Lema was discharged from the military in 1955. He obtained work as an assistant to the club professional at a
San Francisco golf club.
Eddie Lowery, a wealthy San Francisco businessman, who invested in talented amateur players in the area, helped to sponsor and encourage Lema. Lowery is best known as the 10-year-old caddy of champion
Francis Ouimet at the
1913 U.S. Open. In return for loaning Lema $200 a week in expense money, Lowery received one-third of all Lema's winnings. Four weeks later, on the eve of his playoff victory at the
Orange County Open Invitational in
Costa Mesa, California, Lema joked he would serve
champagne to the press if he won the next day. From then on he was known as
Champagne Tony, and his handsome looks and vivacious personality added to his appeal. Golfer
Johnny Miller has stated that at the time of his death in 1966, Lema was second only to
Arnold Palmer in fan popularity. That win sparked an impressive performance over the next four years that saw Lema win twelve official tour events, finish second on eleven occasions, and third four times. From 1963 until his death in July 1966, he finished in the top ten over half of the time and made the cut in every major, finishing in the top ten in eight of the fifteen in which he played. Lema was a member of
Ryder Cup teams in
1963 and
1965 with a record of 9–1–1 (), which remains the best for any player who has played in two or more. Friend and tour colleague
Jack Nicklaus wrote that Lema's play also stabilized and improved greatly after he married Betty Cline, a former airline stewardess, in 1963. One additional reason for Lema's more relaxed play that year was the end of his agreement with Lowery. In
1963, Lema finished second by one stroke to Nicklaus at the
Masters, and missed the playoff for the
U.S. Open by two shots, bogeying the last two holes, believing he needed birdies. He won the
Memphis Open Invitational later that summer. Lema won two other tournaments that fall and was named 1963 Most Improved Player by
Golf Digest. That winter, he wrote, with Gwylim S. Brown, "Golfers' Gold", an autobiographical account of his eight-year apprenticeship in the competitive cauldron of the PGA Tour.
Major champion In
1964, Lema won the
Bing Crosby National Pro-Am at
Pebble Beach, then three tournaments in four weeks: the
Thunderbird Classic at
Westchester in
Rye, New York, the
Buick Open Invitational at
Warwick Hills in
Grand Blanc, Michigan, and the
Cleveland Open at Highland Park (in a playoff with Palmer). Two weeks later at
St Andrews,
Scotland, Lema captured his only
major title at the
Open Championship, Before teeing up in the first round, he had only played nine practice holes. Anderson, a descendant of a past Open champion,
Jamie Anderson, had grown up on the course. At the September matchup of the four major champions of 1964, in the 36-hole exhibition
World Series of Golf, Lema won $50,000 (then the largest payoff in golf) at
Firestone Country Club in
Akron, Ohio, over Palmer (
Masters),
Ken Venturi (
U.S. Open) and
Bobby Nichols (
PGA Championship). Due to his good looks and recent success, Lema was tapped for a guest appearance in an episode of the TV series
Hazel that aired January 7, 1965, in which Hazel misplaces his prized golf clubs. Later that year, he was on
The Lawrence Welk Show, where
Welk passed the
baton to Lema to direct the
Champagne Music Makers. In
1965, Lema won the Buick Open for the second consecutive year, and the
Carling World Open, finishing second in prize money to Nicklaus. In fall 1965, he and Nicklaus formed the U.S. team to the
World Cup of Golf. Two weeks later, he recovered from an opening round 78 to nearly capture a third consecutive Buick Open, finishing three shots behind
Phil Rodgers, in fourth place. ==Death==