Bill Roland was a young man in Akron, Ohio, following his golfing hero, Tony Lema on the back nine of the 1966 PGA Championship at Firestone County Club, when a chance encounter with the golfing legend led to a lifelong fascination of the Major Championship winner and budding superstar, resulting in Roland’s researching and publishing a definite work on Lema after his untimely death the next day in a plane crash on an obscure and backwoods Ohio golf course.
That book, “Champagne Tony Lema: Triumph to Tragedy.” available on Amazon and Google at www.tonylema.com sadly became the last siren to a man and athlete that many saw unmistakable and achievable greatness.
Winner of the 1964 Open Championship contested on The Old Course at Saint Andrew’s, besting Jack Nicklaus by five shots, Lema had checked all the boxes for golf Superstardom.
Ryder Cup, Rookie of the Year, Leading Money Winner, sustained and constant winner on the PGA Tour, endorsements, and a best-selling book “Golfers Gold” published in 1963.
All gone, taken with his untimely and tragic death at 32 years old.
It was left to Roland to sustain his memory and chronicle his deeds.
Which he did with his definitive work on the life and times of Tony Lema released in 2013 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Lema’s 1964 Open Championship, at Saint Andrew’s.
Bill Roland graduated from St. Louis University in 1969 and then earned a Communication Degree from the University of Utah when he embarked on his career in Golf Journalism.
Editing Golf Travelers Magazine and enjoying a long association with Golf Card, Bill has produced a constant presence in Sports Publishing with Roland Golf Services and is a Member of the Golf Writers Association of America.
On the eve of the 2021 PGA Championship, contested on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, The Golf Guy, PGA Master Professional Jeff Waters, caught up with Bill to discuss the abbreviated life and times of a golf superstar that very few people now recall or appreciate for the virtuosity and brilliance of his truncated genius on the golf course and a glass of champagne in his hand,
Please listen here.
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