Lehman’s Road Map Leads to Even More Riches

For Tom Lehman, that road he traveled to the top was quite a trip.

Lehman, the PGA Tour’s player of the year for 1996, got there by first surviving the mid-1980s mini-tour circuit in North Dakota, South Dakota, California, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, in addition to events in Asia, South Africa and virtually anyplace else you could cut a hole in some grass and roll a ball on it.

Such a golf experience proves that persistence is rewarded and that you can’t tell your superstars without a road map.

“This year has been just a real blessing,” Lehman said. “I’m not sure why I’ve been so fortunate. It’s been a pretty long, windy, tricky road, no doubt about it.”

Lehman put his clubs away Sunday, right after he and Duffy Waldorf won the PGA Tour division of the Diners Club Matches at PGA West. He said it was a nice way to end the year and Lehman’s had a very nice year.

He won the British Open and The Tour Championship, led the money-earnings list with $1.78 million, led in scoring average and in top-10 finishes.

Since January, he put together the kind of golf season he had dreamed about when he was a club pro at Wood Ranch.

“I never felt I was all that far removed from being successful to being very successful to having a year like this,” Lehman said.

Those clubs probably will hit the garage back home in Scottsdale today and they’re not going to get hauled out for another tournament until the Mercedes Championships at La Costa next month.

Lehman and Waldorf split $220,000 for their 2-and-1 victory over Scott Hoch-Kenny Perry, after which there were more spoils to be divided--expensive watches and crystal trophies.

Dottie Pepper and Juli Inkster won the LPGA division with a 1-up victory over Tammie Green and Kelly Robbins and Jim Colbert and Bob Murphy defeated Vicente Fernandez and Jay Sigel 3 and 1 to win the Senior PGA Tour division.

In the last two Diners Club events, Colbert and Murphy have won $220,000 apiece. The most money Colbert won in an entire year on the PGA Tour was $220,810 in 1983 while Murphy’s best money-making year on the PGA Tour was in 1986 when he won $182,673.

Now we know why Murphy and Colbert wear those big hats. They can scoop up the money easier.

If they weren’t out here playing golf and moving up the income-tax brackets, Colbert said he knows what he and Murphy probably would be doing.

“I’d be playing golf with my friends, trying to take a few bucks off of them and Murf, he’d be trying to catch some bass somewhere.”