When I was a kid, I loved Arnie, we all did, and I respected Jack. We all rooted for Gary because he always was the underdog in what was known as the Big 3
But I must say if I were to spend a day watching one pro it was Lee Trevino, hands down..
I really first watched him when he won the 1968 US Open and he was fun in a very boring sport for a teenager to watch. He was always talking, especially after every putt he missed, and his constant self depreciation and home made swing drew fans to him.
With his low ball flight, a natural fade, as he hung on down the line with his hands away passed the point of impact and his creative shot making he was perfect for the Open Championship where I followed him many times including his wins in 1971 at Royal Birkdale where he beat Mr Lu, then the next year at Muirfield when he chipped in at 17 to break Tony Jacklin's heart, although Jack snuck in to be 2nd. He along with Doug Sanders were just made to play the ball along the ground over there.
It's hard to describe how popular he was in the UK, he had his own column in papers during Open week, and he was mobbed when he came over to play the Piccadilly World Matchplay, or the Benson and Hedges, or the Lancome in France which he won twice.
However with 29 PGA Tour wins and 29 Champions Tour wins along with 13 other pro titles around the world, he could adapt and play on most any course.
He won our Canadian Open 3 times, '71 at Richelieu Valley when he beat Art Wall in a playoff, then in '77 at the Abbey when he beat Oosterhuis by 4 shots then in 1979 at the Abbey again when he beat Ben Crenshaw by 3. Jack built the Abbey for a fade which suited Lee just fine.
Remember in '71 when he beat Wall, he had also won the US Open and the Open Championship a feat that hasn't been matched, he would go on to win a slew of Athlete and Sportsman of the year honours.
He also won our Canadian PGA twice, in 1979 at the National and in 1983 at Royal Quebec.
He always seemed happy go lucky when the camera's were on but in fact he was very guarded about his private life and had a hot temper and a very stern side to his nature.
I remember he would change his shoes in the car park at the Masters because of their bigotry, and he refused to play the 1984 PGA at Shoal Creek in Alabama until they relented and allowed a black member into their club. He went on to win...
One drunken night as a Marine he had his wife's name Anne crudely tattooed on his forearm and after they split he wore a bandage over it for years because his new wife Claudia didn't like it. He finally had surgery to get rid of it, but said he married his 3rd and current wife,with the same name, Claudia, just so he wouldn't make that mistake again!
Although the direct hit he took from lightning in 1975 led to some very painful surgery and recovery, and did slow down his prolific pace of the early 70's, he eventually turned from fading the ball all his career to drawing it to put less strain on his back, and managed to win 29 Senior titles that way.
I still have the message he left me for our Fairways golf show, a tribute to his friend and our show golf pro, Ben Kern, when Ben passed away. He and Ben got to be good friends down in El Paso, Texas and would spend hours after dinner inventing golf games played through the grounds keeping shed, off a wall, between a row of cars... each taking turns calling a shot that the other had to match.. It was very touching.
Like I say about Mohammed Ali, I am happy I was around to watch Lee in his prime, in fact for years I would watch the Senior Tour first and the rest second, when he moved on to it along with Arnie and Gary Player
Tour Victories
• PGA Tour: 29
• Senior PGA Tour: 29
Major Championships 6
• U.S. Open: 1968, 1971
• British Open: 1971, 1972
• PGA Championship: 1974, 1984
Awards and Honors
• Member, World Golf Hall of Fame
• PGA Tour money leader, 1970
• 5-time winner of PGA Tour Vardon Trophy
• PGA Tour Player of the Year, 1971
Wife Claudia, sons Richard 49, Tony Lee 42, Troy 38, Daniel Lee 19, and daughter Olivia Leigh 22
So happy 72nd Lee (born Dec. 1, 1939, near Dallas, Tex., U.S.)
If you want here is a little exerpt from his profile at golflegends..
Raised in a run-down shack on the outskirts of Dallas, Trevino spent his early childhood occasionally attending school and more frequently helping his family earn a meagre living growing onions and cotton in the dusty fields surrounding their home. An absent father was just one of the many hardships which Lee, his sisters, mother - a house cleaner - and grandfather - a grave digger - had to contend with.
Unsurprisingly, there was no golfing tradition to be found within the Trevino family tree. His initial introduction to the game stemmed from youthful curiosity and ingenuity. The 7th fairway of the Dallas Athletic Club golf course was just 100 yards from the Trevino family's front door and young Lee began earning a few dollars finding golf balls in the course's high rough.
Soon he could be found hanging around the caddie shed and at the age of eight he began caddying for the local players. The caddies had three short holes behind their shack and it was there the young Trevino actually started playing the game- using old, discarded clubs and making bets with his fellow workers to add some spice to the proceedings. Trevino's killer instinct took root - his poor circumstances obviously making money a prime motivator.
On his seventeenth birthday Trevino enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. The previous few years had been a time of confusion and change for him. The Marines provided the perfect, stable environment for a directionless young man. Trevino still looks back fondly at the comradeship and fun of those years spent in the company of his peers. Of course he was by no means a model soldier - he had his fair share of disciplinary problems. However, by the fourth year of his service he had matured sufficiently to make the rank of Lance-corporal and, through an administrative error, found himself in the Special Services Unit issuing athletic equipment and driving the football team bus. More importantly, he spent the last eighteen months of his service playing golf with the officers in the afternoons.
On returning to civilian life, Trevino wasted little time continuing his relationship with the game. With the encouragement of Hardy Greenwood, a Dallas driving-range proprietor and also his employer, he began working for his Class A card. For the next five years his life revolved around working and playing in golf clubs. Many bets were made and, according to Trevino, most were won. His killer instinct was being continuously refined, serving him well during his first full-time season on the Tour in1967 when he finished in 45th place and earned over US$26,000.
Trevino's awkward style convinced some critics his stay on the Tour would be a short one - he would simply fade away quietly like hundreds of hopefuls before him. Completely self-taught, Trevino's style was anything but smooth. During his swing he appeared to be frantically striving to retain his balance - however, at the critical moment when the face of the club strikes the ball, his body was perfectly co-ordinated. He did not take long to silence his critics, winning the U.S. Open the following year at Oak Hill. The next six years saw him build and consolidate his reputation as one of the game's stars. Indeed during a heady four-week period in 1971 Trevino won three of golf's biggest competitions in succession - the U.S. Open, the Canadian Open and the British Open.
It seemed Trevino's star would continue to rise and dominate the world of golf - nobody could have predicted the next instalment of the Trevino saga. On June 27 1975 playing in the Western Open at Butler National Golf Club in Chicago, Trevino was struck by lightning - a freak accident which permanently damaged the flexibility and sensitivity of his lower back's vertebrae. For a man who had relied substantially on physical strength as part of his style it seemed to most observers that his career had come to an abrupt halt. But a series of painful operations enabled Trevino to renew his relationship with the game, albeit in a more diluted form. Displaying his customary tenacity and practicality, he adjusted his playing habits to accommodate his unfortunate disability. Appearances on the Tour began to be carefully timed and practice shots were reduced from over 1,000 balls to a mere 50.
Within two years Trevino scored an impressive victory in the Canadian Open (a feat he would repeat in 1979) and later stunned the golfing world when he lifted the U.S. P.G.A. trophy at the age of 44 in 1984. He retired from the pro tour in 1985
A man celebrated for his humour and showmanship on the fairway, off-course Trevino is a surprisingly humble and private individual. The roots of his impoverished childhood run deep, a fact witnessed by his quiet generosity to numerous charities where Trevino demands complete confidentiality about his philanthropy. A complex individual, his humour serves both to ease the pressures of the game and to deflect prying eyes from his private life. Never a player to throw in the towel, 'Supermex' is one of golf's true heroes.
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles
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