Tony Lema

Tony Lema: When speaking of America’s famous sportspeople Tony Lema or Anthony David Lema deserves special mention in the field of golf. He was a very renowned golfer and rose to fame at a time when golf had started into modern phase. Tony Lema was born on the 25th of February in the year 1934 in Oakland, California. He struggled through his childhood supporting a widowed mother and four siblings.Tony Lema initiated into golf at a very young age at the Lake Chabot municipal golf course being helped along the way by the famous Lucius Bateman, policeman Ralph Hall, Dick Fry, and Bill Burch. Till 1955 from the age of 17 he served for the United States Marine Corps in Korea, returning to work for sab Fransisco golf club. By 1957,with the help of Eddie Lowery, Tony Lema worked into the PGA Tournaments, getting sensational wins, finishing in the top 15 in 1958,earning a grand amount of $10,282 that year. The following to years led to immense loss and increase in debts for Tony lema, which finally came to an end with his victory in the Orange County Open Invitation in the year 1962 since when he was known as Champagne Tony because of a comment by Tony Lema. The successive years were prosperous for him where he went on to win major tournaments like Ryders Cup, Masters tournament, Memphis Open International, Cleverland Open, etc and ultimately the British Open in 1964.Tony Lema died a young, in an airplane accident on July 24th,1966.