On his way to the 2008 Ryder Cup tournament in Louisville later this week, former Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman stopped in Madison for a short appearance before a group of about 100 local businessmen and golfers on the roof of the westside Princeton Club. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, the kind of day most golfers would prefer to be on the links, instead of sitting in folding chairs set up on the artificial turf of the rooftop soccer field.
But listening to a some inside information from a golfing great after a nice lunch was also easier to fit in the schedule than an afternoon of nine or 18 holes. Lehman didn’t disappoint, but along the way he also offered some reflections on living a successful life off of the golf course.
To listen to Tom Lehman’s talk directly, click here, or right click and download it to your mp3 player.
"We’re underdogs," he said, about the Ryder Cup. "But we have (Madison golfer) Steve Stricker. He will make the team better. He’s a great person and he’s so tough competitively." Lehman, a native of Alexandria, Minnesota, and a University of Minnesota golfer, is well aware of Madison’s local golf courses and golfing talent.
Lehman, who is known among professional golfers for his Christian testimony, said that the two most important things in life are "the choices you make and how you define success."
He said among the better decisions he’s made in life was marrying his wife, Melissa. They’ve been married for 21 years. Among his poorer decisions was dressing down a golf writer who wrote a critical article about him, to whom he later had to apologize. "We make our decisions and our decisions make us," he said.
Lehman said his definition of success "has nothing to do with what you can achieve. It has to do with who you are as a person." He said former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once told him, "be more concerned about your character than your reputation."
At the age of 49, Lehman said he has achieved everything he’s wanted to achieve. He’s won multiple tournaments on the PGA Tour and is ready to transition to the Champions Tour, for older golfers. His best year may have been 1996, when he won the Open Championship and the British Open. He was also a member of the Ryders Cup and President’s Cup teams between 1994 and 2000. According to the PGA Tour website, he ranks 18th in career earnings on the PGA TOUR.
But he said that if all he’s remembered for is being a great golfer he will be a failure. Like former Packer Reggie White, he said his relationship with God was more important than his sport. "It’s people who serve others who are truly successful," he said, adding, "love God and love people and everything else will take care of itself."
Lehman seasoned his talk with a number of inspirational quotations, and ended with this one: "When you were born you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die, you will rejoice and the world will cry."
In a question and answer time after the talk Lehman was asked about when his faith in God became important to him. He said that he was the third string quarterback on a state champion football team as a 15-year old high school student. After the pep rally for the state championship, he said, he realized "there has to be more to life than this."