Page 85 - Golf World (February 2020)

Lee Trevino

as a force in the Majors. Trevino ruminated on his good
fortune. “You’re going to get good bounces and bad
bounces, and hope they average out, that’s how you have
to look at it,” he shrugged. “But Tony didn’t look at it
that way.” Jacklin might have had the semblance of a
point, mind. Just three months later, the pair met again
in the semi-final of the Piccadilly World Matchplay at
Wentworth. As they teed it up at the start of 36 holes,
Jacklin told the effervescent chatterbox that he was
going to be concentrating hard on the match and
wouldn’t be conversing today. The response? “Tony,
that’s fine. All you gotta do is listen.” Jacklin shot a
sensational 63 in the afternoon; he still lost by one hole.

Dark clouds gathering
SuperMex went head-to-head with the Golden Bear
again during the 1974 PGA Championship at
Tanglewood, paired together in the final group on
Sunday. Nicklaus birdied 5, then accidentally put his
putter in Trevino’s bag, an act which momentarily
confused everyone at the next green. A
grinning Trevino tried to strike a deal as he handed the
flat stick back. “Hey man, you’re tryin’ to give me 15
clubs and a two-stroke penalty! Tell you what, I’ll take
the two if you promise not to use that thing for the rest
of the round.”
Tanglewood was the bizarro Augusta, a course set up
perfectly for Trevino’s fade. A rare exception was the
dog-leg left 17th, but he nevertheless hit the shot of his
life there en route to the title. Two shots clear of
Nicklaus, he decided to go for broke, hooking his drive
around the corner. “Nicklaus looked at me as though I
had just lost my mind. Hell, I was surprised too. I’ve
never been able to draw the ball too well! I got so excited
I hit a 4-iron to 20 feet… and then three-putted.” But
his latest gamble paid off nonetheless. Trevino argues
that Nicklaus was still discombobulated when lining
up a 10-foot birdie putt on the green. Nicklaus missed
his chance to tie it up, and Trevino closed things out
down the last. It was his fifth Major in six seasons.
Who knows how much longer that run would have
continued, but for that flash from the Illinois sky the
following summer? That lightning bolt wreaked havoc
with Trevino’s back. A herniated disc required two
surgeries. Meanwhile his nerves were understandably
shot, the putter suddenly not so reliable. The glory days
appeared over. Yet there was to be one last hurrah. This
is Trevino; there simply had to be. In 1984, at the age of
44, he once again found himself in the final group of
the PGA. Dark clouds gathered menacingly over Shoal
Creek, thunder grumbling ominously mid-round. But
this time there would be no brazen tempting of fate,
nor would lightning strike twice. Trevino and partners
sensibly took shelter in a nearby house, where a mid-
round feast of chocolate-chip cookies, popcorn and
iced tea was spread out. When the storm abated, a
suitably refreshed Trevino went back out and romped
home by four shots. The Wanamaker Trophy was soon
swapped for two beers, one in each hand. “You may as
well get a funnel, because I won’t even taste the first
four!” Nobody begrudged the beloved Trevino a drop.
Not least because, given everything life had thrown at
him, he’d had to fight for his right to party.

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