Lee Trevino

On the practice ground at Merion before an 18-hole playoff. Here was a player born outside golf’s white, middle class heartland, blessed with arguably the most educated hands in the history of the game. Trevino’s story could have provided the template for the film Tin Cup- the only difference was he could not take defeat. He was also a man who stood up for what he believed, including supporting Charlie Sifford in his campaign to be the first black player invited to play at The Masters. These days, when people moan about the lack of characters in the game, it’s because they were brought up watching Trevino, the most gregarious and arguably most skilful player of them all. The road to Trevino’s breakthrough moment at Oak Hill was as long, lonely and hard, and filled with the same amount of soul searching, as the route he had taken from Houston that fateful June of 1968. Born in 1939 in Dallas, Lee Buck Trevino never knew his father. He grew up in a small house by a lake with no electricity or plumbing on the edge of the Dallas Athletic Golf Club, now known as Glen Lakes Country Club. His mother was a maid, his maternal grandfather a hard drinking gravedigger and a quick wit and faster tongue were Lee’s only protection against insults aimed at his half-American, half-Mexican ethnicity. The proximity of the golf course meant golf was the easiest way for Lee to make a buck and after dropping out of school in the seventh grade he began caddying at Glen Lakes, learning the game under the tutelage of caddie master Jesse Holdman. A natural athlete, Trevino honed his skills on a few rough holes laid out

behind the caddy shed, fleecing his peers playing barefoot with a Dr Pepper bottle fixed on the end of a wooden shaft. His first full round at the age of 15 saw him shoot a 77. Soon, he was at the centre of the local gambling action, backed by members in money matches at Tenison Golf Course. A young Raymond Floyd was one of the first to discover that the small, constantly wise cracking workaholic with the flat, unorthodox swing was a stupendously tenacious competitor. Trevino, he found out over three expensive days in 1966, was never more dangerous when in his element; on the golf course and out to prove something to himself and to those born on a more salubrious side of the tracks. Despite his happy-go-lucky appearance, Trevino had a steel trap mind when it came to golf and the drive to answer the doubts that stemmed from such a poverty-stricken upbringing, and the doubts of others about his ability to compete with the best, was the catalyst for a career that saw him go on to scoop six majors, win 29 times on both the PGA and Seniors Tour, play in and captain the US Ryder Cup side and, most importantly, confirm himself as one of golf’s all- time greats. Trevino sacrificed everything for golf. Two failed marriages and the regrets of not giving his eldest children the time and attention they deserved while he was on the road for 22 years were foremost on the debit list. Humour was his way with dealing with these inner demons and no golfer before or since has more entries to his name in any compendium of classic quotes. He was constantly talking on the golf course and many of those who have played with him have observed that the patter would continue even when nobody was in earshot. The few that knew him well would invariably opine that the banter was a safety valve through which he could relieve the pressure on himself, and add to that bearing down on his more nervous looking playing partners.