I’m not enough of a golf fan to know what’s the story behind these. But I hope some reader will shed some light on the fate of these additional prizes for the 1965 Buick Open Invitational.
I admit I find the logic behind this whole gambit a bit convoluted. The champ drives a new Riviera Gran Sport for 5 years? Does he give it back after that? Am I reading too much into this one sign? Then there’s the “use of Riviera” option for the 5 runner-ups of the Invitational. What does “use of…” mean? Weekends? Only on golf courses?
In any case, more info from someone with deeper knowledge of either golf or Buicks will be needed to sort this one out.
As for the Opel, what type of Kadett the wife would get seems to have been up in the air. A lower-res image shows a different color Riviera and a wholly different Kadett Coupé posing along the same “His ‘n Hers” promo. Where did the red Kadett go?
So I can’t give you much background on the fate of these cars, but as for the 1965 Buick Open Invitational, Tony Lema was the champ with a $100K purse (about $970K today). And for the Buick Open Invitational, it was part of the PGA Tour and ran from 1958 to 2009.
Well, times were different. Now it’s equal and everybody gets zero Buicks and Opels.
Actually I think I’d rather have the Kadett.
I admire the promoter’s faith in the value of a five year old Riviera.
“That’s money in the bank. Can’t let go of that.”
It seems unlikely that a well-off sportsman would have aspired to driving a five-year-old Buick in the ’60s.
The 1965 Buick Open winner, Tony Lema, was second on the money list with $100K. His cash prize for the tournament was $20K. The car would be worth about $5K new and less than $2K as a 5 year old. He wouldn’t drive it in 1970, but he’d notice $2K going out the door.
Leonard Nimoy was driving an old model Riviera when he was on Star Trek.
I’d never heard of Tony Lema. Won the 1964 (British) Open. Killed in as passenger in private plane crash, 1966.
Not counting majors, the average PGA tour event pays about $2 million to win now.
I think “Tony Lema” was the one known as “champagne Tony”.
Your wife gets to keep her Opel but you, dear champ, only get a five year lease on your Riviera. I guess if you’re not married you don’t get the Opel at all, or maybe your gf or bestie get one? Or at least a five year lease on one?
At least in the second photo the word “champ’s” got an apostrophe 😀. Also, it reads that she gets THIS Opel Kadett, not just AN Opel Kadett, so it’s gotta be the white one. Both signs state that the player himself will get A new Riviera so presumably he gets a choice of color.
The Buick Open was a big deal here in Mid-Michigan for a long time. I remember ALL the ads for it as I was growing up. After all, it was held in Buick’s hometown and was a legitimate PGA event with many of the big names stopping by.
The way I interpret it, the winner of the Open got a new Riviera GS every year for five years, and the runners-up got a one-year lease on one.
Sounds like a great deal to me. It had to have been worth the advertising dollars, because the event ran for decades.
At first read, I thought the winner got the Buick, and that was it for five years, same car.
You could be right though.
“Indeed, a lower-res image shows a different color Riviera and a new ’65 Kadett B posing …”
The white Kadett ist a Kadett A, too. It is the so called “Coupé”. The “Coupé” got a front end different from the (2door only) Kadett A Sedan, but resembling the Kadett B’s front end.
Thanks, I’ll update the text accordingly.
Do I see a “gray” top on that white one too?
“Open Invitational” sounds like a contradiction in terms, but that’s what it was called back then.
If I recall correctly it was a victim of the US bailout of GM, as it would have been unseemly to spend millions (?) on a golf tournament at taxpayer expense.
Tiger Woods had an endorsement deal with Buick and his presence alone guaranteed big ratings in the 2000s. There was some speculation about whether he actually drove Buicks or not. When he had his famous late night crash in 2009 after fleeing his wife, who was angry with his infidelities, he was in a Cadillac Escalade. Buick may have been relieved.
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/sports/2019/11/27/10-years-ago-tiger-woods-got-in-car-crash-that-changed-everything/2200771007/
He was in another well-publicized car crash more recently driving a Genesis GV80. Woods’ survival with only minor injuries in a gruesome-looking collision made Genesis look good at a time when many people were unfamiliar with the brand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7q0uL0OoWg
He “caused” another well-publicized crash more recently. There “fixed”.
I honestly thought “Open Invitational” was an error on the part of the author, but it was actually called that. Huh.
Dammit Jim, I’m a GOLFER not a copy editor!
Looks like someone ran down to the Kroger’s to pick up some apostrophes between the first sign and the second attempt.
The lease was probably for tax reasons. The “Kennedy” tax cuts passed after his death would have taken effect in ’64 or 5, but the top rate was 70%, down from 90%. Don’t ask me what income that rate applied to, and of course there were lots of shelters and wiggles, leasing being one of them. My former boss leased his car back to his company.
I wonder how many “champs” got the Opel and the champ’s wife got the Riviera…..
I have heard of contests where the winner got the use of a new vehicle for a specified period. I imagine that in this case, it would be the use of a new Riviera for five years. I interpret that to be five new Rivieras spread over that time. It would make more sense for the champ to be driving a new model every year. Much better advertising value. Kind of like how Tod drove a new Corvette every year on Route 66. I read that Aston Martin will supply Daniel Craig with the use of any new model that he desires.
As noted here, Tony Lema won the Buick Open for 1965, and along with it, the Riviera (though his cash prize was $20,000 evidently… I think the rest of the prize money went to other competitors). Amusingly, he also won the 1964 Buick Open – along with a Buick, though I can’t find the details on it. Plus he picked up another car by winning the 1964 Thunderbird Open.
After winning this 1965 Riviera, Lema joked that “I may have to open a used car lot if this keeps up.” Also, another golfer, Archie Dadian, got a hole-in-one at the 1965 Buick Open, and (as the sign says at the top) also won himself a Riviera. Dadian was a virtually unknown golfer at the time, so it was pretty neat that he won the car there.
Sadly, Lema never got the chance to drive his Riviera for 5 years since he was killed in a small plane crash in 1966
That Riviera is as sexy as that his-and-hers promotion is sexist.
It seems that way until you consider wifey didn’t have to win a golf tournament herself to get a free car (whether there were opportunities in women’s golf in 1965 I don’t know, I’m not a golfer or sport historian, though I can probably guess the answer correctly. If there was, her husband probably never won a free car just for being married to a golf champion).
My interpretation is that the Champ gets a Kadette, if he is married, but if he isn’t then he gets to use the Riviera for 5 years.
I’d never put my wife in that little Kadette. She gets the tank. I don’t want my kids in that little Kadette either – its the Riv for them as well.
The difference between the “man’s car” and the “man’s wife’s car” is embarrassing and extreme. How about cutting the difference and just awarding a nice Regal to own instead and forget about the his/her Buicks.
Even as a kid back then, I’d have been aware of how sexually discriminating this is.
lolol I liked the “Kadette’s”. Thought they were “nifty cars”.. Sitting next to the “glamorous Riv”, the poor things look like toy cars though..lol
That “first gen, Riviera” is/ has been , one of my dream cars forever..
((silver out/red inside please))
The Riviera was indeed the bee’s knees in 1965 but I’d rather have a Kadett .
-Nate
Problem, back then, was parts for the “O/K”. My neighbors “67 model” had to “sit a spell” in summer/fall “69”.
Been a long time but think it was something “drive train/tranny, related”.
Anyway, before the year ended, a “shiny Red beetle”, took it’s place.
It’s far from clear, but I read a new car for 5 years to be a new car every year for 5 years. Not necessarily one to keep, but new each year.
As far as sexism, that was my first take, but on further analysis I don’t think so. It’s a bonus throw in. If nothing was offered to the winners wife, that would not be sexist, so why is a more modest, but apparently free and clear bonus gift sexist? Yeah, I can also read it to mean the wife/woman getting something lesser because she doesn’t need or deserve a “big car”, but I see a free gift as a free gift. And not with a time limit on it like the Riviera.
Those Riv’s were striking cars when new though, it would be a nice ad on even if you didn’t get to keep it.
I think you’re right. I’ve been searching for some clarification on whether the prize was one car for 5 years, or a new car for each year, and I found this description from a period newspaper article which clarifies things a bit:
“The winner has the use of a current-model Buick car each year for five years.”
…That seems to indicate that the prize is how you (and Aaron above) interpret it.
Ah, interesting indeed. Wonder if the “use” is as a “loaner ride”? Something that requires the driver to cough up “fees/ taxes”? H’mm.
Is the His ‘n Her’s advertisement sexist? Actually look at the billboard. It says “His IN Hers”. Good night.
No, I see an apostrophe, not an I. An accent mark above the n, not in front of it. Slang for and.
That’s what I think. But it also might be painted intended ambiguously.
It seems that way until you consider wifey didn’t have to win a golf tournament herself to get a free car (whether there were opportunities in women’s golf in 1965 I don’t know, I’m not a golfer or sport historian, though I can probably guess the answer correctly. If there was, her husband probably never won a free car just for being married to a golf champion).
aarg a WP bug that makes responses sometimes post as a new comment
Reminds me of a story about the great African-American golf pro Charlie Sifford, who suffered many racist slights and worse in his early days on the PGA tour. At one tournament a large sign at a Par 3 proclaimed that any pro hitting a hole in one would receive $100,000 and a new Buick. Sure enough Charlie hit the ace, but the tournament management informed him that there had been a “mistake” and there would be no 100 grand, nor a Buick. Charlie sued, and got both after a protracted legal battle.
Not only was Sifford a fine golfer, but a humble, dignified man who endured his many indignities with a steely grace. Tiger Woods son Charlie is named after him. In spite of his skill and the fact that he won twice on the PGA tour, he was never invited to play in the Masters. Charlie thought he might be going in 1962, when he led the Canadian Open after three rounds, as the winner of the Canadian Open had always been given an automatic invitation. However, the night before the final round Masters tournament chair Clifford Roberts announced that the Canadian Open champion would no longer be offered an automatic invitation. Such was the life Charlie Sifford had to endure.
The story about the Masters appears to be an urban legend.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-xpm-2012-sep-02-la-sp-sn-augusta-charlie-sifford-20120904-story.html
Read Michael Bamberger’s excellent book, Men In Green.