"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
weekly online golf column
by
Chris Dortch

June 19, 2001

It was a real pleasure to see many of my long-time friends in golf at Black Creek on Tuesday night.

The occasion was the debut of my book, Gentleman Champion: Lew’s Oehmig’s Romance with Golf, the biography of the greatest amateur golfer in Chattanooga and Tennessee. Nearly 500 people showed up at various times throughout the party, which went well past its allotted two hours. And many people waited in line several minutes to get a book autographed by Sweet-Swinging Lew. At 85 and still recovering from a recent illness, Oehmig was a trooper, signing autographs for about two hours.

The respect and admiration for Oehmig was great to see. That’s one thing I’ve always loved about golf. Most of us who are hopelessly addicted to the game have a strong sense of appreciation for its history. Certainly, Oehmig has played a part in golf history, not just in Tennessee, but around the country.

In some opening remarks Tuesday night, I joked that we would have needed Neyland Stadium to host the party had all Oehmig’s friends wanted to attend. I’m not so sure that comment was far from wrong. In the five months I researched the book, I ran across so many people who knew Lew and respected him, and his considerable golf game.

I wish I could have taken all night to tell people about the many great stories I ran across while writing the book. Some, at the request of Lew and others, I didn’t write about. Others were fair game, like the time Oehmig and his old buddy, Ira Templeton, conned a con man, the inimitable Doug Sanders. After I got home Tuesday night, it occurred to me that I would have gotten some laughs had I told that story.

I’ll attempt to make up for that oversight here, with an excerpt from Gentleman Champion. Copies of the book are still available by calling 423-267-7040 or on-line at www.lewoehmigstory.com.

I hope you enjoy this little passage:

Not all of Oehmig and Templeton’s high-stakes matches were as well publicized as the one they played against [Ben] Hogan and [Hobart] Manley. Templeton always loved to play for a little cash. Oehmig did occasionally, but most people who knew the two of them wouldn’t think about letting them partner in a money game.

Templeton remembers well an exception to that rule.

"I’d gone over and played in the [1957] North Georgia Invitational [in Dalton]," Templeton said. "When it was over, Doug Sanders came up to me and said to get Lew and we’d play in Chattanooga on Monday."

This was two weeks before Sanders, a native of Cedartown, Ga., would turn pro. Sanders, who won the 1956 Canadian Open as an amateur, went on to a long and successful career on the PGA Tour, where he won 20 tournaments and gained notoriety for his flamboyant style and flashy dress. Sanders later played the Senior Tour. Well before he started playing for pay officially, Sanders liked to wager a little. He brought a player from Dalton with him to take on Oehmig and Templeton.

"He called me the next morning," Templeton said. "I told him I got Lew. We thought we were going to play at the [Chattanooga] country club. But he wanted to go to Signal Mountain."

Sanders’ reasoning for wanting to play at Signal Mountain is unclear. Perhaps Sanders, who would later write a book, 130 Different Ways To Make A Bet, didn’t know Templeton had won the Tennessee Open and Oehmig finished third at Signal in 1951.

Templeton and Oehmig can’t remember what the bet was that day, but it was for a lot more than Templeton usually wagered ("My standard bet was a $10 nassau," he said). After they shot a best-ball score of 13 under par, Oehmig and Templeton lined their pockets as Sanders retreated to Georgia.

"I didn’t hear any more from him for a while," Templeton said. "Doug was trying to hustle. That’s the part Lew and I enjoyed. Doug was a helluva player. We didn’t have any business playing him. He just went to the wrong golf course. I was such a good putter, and Lew was a great wedge player. We putted for a lot of birdies up there."

That wasn’t the last Templeton and Oehmig saw of Sanders, who later played First Flight equipment and came to Chattanooga often.

"Doug and I were friends," Templeton said. He’d come to Chattanooga and he’d always call."

"It was a pleasure to match your game against someone like Lew and Ira," Sanders said. "The thing I found out about them real quick was that they hated to lose. They both had that killer instinct. When you played those guys, you’d better have had your ‘A’ game or you were gonna walk away afterward with your wallet a lot lighter."

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