19th Hole
Tom Lehman reveals 1995 cancer battle
Sam Weinman of Golf Digest took a phone call from Tom Lehman in which the 1996 Champion Golfer of the Year revealed something shocking.
The year prior to hoisting the Claret Jug, a year in which Lehman played 18 events on the PGA Tour and won at Colonial, he was battling colon cancer. Indeed, Colonial was Lehman’s second start after a month-long layoff following surgery to remove cancerous polyps.
All of this was heretofore unbeknownst to pretty much everyone.
“It really didn’t seem to me it was worth discussing,” the five-time PGA Tour winner told Weinman. “I never had to deal with Stage 4 cancer or go through chemo or any of those awful things,” Lehman said. “Mine was early Stage 1 cancer, so why should I make a big deal out of it?”
Certainly, there are those for whom the disease’s ravages are far greater, yes, but still, to say nothing? That speaks to an incredible strength of character: a hard-nosed avoidance of any appearance of looking for sympathy or excuse making, as well as plenty of perspective as to where he disease fit in the pantheon of wretched afflictions.
So, why is Lehman saying something now? Out of a desire to help others, it turns out.
This week’s PGA Tour Champions event is the Cologuard Classic this week. Cologuard is an at-home colon cancer screening product. It was developed by the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. David Ahlquist, Lehman’s doctor during his cancer treatment.
Beyond this: Lehman knows his story is significant for a much broader swath of the male population than we’d usually label as “at risk of colon cancer.” Lehman was only 36 in the spring on 1995 when he was diagnosed, and it was mostly coincidence that revealed the disease.
Leading up to the 1995, Masters, Lehman was dealing with a full plate of the aches and pain that afflict anyone who makes thousands of golf swings year after year. Usually pill avoidant, Lehman popped Advil three days in a row, which led to internal bleeding.
All of this led ultimately to Lehman landing at the Mayo clinic and the malignant polyp discovery. So, again, Lehman’s story is relevant well beyond the gray-haired set. .
“For me the scary part is when you think about the percentages. When they catch the cancer in an early stage, like I had it, the survival rate is 98 percent. When it gets beyond the colon, it goes down to something like 2 percent. What if I didn’t take that Advil that led to the bleeding? At the time I was 36, and I never would have gone to get a colonoscopy. It would have just grown and grown and grown.”
Indeed. Physicals. Annual trips to the dentist. Prostate exams. Colonoscopies. These are all torturous, thoroughly unpleasant things. Yet they are all massively better than finding out you’re terminally ill with something that was treatable if caught sooner.
We don’t want to lose a GolfWRX Member to something that could have been prevented, so listen to Tom Lehman and don’t skimp on the regimen of screenings.
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19th Hole
Brandel Chamblee says this is the primary reason why Rory McIlroy hasn’t won a major in 10 years
It’s been ten years since Rory McIlroy won his last major championship. When he walked off the green of Valhalla in 2014, many golf fans thought the Northern Irishman would win a handful more by the time 2024 came around. However, McIlroy has come up short in the decade that’s passed since that day.
While speaking with GolfWRX, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee gave his opinion as to why McIlroy has come up empty.
“I just think he can’t find a place mentally where he plays his best golf.”
“If you go back and look at what he did from 2011-2014, in that stretch, he led roughly 20% of the rounds he played in major championships. His game has not fallen off, not one bit.
He’s, on paper, pretty much the same player he was. He’s not quite the ball striker he was 2011-2014, not quite, but he’s made up for it with his short game around the greens and on the greens. He’s almost the same player.
“Yet, he’s led just two rounds beginning with the 2015 Masters to the 2024 Masters. I just think that tells you he can’t find the proper way to prepare, the proper way to ease into a round. When he’s needed to play his best, he’s played his worst. When he’s played his worst, he’s then followed it up with his best golf. That’ll tell you that he’s just not in the right place mentally.”
Chamblee did say that he believes his win at Quail Hollow last week may have a positive impact on McIlroy’s chances going forward.
“I said last week, and I believe it, that beginning in the final round on Golf Central that I thought that round could echo. It could influence how he plays not just this week but the rest of this year and going forward. He needed to go out and dominate.”
McIlroy will look to end the major drought this week at Valhalla.
Check out the full interview with Chamblee below:
More from the 19th Hole
- Phil Mickelson drops big retirement hint; Says LIV will grow the game “on a much more global basis”
- 2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
- Tiger explains why golf has “negative connotations” for daughter Sam
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19th Hole
‘I thought it was a bot, but it’s just somebody who’s been bought’ – Brandel Chamblee’s stinging assessment of Anthony Kim
Last Friday, LIV Golf’s Anthony Kim took to his X account to lambaste Golf Channel analyst, Brandel Chamblee.
- Related: Brandel Chamblee: Why the format of LIV prevents anyone from judging the talents of the players
Kim said (in reference to Chamblee saying the PGA Tour should now accept a deal with the Saudi PIF) “ur such a pu**y 4 beating on ur chest & basically saying never retreat & hypocritically retreat.”
Chamblee responded, saying that Kim’s post was “inaccurate as some of Phil Mickelson’s drives”.
This is about as inaccurate as a lot of Mickelson’s drives and sadly ironical coming two tweets after you asked for advice on raising your daughter that you would refer to someone as a female body part in a juvenile attempt to denigrate them. It’s clear that you were not offered… https://t.co/LVeSgfZenG
— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) May 11, 2024
“This is about as inaccurate as a lot of Mickelson’s drives and sadly ironical coming two tweets after you asked for advice on raising your daughter that you would refer to someone as a female body part in a juvenile attempt to denigrate them. It’s clear that you were not offered disability for your pithy takes. As for your criticism of me saying a deal with the Saudis is the best deal for golf right now, it’s something I’ve said recently, because I don’t think the Saudis are going to turn away from the game and they will continue to be a poaching threat and dilute the product of the PGA Tour. It’s the sad reality of you and your brethren on the LIV tour willingly dealing with a murderous dictator for profit so that he can hide his atrocities, that golf has had to try to figure out how to mitigate the influence of MBS, PIF and LIV in the otherwise philanthropical and merit based world of professional golf. Now why don’t you get back to doing what you formerly did best, which is to wow the world with your talent. I don’t like LIV for a lot of reasons, but I certainly enjoyed your golf and would love to see you playing anything like the semblance of the golfer you used to be.”‘
On Tuesday during an interview with GolfWRX, Chamblee addressed the feud between Kim and himself.
“At first, I thought it was a bot. But it’s not, it was just somebody who’s been bought.
I thought it was juvenile. Social media is a perfect place for juveniles to go behave like children, like the ball pit at McDonalds without adult supervision.”
Chamblee added:
“I’m sure Anthony Kim scrolls and gets positive comments and says ‘yeah, these people get me! I’m doing the right thing’. And it’s just juvenile and sad is what it is.
I feel sorry for him”.
Brandel Chamblee is in the booth this week for the 2024 PGA Championship from Valhalla that will feature 16 LIV pros but no Anthony Kim.
Check out the full interview with Chamblee below:
More from the 19th Hole
- Phil Mickelson drops big retirement hint; Says LIV will grow the game “on a much more global basis”
- 2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
- Tiger explains why golf has “negative connotations” for daughter Sam
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19th Hole
Brandel Chamblee: Why the format of LIV prevents anyone from judging the talents of the players
While speaking with GolfWRX, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee explained why he believes the LIV format makes it impossible to determine if a LIV player is playing well.
Describing the format as “stupid”, Chamblee stated
“The format for LIV is just stupid. There’s no other word for it. 54 holes, 54 players start. Willy nilly here and there.
Nobody winning a golf tournament should finish on the third hole on some par three while his closest competitors finish on the 17th hole or the 18th hole.”
When we asked Brandel if LIV players should be in majors, Chamblee indicated that it would be tough to do with no way to truly measure their performance.
“It’s just a laughable concept. There’s no way to judge the talents of these players out there. You look at their data, and again, their data is laughable. It’s very hard to hit 75% of your greens and it looks like everybody on their tour is hitting 75% of greens. Who’s keeping their stats? Who’s doing their data? They haven’t gotten their act together.”
Brandel then compared the current situation to the when the European Tour was at its peak.
“There was a way to judge the European Tour. Guys are playing 72-hole events, tough conditions, windy and they shoot fifteen under par. You think ‘good gosh, is Ian Woosnam really that good?’ He shows up at the Masters, Berhard Langer, Jose Maria, Jose comes over to the world series and wins by 12. You think, ‘these guys are amazing’.”
Chamblee concludes that if LIV players want to get in majors they “need to find a way to qualify”.
“They went to play on a Tour that they knew didn’t qualify for world ranking points. So, if they want to get in majors, they’re going to have to figure out a way to qualify, the way Joaquin Niemann did. Go play some events that we can clearly judge the kind of player that you are.
The format of LIV is just not conducive to judgement.”
16 LIV players will be teeing it up at this week’s PGA Championship. Chamblee will be part of the broadcast team for the event.
Check out the full interview with Chamblee below:
More from the 19th Hole
- Phil Mickelson drops big retirement hint; Says LIV will grow the game “on a much more global basis”
- 2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
- Tiger explains why golf has “negative connotations” for daughter Sam
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