"A Humbling Game"

Short of sending him out blindfolded on a moonless night with a black-painted ball, there doesn't seem to be much that anybody can do to stop Tony Lema from winning golf tournaments.

Last week they tried the next best thing: they sicked St. Andrews onto him -- and all Tony did was to win the British Open, for his fourth victory in the last six weeks.

St. Andrews purports to be the "birthplace of modern golf," but that is open to debate. (Some historians claim that the Dutch invented the game, not the Scotch.) It also purports to be the toughest championship course in the world -- and about that, there is no debate at all. The fishhook-shaped Old Course at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club is only 6,926 yds. long -- practically puny by American standards. But it is an un-American course. There are stone walls to play over, tiered greens the size of polo fields, and acre upon acre of prickly gorse, heather and sad. Nicknames are enough for the hazard: "The Twin Fangs of the Lady of Fife," "The Valley of Sin," "Hell Bunker." For a topper, there is the weather. The word "links," after all, originated in Scotland. It means "golf course by th sea," and in the case of St. Andrew; that means the North Sea.

Slick as Ice. If Tony Lema had eve served on convoy duty in World War II, he might have known what to expect. At 30, he was far too young, am what's more, he had never even seen th Old Course before. Neither had Jack Nicklaus, 24, whose $24,000 victor the week before in the Whitemarsh Open put him back on top of pro golf's money-winning list (with $81,718) demonstrated that he was once more at the peak of his game--and persuaded British bookies to install him as the favorite, at 7 to 2. The odds on Lema: 7 to 1.

On the first day, a cruel wind whipped across the open fairways at 60 m.p.h "I couldn't keep my footing," complained Nicklaus, who at 205 Ibs. is one of golf's best-anchored pros. He three-putted six greens, settled for a 76. Lema, who weighs in at 180 Ibs., shot a one-over-par 73, two strokes off the pace set by Ireland's Christy O'Connor and France's Jean Garaialde, and pronounced himself satisfied. "There is nothing comparable to putting in this wind," he said. "Let me tell you something about golf--it's a humbling game." The nicest thing anybody could say about the second day was that the wind was only 45 m.p.h. But somewhere along the way, Lema lost his humility. Normally one of the best wedge players in the game, he changed his tactics, switched to a No. 7 iron, and ran the ball up to the pin. At the turn, Lema was one under par, and he picked up another two strokes on the 312-yd. twelfth hole--driving the green from the tee, sinking a 30-ft. putt for an eagle 2. "They've got to come and catch me now," said Tony, whose 68 gave him a two-stroke lead.

Safe from Sin. Only Nicklaus came close. Nine strokes back of Lema on the third day's start, he birdied four out of the first nine holes, went on to tie the St. Andrews course record with a sizzling six-under-par 66--and finished out his day with a final-round 68. But it was too late. Lema shot a morning-round 68, finally stepped up on the last tee needing only a triple-bogey seven to win. Playing it safe, he dumped his drive short of "The Valley of Sin," a gully just in front of the 18th green. Trying to line up his approach, Lema was surrounded by 10,000 swarming Scottish fans. Bobbies struggled to force the crowd back, and Lema waited patiently. Then he picked up his trusty No. 7 iron, swung gently and dropped the ball perfectly on the green, 18 in. from the pin. A tap, a plunk, and Tony had his birdie for a 72-hole total of 279 --just three strokes off the British Open record--and a five-stroke victory.

The $4,200 paycheck was nothing to write home about, but just thinking about all those side benefits made Tony's throat dry. "1 may be the third leading money winner," he sighed, ordering champagne for everybody in the press tent, "but I'm the first leading money spender."

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