Golf:

Golf lost a great broadcaster and an even better human being when Bob Rosburg died two weeks ago.

Though Rosburg lived in Palm Springs, he will be forever linked to Mesa Verde Country Club.

Rosburg was in the playoff with Tony Lema at the 1962 Orange County Open, losing on the third hole of sudden death. The victory gave Lema his famous nickname, Champagne Tony.

The nickname came about when Lema had the third-round lead and went into the press room promising the reporters covering the event that he would buy them champagne if he won the following day.

Lema did just that, but how he won was always a mystery until Rosburg told me a story about the tournament.

The first hole of sudden death always bothered Rosburg. When the two reached the first tee, Lema teed off and his ball went left appearing to have gone out of bounds. When they got to their tee shots, Lema’s ball was in bounds.

Rosburg was certain the ball had gone out of bounds, but was happy for Lema.

“There wasn’t that much difference between first- and second-place money,” Rosburg said. “Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to win, but Tony was a good friend of all of ours and if someone was going to beat me I was glad it was him.”

Lema had been struggling on tour, hadn’t won a tour event and wasn’t really sure he wanted to continue the grind of tour life.

“I was a good friend of Tony’s,” Rosburg said. “We all wanted to see him win. We knew he would win eventually. But he was having a tough time on tour. I loaned him my car and somebody else gave him a gas card. It was a tough life when you weren’t winning.”

When Lema won, the Champagne Tony nickname stuck with the help of Doc Giffen, who was the press secretary for the PGA back then and is now in a similar capacity for Arnold Palmer. It was the beginning of success for Lema in professional golf.

Had he not won that tournament, though, the world would have never learned of Tony Lema, Rosburg confided to me when I was writing the 50th anniversary book for Mesa Verde Country Club last year.

Rosburg was approached by a man about 30 years after the tournament while he was working television and the man confessed to kicking the ball back in bounds. They were just helping a fellow Marine.

“I saw him in Chicago in the 90s when I was doing television,” Rosburg said of the Marine. “He told me he was the one that kicked the ball. I didn’t really know what to say. He described it like it happened, so I am pretty sure he was telling the truth. I believed him. I told him, ‘You have to remember one thing, if you hadn’t done that Tony Lema would still be alive.’ He was going to take a club pro job if he hadn’t have won there.”

It is the first time Rosburg ever told the story to anyone other than a friend and figured now was the time to do it. He wanted to set the record straight and felt a bit of relief after telling me. When I hung up the phone, I had even more respect for Rosburg, who will be sadly missed by many in the world of golf.

JOHN REGER’S golf column appears Thursdays. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].