Word: lema
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Short of sending him out blindfolded on a moonless night with a black-painted ball, there doesn't seem to be much that anybody can do to stop Tony Lema from winning golf tournaments...
Slick as Ice. If Tony Lema had eve served on convoy duty in World War II, he might have known what to expect. At 30, he was far too young, am what's more, he had never even seen th Old Course before. Neither had Jack Nicklaus, 24, whose $24,000 victor the week before in the Whitemarsh Open put him back on top of pro golf's money-winning list (with $81,718) demonstrated that he was once more at the peak of his game-and persuaded British bookies to install him as the favorite...
...merest formality, the coup de gráce, and then everyone could adjourn to the clubhouse for the popping of the corks. There stood "Champagne Tony" Lema at last week's Cleveland Open, 15 under par, with just a one-foot putt between him and $20,000-and everybody knows that golf pros do not miss one-foot putts. But there was a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. Ever so casually, Tony stepped up to the ball. Ever so casually, he pushed it right around the hole...
...career, Palmer has won twelve. But Tony is a brinkman too; it makes the bubbly taste all the better. On the first hole, a 398-yard par-four, he watched Palmer smack his drive over a creek all the way to the base of the elevated green. Briefly, Lema fingered the "safe" club-a No. 4 iron. Then he reached for a driver too. "I might as well go out in style," he sighed...
...almost did: the ball was headed straight for the water when it clipped a footbridge and kicked across. A No. 9 iron put Tony on, 15 feet from the pin -and when Arnie left his wedge short of the green, Lema suddenly had another chance to win. This time he took a deep breath and stroked the ball neatly into the center of the cup. Birdie, hole and match for Lema's third victory in four weeks. His 1964 winnings now totaled $60,561, only $1,090 behind King Palmer himself...