majors are the only time that LIV disciples get to play in events that matter, so never disregard the motivation they have to prove to the world they are still relevant.

Gianni: Justin Rose switched to McLaren Golf equipment mid-season while playing some of the best golf of his career. What do you make of the change?

Brandel: I don’t really know what to make of Rose switching equipment. It seems a huge risk on his part, even though it is likely, in my opinion, that the clubs he’s playing are similar, if not the exact grinds, to what he was playing previously, with a McLaren stamp on them.

Having said that, at best, it is a distraction when he seemed to be as dialed in with his game as any 45-year-old could be and trending in the majors to perhaps do something that would definitely put him in the Hall of Fame. At worst, given the possibility that these clubs aren’t just duplicates of his old set stamped with McLaren on them, he’s made an equipment change that would take time, and 45-year-old athletes don’t have the time to do such things.

Gianni: Aronimink has only hosted a handful of professional events since it hosted the 1962 PGA Championship. What kind of test does it present, and does a course with less recent major championship history tend to level the playing field?

Brandel: Even though Aronimink has only hosted a handful of meaningful professional events, it has been fairly discerning in who can win there. When Keegan Bradley won the BMW Championship on the Donald Ross masterpiece in 2018, he was the 2nd best iron player on tour coming into that week. When Nick Watney won the AT&T at Aronimink in 2011, he was 2nd in strokes gained total coming into the week.

In 2020, Aronimink hosted the KPMG Championship, and Sei Young Kim won. On the LPGA that year, she was first in greens in regulation, putts per green in regulation, and scoring average on the way to being the LPGA player of the year. And then there is the 1962 PGA Championship won by Gary Player, who eventually became just one of a few players to win the career grand slam on the way to winning 9 majors. It is a formidable test, and if it’s not softened by rain, it will bring out the best in the upper echelons of the game.

Gianni: Is there a specific hole at Aronimink that you think will do the most to decide the winner?

Brandel: The hardest hole at Aronimink in each of the three tour events that have been played there since 2010 has been the long par-3 8th hole, with the par-4 10th being the second hardest, so most of the carnage will happen around the turn, but with the par-5 16th offering opportunities for bold plays and the tough closing holes at 17 and 18, the finish is likely to be frenetic.

Gianni: The PGA Championship has always sat in the shadow of the other majors. What does the ideal PGA Championship look like in your eyes, and what would it take for it to carve out its own identity?

Brandel: The PGA Championship, to whatever degree it suffers from the comparison to the other three majors, is still counted just as much when adding them up at the end of one’s career. Almost 1/3 of Nicklaus’ major wins were the five PGA Championships he won. Walter Hagen won 11 majors, five of which were PGA Championships.

Tiger Woods twice in his career won back-to-back PGA Championships, and those four majors count just as much as the other 11 he won. The PGA may not have the prestige of the other three, but it carries the same weight. Having said that, I preferred the identity that it had as the last major of the year.

Gianni: You nailed your Masters picks. Rory won, Scottie finished solo second, and Morikawa surged to a tie for seventh. Who are your top 3 picks for the PGA Championship and why?

Brandel: I am not a huge fan of majors played on golf courses that have been shorn of most of the trees, although I understand some of the agronomic reasons for doing so and of course the ease with which it allows members to play after errant drives. However, at the highest level, it all but eliminates any strategy off the tee and turns professional golf into an even bigger slugfest. That means that it will likely be a bomber’s delight this week, but fortunately, Scottie Scheffler is long enough to play that game and straight enough to play it better than anyone else.

The major championships give us very few surprises anymore, going back to the beginning of 2012, so the last 57 majors played, the average world rank of the winners has been better than 15th in the world. So look at the highest ranked and longest drivers who are on form coming into the PGA Championship who also have great short games as the surrounds at Aronimink are very challenging. That’s Scottie Scheffler by a mile and then McIlroy and Cameron Young with a far bigger nod towards DeChambeau than I gave him at the Masters.

Club Junkie

A putter that I love and hate – Club Junkie Podcast

Published

5 days ago

May 8, 2026

Brian Knudson

In this episode of the Club Junkie Podcast, we dive into one of the most interesting flatstick releases of the year with a full review of the new TaylorMade SYSTM 2 putters. After spending time on the greens, I break down what makes this design stand out, where it performs, and why it has me completely torn between loving it and fighting it. If you are into feel, alignment, and consistency, this is one you will want to hear about.

We also take a look at some of the putters in play on the PGA Tour last week. From familiar favorites to a few surprising setups, there is always something to learn from what the best players in the world are rolling with under pressure.

To wrap things up, I walk through the process of building a set of JP Golf Prime irons paired with Baddazz Gold Series shafts. From component selection to performance goals, this is a deep dive into what goes into creating a unique custom set and why this combo has been so intriguing.

Opinion & Analysis

From 14 handicap to pro: 4 things I’d tell golfers at 50

Published

7 days ago

May 7, 2026

Jaacob Bowden, PGA

This year my 50th birthday. Gosh, where has the time gone?

As a teenager in rural Missouri, some of my junior high and high school years felt interminable. Graduation seemed light years away. But the older I get, the faster life seems to fly by.

I’m also increasingly aware of my mortality. My dad died recently. Earlier this year, a friend and fellow PGA of America professional and I were texting about our next catch-up. The next message I received was news of his unexpected passing at 48. Shortly after, a woman I dated in college succumbed to cancer at 51.

Certainly, one can share perspective at any age. Seniors help freshmen, veterans guide rookies. But reaching this milestone feels like as good a time as any to do one of those “what would I tell my younger self?” articles.

I’ve had a uniquely varied career in golf. I started as a 27-year-old, average-length-hitting, 14-handicap computer engineer and somehow managed to turn pro before running out of money, constantly bootstrapping my way forward. I’ve won qualifiers and set venue records in the World Long Drive Championships, finished fifth at the Speedgolf World Championships, coached all skill levels as a PGA of America professional, built industry-leading swing speed training programs for Swing Man Golf, helped advance the single-length iron market with Sterling Irons®, caddied on the PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions, and played about 300 courses across 32 countries.

It’s been a ride, and I’ve gone both deep and wide.

So while I can consult and advise from a lot of angles, let me keep it to a few things I’d tell the average golfer who wants to improve.

1. Think About What You Want

Everyone has their own reason for picking up a golf club.

Oddly, as a professional athlete, I’m not internally driven by competition. That can be challenging, as the industry currently prioritizes and incentivizes competition over the love of the game.

For me, I love walking and being outdoors. Nature helps balance my energy. I prefer courses that are integrated into the natural beauty of their surroundings. I’m comfortable practicing alone. I’m a deep thinker, and I genuinely enjoy investigating the game, using data and intuition to unearth unique, often innovative insights. I’m fortunate to be strong and athletic, so I appreciate the chance to engage with my abilities. Traveling feels adventurous. I could go on.

You don’t have to overthink it like I do. For you, it might be as simple as hitting balls to escape work, hanging out with friends, and playing loosely with the rules and the score.

The point is to give yourself permission to play for your own reasons, and let that be enough.

But if improvement is your goal, thinking about your destination—and when you want to get there—is important, because it dictates the steps you need to take. When I set out to go from a 14-handicap to the PGA TOUR as quickly as possible, the steps I needed were very different from those of a working golfer trying to break 90 in six months. That’s also different from someone who just wants a few peaceful hours outside each week, away from work or family.

None of these goals are better than the others, but each requires a different plan that you can work backward from.

2. There Are Lots of Things That Can Work

One of the challenges of golf is that, although there are rules for playing, there aren’t clear, industry-wide standards for how to best play the game. There’s a lot of gray area.

You might hear a top coach or trainer insist that a certain move is the best way to swing or train. Then you dig a bit deeper and, much to your confusion and frustration, another respected coach or trainer says something completely different. I don’t think anyone is trying to confuse you—at least I hope not. It’s just where the industry is right now.

You have to be careful with advice from tournament pros, too. They might be great at scoring, but they’re also human and sometimes just as susceptible as amateurs to believing things that don’t really move the needle. Tour players might describe what they feel, but that’s not always what they’re actually doing when assessed with technology.

I recently ran a test on my YouTube channel (which connects to my GolfWRX article “How to use your hands in the golf swing for power and accuracy”), and, interestingly, two of the most commonly taught hand actions produced the worst results in the test.

Coaches can certainly help. If you find someone you connect with to help navigate, that’s great. But there are many ways to get the ball in the hole. In the current landscape, you may need to seek multiple opinions, think critically, and use your own intuition to discern what seems true and whose advice resonates with you.

I’d recommend seeking someone who is open-minded and always learning, because things constantly change. Absolutes like “correct” or “proper” should raise a red flag. AI can be useful, but it tends to confidently repeat popular advice, so proceed with caution.

3. Get Custom Fit

If you’re serious about becoming a better player, getting custom fit is hugely important. There’s no sense fighting your equipment if you don’t have to. Most better players get fit these days and, if they don’t, they’re usually skilled enough to work around clubs that aren’t ideal.

If you plan to play for a long time, it’s worth spending a little more upfront to get something that truly fits you and your game, rather than continually buying and discarding equipment.

Equipment rules haven’t really changed significantly since the early 2000s. To stay in business, manufacturers keep pushing those limits. If you pull a bunch of clubs and balls off the rack and test them, you’ll find differences. I’ve tested two new drivers and seen a 30-yard total distance gap. Usually, the issue isn’t bad equipment; it’s that the combination of components simply isn’t the best fit.

It’s like wearing a new pair of floppy clown shoes. Sure, they’re shoes—but you won’t sprint your best in them compared to track shoes that fit perfectly.

Be wary of what’s called custom fitting, too. Sometimes the term is used as a marketing strategy rather than an actual fitting. In some retail settings, fitters may be incentivized to steer you toward higher-priced components. That doesn’t automatically mean it’s not the best fit, but you should be aware of potential biases.

I learned a version of this lesson outside of golf. Years ago, I bought a tennis racquet at a big box store from a seemingly knowledgeable employee who thought it would suit me best. The racquet gave me tennis elbow, and I spent months recovering with rest and acupuncture. The next season, I invested more time and money to find what actually fit me, and I walked away with something amazing that I still play with years later.

So if you’re going to get fit, be smart about it.

Find someone you believe has deep knowledge—possibly with certifications, but not necessarily. Make sure there’s a wide inventory across many brands. Check recent reviews for the individual fitter if possible. Make sure you trust that the fitter has your best interests at heart. If they’re wearing a hat or shirt with a specific brand’s logo, proceed with caution. Unless you specifically want a certain brand or look, be wary of upsells, especially if two options perform nearly the same.

Also, while golf is called a sport of integrity, there’s a thread of manipulation in the industry. I once drafted an equipment article for an industry magazine, structured just like one of their previous popular stories, with matching word count and great photos. The assistant editor loved it; it was useful to readers and required little work on his part. But the editor-in-chief nixed the story. When I asked why, I was told it was because I wasn’t an advertiser. It turned out the article I’d modeled mine after was a paid ad cleverly disguised as editorial content.

I really dislike games, clickbait, and fear-based manipulation. I hope this changes, but golfers deserve to know it exists.

4. Distance and Strategy Matter

There’s a real relationship between how far you hit the ball and your scoring average, even at the PGA TOUR level.

I experienced this early in my pro career. I started as a power hitter, swinging in the high 120s and breaking 200 mph ball speed with a stock driver.

Back then, some instructors advised swinging at 80%, so I tried slowing down for more accuracy. That worked fine on shorter, tighter courses. But on longer setups, I was coming into greens with too much club, and par 5s stopped being