Golf: Brinkmanship

It was the merest formality, the coup de gráce, and then everyone could adjourn to the clubhouse for the popping of the corks. There stood "Champagne Tony" Lema at last week's Cleveland Open, 15 under par, with just a one-foot putt between him and $20,000—and everybody knows that golf pros do not miss one-foot putts. But there was a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. Ever so casually, Tony stepped up to the ball. Ever so casually, he pushed it right around the hole.

That put Tony in a sudden-death playoff with Arnold Palmer, a beer man. Sudden death...

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