No Substitute for Swinging

If there is anything Tony Lema likes better than champagne, it is money --understandable, considering the price of champagne. Unfortunately, he has not yet found a way of making money without working, which for Tony means playing golf. Not that he hasn't tried: last year's No. 4 money winner (with $67,112) took five weeks of vacation this spring, spent most of it lying around the house, contemplating ways to get rich quicker. All that happened was that his golf game went to pot. But last week Tony finally staggered home $20,000 to the good in New York's Thunderbird Classic and made a solemn resolution. From now on, when Lema hears that Arnie Palmer or Jack Nicklaus is taking a week off to rest up for some big tournament like this week's U.S. Open, he will grit his teeth and swing away. Exercise, not rest, is Champagne Tony's new prescription for success.

In Among the Pines. At that, he almost didn't make it in the Thunderbird.

With 15 holes to go, Lema was 12 under par, seven strokes ahead of burly Mike Souchak. A sudden thundershower made the pros dive for their umbrellas --and almost literally Tony landed on his nose. He lost a stroke at the sixth hole, another at the eighth, two more on the 480-yd. ninth when he bombed his drive under the branches of a lowhanging pine tree (see cut) and barely managed to salvage a bogey. ("I just crawled in there on my hands and knees, said a quick prayer, and backhanded the ball," said Tony.) But the real disaster occurred at the 14th hole, a dinky (139 yds.) par three. Tony's No. 8 iron landed off the green; a chip and three putts later, he found himself trailing Souchak by a stroke. Lema actually seemed relieved. "That took the pressure off," he said later. "I had been leading for so long that I was choking to death." He then birdied the par-four 17th to square the match.

It was still raining by the time the players reached the 18th green. Huddled under an umbrella, Lema watched Souchak line up a 25-ft. birdie putt--and push it 4 ft. past the hole. Tony's approach was 8 ft. from the pin. For nearly a minute he stood motionlessly over the ball, putter poised--and abruptly walked away. "I couldn't bring the club back," he said. "I stood there, looking at that thing, thinking, My God, this is a $20,000 putt--and I just couldn't hit it." Finally, Tony addressed the ball again. And this time he punched it squarely into the center of the cup for the winning birdie.

Bring on the Bubbly. The Thunderbird victory was Lema's first since January, and tripled his year's official winnings to $31,684--not quite the $49,006 he had last year at this time, but still worth a bubble or two. Within min utes, waiters were wheeling case after case of MoOet et Chandon champagne into the press headquarters. At week's end, once again at the top of his game, Lema knocked in six straight birdies in Michigan's Buick Open, had a two-stroke lead at the end of 54 holes, and started dreaming about the blast he will throw if he wins the U.S. Open. "Champagne won't be enough," he said. "I win that and I'll spring for the hors d'oeuvres too."

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