How Two PGA Stars Spent The Off Season
Tony Lema and Arnold Palmer were two of the biggest stars on the PGA TOUR. After successful 1964 seasons, here's how they spent their off season.
In the 1960s, elite players on the PGA Tour had very little down time. It was important to play in as many tournaments as possible to earn a spot in the top 60 on the money list. That would earn them an exemption from Monday qualifying for the next year.
Players who did not enjoy that exemption attempted to qualify for tournaments every Monday. If they could secure a spot in a tournament, they had not only the opportunity to make a check, but also by making the cut they would secure a spot in the next week’s tournament. A player could get on a roll making cut after cut and not want to take any time off because they would lose their spot in the next tournament. In his rookie year, Tony Lema played in every tournament except for special invitational or major tournaments that he wasn’t qualified to enter.
This made for quite the grind during the PGA Tour season, a season that lasted from early January to late November. The month of December afforded the players the longest period to relax and recharge. That is, unless you were one of the superstars of the tour who would spend their December tending to business interests or playing in televised matches that would be broadcast during the slow sports days of January.
After winning the 1964 Open Championship and the World Series of Golf, Tony Lema spent his December launching an acting career, shooting matches for the CBS Golf Classic, and fulfilling a packed schedule of award ceremonies with the obligatory speeches. His breakout season of 1964 made him in demand, and he wanted to make the most of the opportunity.
“It’s getting so I’m having breakfast in Los Angeles, lunch in New York and dinner in San Francisco,” Tony joked to an audience at a bank convention in Passaic, NJ. The night before he was presented with an award from the Boston Golf Writers Association.
He filmed an episode of the Hazel Show (watch it HERE) in early December and signed a contract with Screen Gems to film a golf show. Along with his partner Bobby Nichols, he made it into the final match of the CBS Golf Classic that paid $50,000 to each of the players on the winning team. You can watch how he and Nichols failed to capture that big prize HERE.
After a busy December, Lema put in the work on the practice tee and out on the course to get ready for the upcoming season. Then it was off to Los Angeles for the LA Open, the official start to the 1965 PGA Tour season and the grind began anew.
Tony Lema guest stars on Hazel TV show (Hulu)
Bonus Fact
Arnold Palmer spent New Year’s Day 1965 as the Grand Marshal of the Rose Parade in Pasadena. Palmer rode in a rose-covered white convertible along with his wife Winnie and their two daughters, 8-year-old Peggy and 6-year-old Amy. Palmer flew his family into Pasadena on his own plane.
The theme of the parade was “Headlines in Flowers” and Palmer made headlines when he won his fourth Masters in April of 1964.
It was the first time that the Grand Marshal honor had be bestowed on an active sports star. There have only been two golfers who were Grand Marshals for the parade: Palmer and Chi Chi Rodgriguez in 1995.
Arnold Palmer, Grand Marshal of the 1965 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade (Tournament of Roses Facebook Page)