STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

More Golf

• ACE Group Classic heading to TPC Treviso Bay
• Lely Resort boasts three of the classiest, most popular golf courses in Collier
• Lely teams no match in golf tourney

Share and Enjoy [?]

Moe Kent was talking with a friend of his, Charlie Thomas, who works for developer Jack Antaramian. Somehow the subject of trophies from the Tony Lema Memorial Tournament came up.

Thomas happened to have the professional and team championship trophies from the tournament, which was played from 1967-80 at Marco Island Country Club in the memory of the club’s first professional, who died in a plane crash 40 years ago Monday at the age of 32.

“He said they were just sitting in his office and collecting dust,” said Kent, one of the owners of The Hideout Golf Club in Naples. “I said ‘Hey, I’ll take them and I’ll display them.’¥”

Kent had the trophies refurbished, and in April, put them on display in the clubhouse.

“I want people to know that there is a long history here (in Southwest Florida),” Kent said. “Golf has been a major part of that history. Champagne Tony Lema is one of the absolute classics.

“Our members love (the trophies). It’s a golfer’s golf club.”

One of the winners listed on the trophy is Al Nelson, whose team won in 1969, was one of the original members of The Hideout.

Lema played on the tour for 10-plus years, and became one of the top players on tour during the mid-1960s. He finished second in The Masters in 1963, and won the 1964 British Open. He was known for toasting his victories with champagne.

A few years after the Memorial Tournament started, Bill McDevitt became the head professional at the Marco Island Country Club.

McDevitt had a couple of assistants who ended up staying in the area — Dick Erick eventually became the head pro at Kensington Golf & Country Club, and Mike Calbot became one of the area’s top golf instructors.

McDevitt also was involved in helping run the tournament, and remembered receiving a letter from one of the pros, Al Mengert, who later became a top instructor in California.

“He wrote me the nicest letter,” said McDevitt, who was at the club from 1971-78 and still lives in Naples. “He wrote that he had played all over the world and the country, and in the Clambake there (as the Bing Crosby Pro-Am was called) and he stated that the Lema Tournament was one of the nicest tournaments he’d ever been to. It’s such a pleasure to be at a tournament where everybody’s caring, he wrote.”

Erick remembers flying to Miami to help bring some of the professionals over from Doral for the Lema. The planes would then take the pros up to Jacksonville for the next tour stop.

Whenever Erick makes it back to the course, now The Island Country Club, and plays, sometimes a memory from the Lema Memorial comes to mind. One year, Erick and his son, Boomer, also now a club professional, were at the tournament, and Erick was a starter on No. 10 tee.

Bob Rosburg was playing No. 9, which had a fairway bunker and a row of pine trees to the left.

“Rosburg hit a drive over that one bunker on the left and almost up against a tree,” Erick said. “He took a 3-iron and duck-hooked it, and ran it up on the green and made the putt. He made this phenomenal 3. It’s things like that, that kind of spur your memories.”

Tony Lema Memorial

Professional champions

1967 — Frank Beard, 1968 — Randy Glover, 1969 — Malcolm Gregson, 1970 — Sam Snead, Rod Funseth, Larry Ziegler (tie), 1971 — Bobby Nichols, 1972 — Bruce Devlin, 1973 — Buddy Allin, 1974 — Raymond Floyd, 1975 — Sam Snead, Dale Douglass (tie), 1976 — Bob Charles, 1977 — Gary McCord, 1978 — Jim Dent, 1979 — Greg Powers, 1980 — Al Nelson, Buddy Gardner, Alan Tapie, Jim Dent, Gary Groh, John Buczek, Terry Mauney (tie)

Team champions

1967 — Chuck Hurbert, Perry Como, Tom Carvel, Billy Gambrell; 1968 — Bobby Nichols, Billy Gambrell, William Briggle, Msgr. J. O’Dowd; Harold Henning, George Boeckh, Carl Hoffman, Charles Pettit (tie); 1969 — Al Nelson, Ray Adams, J. Harris, J.A. Franklin; 1970 — Bobby Nichols, William Maddux, Robert Cosgrove, Neil E. Bahr; 1971 — Cesar Sanudo, Len Dawson, Marty Schottenheimer, Bob Fisher; 1972 — Roy Pace, Dr. W. Martin, Sen. W. Boyd, Billy Vessels; 1973 — Lew Worsham, Fr. F. Stockner, Tom McNally, Frank Prather; 1974 — Raymond Floyd, Joe DiMaggio, Vic Allen, Carling Dinkler; 1975 — Larry Ziegler, George Ferris, Frank Comparato, Ralph Duffet; 1976 — Ed Furgol, Ralph Kiner, Tom Kaylor, James Hano; 1977 — Bill Kennedy, Tim Foley, Ed Elliot, Frank Prather; 1978 — Tommy Bolt, Billy Martin, Bert Clifford, Cloyde Pate; 1979 — Keith Fergus, Roger Maris, Earle Corthright Jr., Jerry Walton; 1980 — Tom Weiskopf, Pat Summerall, Ray Wiggins, John McGrath