Chapter 20 | Augusta

An excerpt from the book, "Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema"

Don’t miss our special Masters edition arriving in your email inboxes Thursday morning at the regularly scheduled time. During Masters week, I like to highlight the chapter from my book that details the 1963 Masters. Tony Lema came so close to winning and it was proof of his arrival as a star on the tour. I also wanted to give you some more reading material in case of a weather delay on Thursday. Enjoy your Masters weekend.

Tony, for the first time in his career, joined the privileged pilgrimage of 82 players, pros, and amateurs, to Augusta, Georgia for the Masters.

 The first real inkling that the Masters was an extraordinary event occurred to Tony in 1956, when Ken Venturi nearly won the event as an amateur causing quite a stir around the Bay Area. Tony realized how important, and special, a Masters victory could be.

Tony next heard about the elite nature of the Masters when he qualified for the U.S. Open the same year. There, he played the last day with Walker Inman, Jr. a young pro from Georgia. Inman’s goal during that day was not to win the U.S. Open—he was too far back to have any hope of accomplishing that. His goal was to finish in the top sixteen and earn an automatic invitation to play in the Masters. This was the first time that Tony became aware of the fact that the Masters was an invitation-only tournament.

 Once out on tour, Tony continued to hear what a great privilege it was to play in the Masters. Failing to earn an invitation, he watched the tournament on television, year after year. He finally earned his invitation to the 1963 Masters with his strong play during the fall of 1962.

His play earlier in the year, with his many top-ten finishes, made him a favorite in his first Masters, according to sportswriters and fellow players. Despite not winning a tournament during the winter swing, he was in the fourth spot on the money list with $11,831 in official winnings. He enjoyed his new prominence, but still he thirsted for victories, not just prize money.

He began to receive some national press in the weeks leading up to the Masters. Golf Digest ran a feature that painted Tony as a playboy out on tour, constantly surrounded by beautiful women. Sports Illustrated ran a profile of Tony by Gwilym S. Brown, who was also collaborating with Tony on the book that would become Golfer’s Gold.

It was the first real national press that Tony received and the profiles did not quite fit the image he had of himself. He felt the hard-partying playboy profile went too far. At least in the case of the Sports Illustrated article, Brown portrayed the playboy image as outdated, pointing out Tony’s engagement to Betty.

Although considered one of the favorites, a role he was not entirely comfortable with, he was not at the top of the list of favorites. Most experts felt Palmer, Player or Nicklaus were locks to win the green jacket. There was such conviction by the press that one of these three players would win that many of the other players were slightly peeved.

“It’s ridiculous,” proclaimed Jimmy Demaret, a veteran of the tour and a television commentator. “You would think only three men were playing. In a tournament of this caliber, there are 30 men who could win it.”

Demaret made his own prediction naming Don January, Tony and Johnny Pott as his picks to finish in that order.

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