Trevino is at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he’s playing in the pro-am ahead of the Simmons Bank Championship on the PGA Tour Champions. He also spent some time with the media and rolled through a few of stories, including one about joining the then-Senior PGA Tour in 1990.
“I’ll tell you a real quick story. I was waiting to get out there and they were kind of waiting for me to get out there because [Jack] Nicklaus and I were both turning 50 about the same time, even though Jack, Jack never played a lot of tournaments. I don’t think he ever played more than six or eight tournaments in one year,” Trevino said. “As a matter of fact, when I realized that I was turning 50 that December and that I was going to go on the Champions Tour, and Nicklaus was turning 50 on January 20th or 21st and he was coming out to play with me, I actually talked to Nicklaus’ manager and the wife, Nicklaus’ wife. You can ask Barbara. I told Barbara, I said, ‘Listen, for every tournament that I enter, if you keep Jack at home, I will send you a dozen roses.’ That year I played 38 tournaments and I sent Barbara Nicklaus 30 dozen roses because she kept him home 30 of the tournaments. I was leading money winner that year.”
Trevino won $1,190,518 million in 1990. He noted that was more than the $1,165,477 that Greg Norman earned as the leading money winner on the PGA Tour that same year.
“You can look it up,” he said. “I won more money than Norman. Norman was the leading money winner on the regular tour and I was the leading money winner on the Champions Tour, but I played 38 tournaments that year, yeah.”
Trevino’s first sponsorship was with Dr. Pepper, not a golf club company
Trevino played in the era before huge purses that PGA Tour pros today enjoy.
“Back in my day, I played, I chased the dollar naturally simply because we didn’t have that much as far as prize money was concerned,” he said. “If you look at the record, in 1971, I won seven tournaments and then I finished high in a lot of tournaments and I won a total of $153,000. That was when you won a tournament back then, a regular tournament, you won 20 percent of the purse, which generally was $100,000.”
Lee Trevino during the 1973 PGA Tour season. (Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY)
He then went on to talk about not having any deals with the golf club manufacturers.
“I think I would have a lot of trouble playing an equipment company. I think I would try ’em all and just play whatever’s best. So I might have a 3-wood that I can hit that somebody else makes, or a driver, irons. I remember when I started the Tour, I had seven different makes in my bag. I didn’t have a complete set of clubs, but I didn’t have a contract with anybody.”
Trevino still goes to the golf course every day
Trevino, 85, says he still visits his local club seven days a week.
“I go to the golf course seven days a week. I get there about 10. I’ll chip a little bit, putt a little bit. I’ll hit five balls with each club in my bag, then I’ll go home. I usually get home about 11:30. So I’ve got the whole day to do nothing, that’s the whole thing.”
Arguably none cherishes winning the PGA more than Trevino.
Of all the golfers who have won the PGA Championship in the last 50 years, arguably none cherished the achievement more than Lee Trevino.
“The PGA of America gave me my life,” Trevino has said on numerous occasions. “That’s exactly what they did.”
Bill Eschenbrenner, the head professional at El Paso (Texas) Country Club for 35 years, helped Trevino when he moved there from Dallas in 1965 to obtain his PGA Class A card. When Trevino wasn’t busy winning money games, he was doing everything at nearby Horizon Hills Golf Club from opening the shop first thing in the morning to shining shoes to giving lessons. At the time, a pro was required to be a card-carrying member to play on the PGA Tour and Trevino’s previous boss in Dallas refused to endorse his work.
Eschenbrenner found another way through his local PGA chapter, and kept Trevino’s framed application from the Sun Country PGA Section – dated March 13, 1966 – on display in his pro shop until he retired in 1999 (and became pro emeritus).
“I had faith in him,” said Eschenbrenner, who said Trevino’s PGA Class A card came through a week before the Merry Mex finished fifth at the 1967 U.S. Open at Baltusrol, after which his playing career was off and running. “I said, ‘If he doesn’t make a good PGA member, you can take my card.’ ”
As one of the last bridges to the days when touring pros started their careers behind the counter of a pro shop, Trevino always had an ulterior motive for winning the Wanamaker Trophy. The PGA Championship meant more to him than it did to his rivals. And he succeeded — twice. Trevino won the title for the first time 50 years ago, then won it again 10 years later for his sixth and final major as well as 29th and final PGA Tour title.
Lee Trevino during the 1973 PGA Tour season. (Photo: Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY)
Entering the 56th PGA Championship, held at Tanglewood Golf Club, a 36-hole public complex in Clemmons, North Carolina, Trevino had experienced little success in the championship. In six previous appearances, he had finished no better than 11th.
But he found the course – and the soggy conditions, which better enabled him to hold the course’s greens with his lower trajectory approaches – to his liking. More than seven inches of rain saturated Tanglewood in the days leading up to the championship and the thirsty turf sprang to life, resulting in unruly rough. “The grass was knee-high to a giraffe, and the greens had footprints this big,” recalled Trevino, holding his hands a foot apart.
The skies opened again as the first round got underway. All three of the first-round leaders benefited from afternoon tee times when the rain lifted. Hubert Green, the Tour’s number-two money winner at the time, birdied two of his last three holes to tie Raymond Floyd and John Schlee at 2-under 68. Despite competing in the better half of the draw, Trevino failed to take advantage and opened with a 3-over 73.
But in the second round, under still damp conditions, he signed for a nifty 66, and strolled into the press center and declared, “Ain’t nothin’ like a low round to make you un-tired.” That was the low round of the week until Gary Player delivered a PGA Championship record-tying 64 later that day. Trevino still trailed Schlee, the 36-hole leader, by four strokes.
On Saturday, the weather finally broke, but Schlee slid down the leaderboard with a 75. Player, who had won the Masters and the Open Championship earlier in the year, also fell to Earth with a 73. Trevino signed for a 2-under 68 and a 54-hole total of 3-under 207. Lurking one stroke back was Jack Nicklaus, who matched par with 70, and liked where he stood as he searched for his 13th major title.
The potential of another Nicklaus and Trevino mano a mano Sunday battle with a major on the line dominated the sports headlines. Lee already had gotten the better of Jack for three of his four major wins, including an 18-hole playoff in the 1971 U.S. Open and the 1972 Open Championship, which had spoiled Nicklaus’s Grand Slam quest. Player, for one, had a strong opinion on what made Trevino such a thorn in Nicklaus’s side.
“Lee Trevino had enough heart for 10 men,” Player said.
Two other players emerged as unlikely contenders after three rounds. Bobby Cole, a 26-year-old South African who was winless on Tour, shot 71, which left him one behind Trevino. And the legendary Sam Snead, at age 62 and nine years removed from the last of his Tour-record 82 career victories (since tied by Tiger Woods), was four back at 1-over after rounds of 69-71.
On Saturday, Trevino one-putted five of the last six greens, a feat that yielded a lovely story about how he acquired the club. It all began when Trevino rented a house for tournament week from Zana Mayberry, a widow who lived with her son near Tanglewood. A week before the championship, she stored some belongings in the attic, including her husband’s golf clubs. Trevino had peeked into the attic and discovered the set, pulling a Wilson Arnold Palmer 8802 blade putter from the bag. He had taken the club for a spin during his practice session, and it was love at first stroke. But Trevino didn’t think it would be proper to use it in the tournament without asking permission.
“She said it was her husband’s, who had died about six months before,” Trevino recounted. “She was going to save it for her son if he decided to play golf.”
But she granted Trevino permission to use it that week and it had been deadly.
Eight players were within three shots of Trevino’s lead when the final round began, but it quickly became clear that another Trevino-Nicklaus showdown was in the making – save for one party crasher. In the threesome immediately ahead of the two heavyweights, Cole briefly took the lead. At the first hole, a 380-yard, downhill dogleg left, his second shot from thick rough hit behind the hole, hopped back and disappeared for an eagle. It proved to be the start of a rollercoaster day for Cole, who made only five pars.
Lee Trevino competes on the PGA Tour during the 1983 season. (Photo: Malcolm Emmons- USA TODAY Sports)
Trevino answered with an eight-foot birdie at the first, and the two co-leaders set the pace until Cole stumbled with a bogey at the ninth. He continued the chase, alternating birdies and bogeys, but a double bogey at 17 sealed his fate. He finished with a 71 and shared third with, among others, Snead. Playing in his 37th PGA, Snead closed with a 68 and became the oldest player to finish in the top five of a major championship.
Trevino was nursing a one-stroke lead over Nicklaus as they reached the 72nd and final hole of the championship. Likely needing a birdie to tie, Nicklaus reached the fringe of the green and couldn’t mark and clean his ball. He gave a valiant try, but his 20-foot birdie attempt slid by on the high side.
“It looked to me like it would break a foot, and it broke maybe an inch or two,” he said. “I think without the mud, it might have.”
After Nicklaus tapped in, Trevino lagged his putt within 2 feet of victory. It’s customary in such situations for the leader to mark his ball and allow his competitors to putt first. Green still had about four feet to clean up, but Trevino had other ideas. He asked if he could finish, wiggled it in for a textbook par, and had his fifth major title in a seven-year span.
Trevino, the former driving-range pro who had been deprived of his PGA membership, had won the association’s signature event.
“It felt like payback,” he said on the day of his 2015 induction into the PGA of America’s Hall of Fame. “[Eschenbrenner and the PGA] took a chance on me, and I fulfilled my commitment.”
As for “the Ms. Mayberry putter,” as he came to refer to it, the usually unsentimental Trevino made it one of the few keepsakes from his career. When he assumed the 54-hole lead, Ms. Mayberry told Trevino that he could have the putter if he won the championship. He tucked the gift away at home in a special drawer at home.
Twice is nice
The only thing better than having his name inscribed on the Wanamaker Trophy once was doing it a second time. Shoal Creek, host of the 1984 PGA Championship in suburban Birmingham, Alabama, was the type of unforgiving layout on which Trevino tended to excel. Much like at Tanglewood, Shoal Creek’s rough was the No. 1 topic of conversation.
“That was the toughest rough I’ve ever played in, including all the U.S. Opens,” Trevino said. “It was almost like having water hazards on both sides of the fairways.”
A late-afternoon thunderstorm emerged as the real winner of Round One, causing a suspension of play until Friday with 30 players yet to finish. Lanny Wadkins, who had one hole left to complete, eventually joined Mike Reid and Raymond Floyd as 18-hole co-leaders. The rain was to have a profound effect on the next three rounds, ensuring the greens never got hard and making conditions ideal for low scoring.
Once again, Trevino took advantage of a new putter in the bag. Three weeks before the PGA, during the first round of the Dutch Open, he hit every green in regulation yet shot 74 – thanks to taking 36 putts. Trevino hummed “Taps” to his wife, Claudia, his way of saying it was time to put his current putter out of its misery. She didn’t let her husband sulk for long, suggesting he try a Ping putter after noting that champion Seve Ballesteros and nearly all of the top 10 finishers in the 1984 Open Championship had used that brand. Her passionate urging prompted Trevino to visit the Rosensaelsche Golf Club pro shop and buy the only Ping model in stock, an A-Blade, for about $50. First, Trevino had to knock some sense into it. “I beat it against the concrete and stomped it with my heel until I got the loft and the angle I like,” he said.
It did the trick. In the early going, Trevino made only one bogey over the first 36 holes and holed five putts of 15 feet or longer, including a 45-foot bomb at the eighth on Friday. In the third round, he took six putts over the first seven holes and made the turn at 6-under 30. His 67 ran his recent form to 61 under par for the last 13 competitive rounds. But could his game hold up for one more day? He was a 44-year-old, part-time player stepping out of the broadcast booth with a surgically repaired back who hadn’t lifted a major championship trophy since Tanglewood a decade earlier.
Trevino got off to an auspicious start, sinking a 60-foot birdie putt at the first. But the feisty Wadkins loved nothing more than a fight and responded with birdies at the sixth and ninth to gain the outright lead for the first time. Player trailed by one stroke after jarring an uphill 60-foot birdie putt at the ninth, but he took three putts on the next hole and never drew closer than two shots the rest of the way.
The turning point proved to be the par-3 16th hole, where Wadkins, coming off birdie to trim Trevino’s lead to one, had the honor at the 197-yard hole. His tee shot came to rest within 15 feet of the hole. Next, Trevino tried to cut a 4-iron from the elevated tee, but yanked it left into the front bunker and did well to splash 15 feet past the hole. The pendulum looked about to swing in Wadkins’ favor, with possibly a two-shot swing.
But Trevino’s putter bailed him out once more, the ball slowing at just the right moment to curl in. To make matters worse, Wadkins missed his putt to tie and didn’t have an answer for the hot-putting Trevino, who birdied the final two holes for a four-shot victory.
As only Trevino could do, he paid tribute to his putting prowess at Shoal Creek by kissing his three-week-old Dutch treat and taking a bow. Then he did it three more times, turning each time to ensure everyone encircling the green got to see him face-to-face-to-face.
Trevino’s closing 69 made him the first player in PGA Championship history to shoot four rounds under 70, while his winning total of 15-under shattered the PGA’s previous under-par record by five strokes. He now had won a major championship in three different decades. Holding the silver Wanamaker Trophy aloft for the second time and ending a 40-month winless drought, Trevino said, “God, it’s shiny. It’s been a long time since I got something this shiny.”
Or that meaningful. Once he became one, Trevino never took being a PGA Class A member for granted. Whenever he’d go to a new course, he made a point of greeting the assistants and introducing himself to the head pro.
“That is courtesy,” Trevino said. “That is respect for the PGA professional.”
The Senior European Tour is heading south of the border for the first time.
The Senior European Tour is heading south of the border for the first time.
The 50-and-over circuit is spreading its wings, announcing on Wednesday a new tournament in Mexico in November.
Past Masters champion Ian Woosnam, U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell and former European Ryder Cup team members Constantino Rocca and Jean van de Velde have a new stop to compete against each other.
Punta Mita, in conjunction with VDV Internacional Golf Manejo, will host the inaugural WCM Mexico Senior Open, November 14-17. Taking place within the gates of the 1,500-acre luxury resort along Mexico’s Pacific coastline, the tournament will gather golf legends from across the globe to play at Pacifico Golf Course—a Jack Nicklaus signature design, which ranks sixth in Golfweek’s Best list for Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic Islands and Central America. Pacifico is celebrating its 25th anniversary along with the destination in 2024. The course reopened in November 2021 after a six-month closure to restore the greens, bunkers and surrounds with TifEagle Bermuda grass.
Sanctioned by the Senior European Tour and the Mexican Federation of Golf, the WCM Legends Senior Mexico Senior Open is set to feature a stellar lineup of golf legends with six-time major championship winner Lee Trevino serving as an ambassador. Confirmed participants include Woosnam, Campbell, Rocca and Van de Velde, who has taken up permanent residence as resident instructor at Punta Mita. The full field will be formally introduced at a later date from an abundance of major champion golfers currently participating in the Legends Tour circuit as well as the Champions Tour. These players have previously made their mark in prestigious tournaments on the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour), PGA Tour, Ryder Cup, and Presidents Cup.
The event is organized by VDV (Partners) Internacional Golf Manejo, under the leadership of Van de Velde. The sister company, VDV Partners, boasts a successful track record of managing professional golf tournaments, including the last three editions of the WCM Legends Open de France. During the three-day event at Punta Mita, professional golfers will vie for an impressive prize purse of $450,000.
A unique feature of the WCM Mexico Senior Open is the participation of 64 amateur golfers. Amateurs will compete as a team of two players alongside two Legends Tour professionals in a modified alliance format over a three-day period. The team with the most Stableford points will be crowned as the Mexico Senior Open Alliance champions.
Daniel stashed inventory in his parents’ garage. Lee had to park his car outside.
ORLANDO – Tucked in a back corner of the apparel section of the Orange County Convention Center at the PGA Merchandise Show (booth No. 6738) is an upstart brand with an old-school logo.
Super Mex Golf is the creation of Daniel Trevino, son of World Golf Hall of Famer Lee Trevino, who made the sombrero logo with a golf club through it famous, beginning in 1967.
“Being Hispanic, and coming from where I came from, I’m proud of this logo because it shows that if you have perseverance, if you sacrifice, if you work hard – you can be successful. Not just in golf, in anything, you can be successful. That is what this logo’s all about,” Lee is quoted as saying in a postcard-size promotional piece describing the essence of the brand.
Nicknamed Super Mex, Lee had a style and swagger all his own. How Daniel decided to revive the logo — which was marketed by Wrangler during Lee’s heyday in the 1970s — and enter the apparel business is a story in its own right. He recalls making up a small batch of sombrero hats for himself and his dad and wearing them when he played in mini-tour events before COVID struck. He’d sweat in them during the tournament but when it was over his fellow competitors would fight over who could have them as a souvenir. (PGA Tour rookie Blaine Hale Jr. wore the logo at PGA Tour Qualifying School in December, noting he’s a big Lee Trevino fan.)
“I remember thinking there’s a business here,” Daniel said.
Super Mex Golf has a booth at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando for the first time. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)
The family discussed licensing the logo to some apparel companies but decided they didn’t want to hand over control of the logo to a third party. Better to do it themselves. The success of pro golfer Zac Blair selling limited-run quantities of his Buck Club hats direct-to-consumer inspired Daniel’s approach. He took the money he earned playing in the 2019 PNC Championship and parlayed it into selling logoed Imperial hats and Dormie headcovers.
“I bought as much as I could with the $8,000 I had and when I sold them all I just kept re-investing what I made into making more,” he said.
Daniel made the leap into the business about 18 months ago, initially stashing his inventory in his parents’ garage to the point that it took up so much space that Lee had to park his car outside. Daniel says he’s shipped over 4,000 orders and taped every box and mailed them at the post office himself. In May 2023, he began selling in earnest and expanded into a warehouse with some additional backing from his dad.
Super Mex Golf apparel sports a retro-inspired look on display at the 2024 PGA Show. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)
“I said, ‘How much is it going to take?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.’ By the time he got a warehouse full, he said, ‘I just need your signature,’ ” Lee recounted to a roomful of listeners during a fireside chat while accepting the NGCOA’s Merit Award at a luncheon at the PGA Show. “I told him, ‘What the heck, I’m almost 85, son, you’re going to get it all pretty soon anyway.’ ”
Lee is a proud member of the PGA of America, earning his Class A card in 1966 before winning 29 times on the PGA Tour, including the PGA Championship twice among his six majors. Daniel already has begun selling his retro-inspired gear at several green-grass shops in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
“His big thing is he always wanted to support the club pro,” Daniel said. “My goal is to do 70 percent green grass, 30 percent online sales. We’re flipped right now.”
Super Mex is back thanks to Daniel and has big plans and so far it’s going super.
ORLANDO – When Lee Trevino started prepping to compete in this year’s PNC Championship, the World Golf Hall of Fame member and six-time major champion topped several balls on the range. Was arguably the best ball-striker in the game lifting his head? Say it ain’t so.
“I never, ever remember doing this in my life,” Trevino said.
His son, Daniel, 31, who is his partner in the two-person scramble format team event that begins on Saturday at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, suggested he go see renowned instructor Randy Smith, who teaches world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. But Trevino made a vow many years ago that he wouldn’t take a lesson from anybody that he could beat. Trevino dialed up Smith and when he answered he said, “Have you got 15 minutes to look at me? I think you can beat me now.”
The lesson helped. Trevino recounted on the Subpar podcast that five weeks ago he made a birdie and nine pars and shot 82 in a fundraiser at Dallas National.
“What are you complaining about?” Daniel said. “You broke your age.”
Trevino, 84, calls the PNC Championship his major and he talks about it all year. He’s played in every edition dating to the inaugural event in 1995 when 10 major winners gathered with their sons. He’s assumed the role of the field’s elder statesman, which has evolved to feature 20 major champions (including women such as Annika Sorenstam) and their relatives competing for the Willie Park Trophy. There’s a wait list just to get in the field.
“It’s like people trying to qualify for Augusta,” Trevino said.
It’s interesting that he should mention the Masters, the only one of the four majors that he never won. He’s failed to win the PNC Championship, too, but the family gathering reflects the growing importance that familial bonds have come to mean to him.
Trevino never knew his father and that absence surely affected Trevino’s outlook on life. He grew up in a household where he rarely heard an encouraging word and re-enacted his youth with his children. “I gave them the roof over their heads, but I didn’t give them the love,” he said. “I was a screamer. I’d have a few beers and get crazy with the kids.”
Rick Trevino, his oldest, recalled in a first-person magazine article that his father would fly in to visit him once or twice a year in Green City, Missouri, where Rick lived with Trevino’s first wife, Linda, and they would speak by phone once every month or two, but otherwise they didn’t have much of a relationship. In later years, Rick would serve as his father’s caddie at the Legends of Golf when it was held at Big Cedar Lodge in Branson, Missouri, not far from where he lived. Lesley, Tony and Troy — his children from his second marriage — became accustomed to a house in which their father was rarely present. It was nothing for him to be gone for eight consecutive weeks. In a Sports Illustrated article, Trevino was once asked if his son Tony had come to resent his absent father. “I think so,” Trevino said, “and I don’t blame him.
“My wives raised four kids that I did not know. I had no clue who they were. I didn’t go to a high school basketball game or a recital. I went to graduation, and that’s it,” he said. “Before I knew it, they were grown up and gone.”
Trevino credits Jack Nicklaus for demonstrating a better way. He recounted teaming with Nicklaus at the 1971 World Cup in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. When they finished a practice round, Trevino suggested that they hit the range. Nicklaus had other ideas. His oldest child, Jackie, had a high school football game. Trevino joined Nicklaus at the stadium. “Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever done that,” Trevino said
Only later in life did Trevino figure out how to emulate Nicklaus.
“Golf was his living, but he didn’t make it his life,” Trevino told Golf Digest’s Dave Shedlodski of Nicklaus. “I put golf first, and he taught me that was a mistake. I’m a better father now than I ever was. That’s Jack’s impact on me. It says a lot that it has nothing to do with golf.”
Trevino’s youngest children, Olivia and Daniel, were the beneficiaries of their father’s epiphany. The third time was the charm. His family with Claudia Bove, his third wife, became his priority, and nothing stood in the way of time spent with Olivia, born in 1989, and Daniel, who came along four years later. “I’ve been given a mulligan,” Trevino once said. “I was a father before, but not a dad.”
Lee Trevino of the United States reacts after a pro-am partner made a putt on the second hole prior to the PNC Championship at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on December 14, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
In the early years of the team event, Trevino alternated playing with Tony in odd years and Rick in even years. But once Daniel made his debut in 2006, there’s been no rotation. Parental pride swells inside of Trevino whenever he talks about playing golf with Daniel. “You can’t separate us,” Trevino said. “He’s gonna reap from all the neglect I did my other kids.”
While Nicklaus and fellow contemporaries Raymond Floyd and Hale Irwin have all stopped competing in the father-son, Trevino shows no signs of calling it a day, even if his knees may ache, and according to tournament founder Alastair Johnston, he has a lifetime exemption into the limited field.
“He supported me in this event from the beginning and I told him, ‘You can come back for as long as you want,’ and I’ve kept my word,” Johnston said.
And so Team Trevino rolls on. Two years ago, they held the lead with four holes to go only to finish T-3.
“As soon as we get on the plane and go back we start reminiscing about where we made the mistakes and what we need to work on for next year,” Trevino said. “We talk about it all year.”
He built a repeatable push-fade that led to him becoming one of the most accurate ballstrikers of all time,
Lee Trevino, a World Golf Hall of Fame member, won six majors and 29 PGA Tour events in his legendary career. He was born on Dec. 1, 1939.
Trevino is certainly one of the most unlikely multiple-major winners the sport has ever seen. After growing up poor in Texas and working in cotton fields from the age of 5, Trevino learned the game by sneaking onto courses to play and then caddying. He built his nerve in high-stakes gambling games and during a four-year stint in the U.S. Marine Corps as a machine gunner.
He built a repeatable push-fade that led to him becoming one of the most accurate ballstrikers of all time, even if he didn’t have the power of adversaries such as Jack Nicklaus or Tom Weiskopf.
After breaking through for his first Tour win and major title at the 1968 U.S. Open at Oak Hill, where he beat Nicklaus by four shots, he went on to win the 1971 U.S. Open at Merion (beating Nicklaus in a playoff); the British Open in 1971 (Royal Birkdale) and 1972 (Muirfield, beating Nicklaus by a shot); and the PGA Championship in 1974 (Tanglewood, again beating Nicklaus by a shot) and 1984 (Shoal Creek).
Affectionately known as the Merry Mex, Trevino was a fearsome competitor who loved to talk during rounds, frequently carrying on one-sided conversations with the galleries. He was the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year in 1971; won the Vardon Trophy (lowest scoring average) in 1970, ’71, ’72, ’74 and ’80; and was the Tour’s leading money winner in 1970. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981.
Some of the bronze plaques for the 176 members of the World Golf Hall of Fame are better than others.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — It’s golf’s highest honor.
To be elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame is to be enshrined among the greatest. There have been only 176 men and women to be inducted in the Hall.
When the facility opened at World Golf Village in 1998, the members were commemorated with crystals but they were mounted in the floor and took up too much space for special events. So, the crystals were removed and bronze plaques replaced them. Some are better than others. According to the Florida Times Union, the plaques will not be relocated to Pinehurst, N.C., where the Hall will take up residency again in 2024.
Some of the plaques, it really helps to have the name written below it because the resemblance is minimal at best. See if you can name the Hall member.
“It’s not very pleasant to watch somebody stand over the ball for half an hour,” said Jack Nicklaus.
When Jack Nicklaus says slow play is a problem, you know the topic has officially jumped the shark.
Nicklaus was asked to opine on the pace of play of professional golf during a press conference on Saturday at The Woodlands in Houston ahead of competing in the Greats of Golf, a nine-hole exhibition played during the Insperity Championship on PGA Tour Champions.
“They do have a problem on the Tour today,” Nicklaus said. “The golf ball is a part of the problem. The longer the golf ball goes, the longer the courses get, the more you have to walk, the longer it’s going to take. I don’t think it’s good for the game. (The USGA and R&A have proposed) bringing the golf ball back (and reducing the distance it can travel). I think it’s a good start. It’s the first time they’ve done that in forever. We’ll see where it goes with that.
Nicklaus has long been a proponent of rolling back the golf ball but acknowledged that slow-play penalties are also overdue to be handed out.
“It’s got to be equitable,” Nicklaus added, “but they need to make an example and stay with it. It’s not very pleasant to watch somebody stand over the ball for half an hour.”
Slow play has made headlines recently after weather delays forced the Masters to go to threesomes and split tees in the final round and the glacial pace was exposed on TV. Brooks Koepka, who played in the final group, called out Patrick Cantlay, who also took his time on multiple occasions at the RBC Heritage the following week but pointed out that he was never put on the clock in either instances. Slow play has been a chronic problem in the game and rarely gets addressed in any meaningful way. But that wasn’t the case in Nicklaus’s rookie year.
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The Golden Bear always was a deliberate player but he learned early in his career that his pace of play was too slow. He was penalized two strokes during the second round at the 1962 Portland Open by PGA official Joe Black. Nicklaus still rolled to a six-stroke victory but he learned an important lesson that day.
“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Nicklaus said, noting that Black told him, “Jack, you can take as long as you want over the golf ball to play but be ready when it’s your turn.”
“I always tried to stay out of everybody’s way,” Nicklaus continued. “I didn’t want to bother anybody lining up my putt while they were lining up their putt so I stayed back. I didn’t want to start walking my yardages off. I took a while over the golf ball but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was being ready to play. I realized after playing on the Tour for a while that it’s also a courtesy to the field. It’s not fair to do that.”
Nicklaus also blamed caddies for being part of the problem.
“By the time they get through talking, I couldn’t hit a shot anyway,” he said. “It’s a problem.”
The Greats of Golf gathered on Saturday, April 29, 2023, at the Insperity Invitational and played a nine-hole exhibition. (Courtesy Insperity Invitational)
Gary Player echoed that sentiment. “It’s just not fair to the others to be taking the amount of time,” he said. “You are allocated a certain amount of time and you have to adhere to that or you should be penalized.”
Player noted that golfers have three practice rounds and then they spend too much time around the green doing Aim Point and studying their yardage books. “You didn’t see Bobby Locke, Ben Crenshaw or Tiger Woods doing that,” Player said.
“I read the green from 50 yards,” Lee Trevino added. “Keep staring at it while you’re walking you can see every curve on that green. Before you ever get there to read that putt you know exactly the direction it’s going.”
Annika Sorenstam said the problem with pace of play starts at the junior level.
“The juniors watch the pros and they see the Masters and see how much time the pros take and do the same thing,” she said. “I know the AJGA does a good job, but then they get to college and it all goes away and then they turn pro. I think it is a root problem from the beginning.
“Nobody enjoys it and it’s not fair. We’re running out of time, time is a precious commodity, right, so I think start at the very beginning and teach them to hit when you’re ready and go. The more we think, the more complicated it gets, right, so just hit and go.”
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If you’re looking to spend a day watching 16 legends of the game tee it up in the same event, you’re in luck.
This year’s Folds of Honor Greats of Golf exhibition at The Woodlands in Texas is loaded with some of the best players of all time. During the second round of the Insperity Invitational on the PGA Tour Champions, Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sorentam, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and 12 others will play in a nine-hole four-team scramble.
“We feel very privileged to have the opportunity to bring the greatest names in the game of golf back to the Houston area thanks to the support of our new partner, Folds of Honor, during this milestone celebration for our tournament. This collection of legends are true ambassadors and role models in our sport,” said Bryan Naugle, Executive Director, Insperity Invitational, in a press release. “Not only is this a great group of golfers, they are incredible people and special role models for all of us. Reuniting these extraordinary ambassadors of our game has become a staple of tournament week. They provide hours of entertainment and a lifetime of memories for our fans each year.”
Team 1: Sorenstam, Nicklaus, Player, Trevino Team 2: Pat Bradley, David Graham, Tony Jacklin, Tom Kite Team 3: Nancy Lopez, Dave Stockton, Larry Nelson, Hale Irwin Team 4: Juli Inkster, Ben Crenshaw, Bill Rodgers, Fuzzy Zoeller
In all, the group of 16 players accounts for 234 PGA Tour wins, 156 LPGA wins and 77 major championships. Thirteen of the participants are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Amateur caddie at Pebble Beach is the latest example of heart attacks or lightning strikes at pro golf events.
A frightening incident occurred on Friday during the second round of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am when the caddie for an amateur player, Pebble Beach businessman Geoff Couch, collapsed on the course while the group including Tour pros Beau Hossler and Max McGreevy and country singer Lukas Nelson were playing the 11th hole.
The caddie received CPR at the scene and was transported to a local hospital. He is alive but there were no additional reports on his condition as of Saturday morning.
Todd Lewis of Golf Channel reported that the person was expected to survive.
After the caddie was transported, PGA Tour rules officials encourage Hossler and McGreevy to continue playing but both said they were too shaken at that point. Other groups began playing through and Hossler and McGreevy returned to the course two hours later after receiving assurances the caddie was out of danger.
Both of them finished the 11th hole with pars and both bogeyed the 12th hole. Hossler played his last eight holes at 1-under and shot 72 and McGreevy played even par after returning and shot 75.
Incidents such as that are rare but every PGA Tour event has numerous first-aid stations and first responders within a short cart ride of any spot on the course. The Players Championship at the TPC Sawgrass, for example, has six first-aid stations, a main medical facility and an entire committee of doctors, nurses and EMTs who volunteer for the tournament each year.
Other notable cases of players, caddies, or fans falling ill or victims of severe weather at professional golf tournaments:
