Golf Central

On this day, in 1962, ‘Champagne’ Tony Lema capped his first full season on the PGA Tour by capturing the Sahara Invitational in Las Vegas, and kick-starting a four-year run in which he joined Palmer, Nicklaus and Player briefly at the pinnacle of golf before a plane crash claimed his life in 1966.

After winning those bucketfuls of silver dollars in Vegas, the ’64 Open champ-to-be would have celebrated with a bottle of Moët champagne – which coupled with his colourful quotes endeared him to the press (as we all know, golf journalists cannot resist free booze).

Also on this day in 1990, Ian Woosnam outlasted Mark McNulty and Jose Maria Olazabal to win the now-defunct Epson Grand Prix in Chepstow, Wales, en route to winning the second of his two Order of Merit titles.

It was grim news on this day in 1938, when PM Neville Chamberlain hopped off a plane from Munich after allowing Hitler to annex Sudetenland and proclaimed “Peace in Our Time”. And sad too in 1955, as Hollywood’s Rebel Without A Cause James Dean was killed when his Porsche crashed near Paso Robles, California.

On the lighter side, on September 30, 1994 Russian president Boris Yeltsin had another episode of “oversleeping”, failing to turn up for a meeting with Irish taoiseach Albert Reynolds.

And it’s Mi fresteri ju!, as they say in Surinamese, to LPGA veterans Vicki Fergon (52) and Kelly Robbins (38); foxy Swiss Miss of tennis Martina Hingis (27); Northern Ireland keeper Roy Carroll (30); wet-looked Barca gaffer Frank Rijkaard (45); 10-handicapper and silky crooner Johnny Mathis (72); and Nobel-winning Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel (79).