Tom Lehman

Lore & Background

Lehman was born in Austin, Minnesota, and raised in Alexandria, Minnesota. He played college golf at the University of Minnesota and graduated with a degree in business/accounting. He turned professional in 1982. After little success on the PGA Tour from 1983 to 1985, he played on the Asia Golf Circuit, Southern African Tour, and the Ben Hogan Tour. He regained his PGA Tour card by topping the Ben Hogan Tour's 1991 money list. From 1995 to 1997, he held the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open but each time failed to win. He was named PGA Tour Player of the Year in 1996. He was captain of the Ryder Cup team in 2006. In April 2009, he became the 13th Champions Tour player to win his debut tournament. He won the Senior PGA Championship in 2010 for his first Champions Tour major. In 2011, he topped the Champions Tour money list and was voted Champions Tour Player of the Year. In June 2012, he defended his title at the Regions Tradition to win his third senior major championship.

In Their Own Story

The air at Oakmont in June 1996 tasted like iron filings and old pine. Lehman stood over his tee shot on the back nine, the crowd a low, expectant murmur behind the ropes. He didn't rush. He never rushed. The Callaway driver — long, heavy, a weapon in his hands — swung through the ball with a sound like a cracked whip, and the white head disappeared into the June sky. He watched it land, watched it roll, watched it stop just short of the fringe. The caddie said nothing. You didn't need words. Lehman grabbed his iron, walked the fairway with that long, rolling stride, and set up for the approach. The flagstick trembled in the breeze. Somewhere behind him, the rest of the field was still searching for the fairway. He wasn't. He was already thinking about the next one. That was the thing about Tom Lehman: while everyone else was playing golf, he was playing a different, louder, more physical version of the same game — and at Oakmont, in that particular week, it was the only version that mattered.

Reader's Guide

Lehman has won five times on the PGA Tour, including the 1996 Open Championship, the Tour Championship, and the Memorial Tournament. He has won at least nineteen professional events in total. He had 19 runner-up finishes between 1992 and 2006. He won the 1993 Casio World Open on the Japan Golf Tour and the 1997 Gulfstream Loch Lomond World Invitational on the European Tour. He has 12 wins on the PGA Tour Champions, including three senior major championships. He is a golf course designer who collaborated with Arnold Palmer to build TPC Twin Cities and redesigned the course at Phoenix Country Club with John Fought. His most notable original design is the Dunes course at the Prairie Club in Nebraska.

Did You Know?

• Lehman is the only golfer in history to have been awarded Player of the Year honors on all three PGA Tours: the Ben Hogan Tour, the PGA Tour, and the PGA Tour Champions.
• He was ranked #1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for one week in April 1997.
• Lehman won almost as many regular tour events internationally as he did in the United States.
• He and his wife Melissa have four children and have lived for many years in Scottsdale, Arizona.