George White | |
Golf with George
March 13th, 2008
George has been a journalist for close to 40 years. He wrote sports for the Houston Chronicle for 19 years and the Orlando Sentinel for 7 years. In 1994 he was one of the first people hired at the Golf Channel, were he started a career as an on-air talent, then moved over as one of the first writers of Golf Central and then their website. White retired from the Golf Channel after 12 years at the end of 2006. He will be writing a column for GolfObserver.
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GolfObserver editors
Lee Trevino has never been happier with life than he is now
Professor Lee Buck Trevino leaned back in his chair, folded his hands in front of him, and scrunched up his face in that famous trademark grin. Prof Trevino, who hasn’t been seen on the golf course much of late, was back in his old customary classroom – delivering an interview, this time at the ACE Classic in Southwest Florida.
Photo: © Sam Greenwood/Getty Images |
| Lee Trevino has been a part of professional golf for almost 45 years now. |
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The Prof is 68 years old now, playing only “six or seven” tournaments a year. Decades and decades of swinging a golf club hasn’t been kind to him – he’s had four lower back surgeries, he’s had steel rods inserted into his back and a couple of rollers back there to boot. And, just to make sure his back doesn’t get all the attention, he’s had a metal plate surgically placed in his neck.
But you never could never throw a lampshade over the human light bulb. He feels just fine now, he says, except for a nagging nerve that runs down his right leg into his foot. But hang it all, life at 68 is a whole lot more enjoyable than life was at 38. This, even though he won 29 times on the regular tour, then added another 29 on the seniors. He won six regular-tour major championships, the U.S. Open twice, the British Open twice, and the PGA Championship twice.
But you would never know it if you were Rip Van Winkle and just woke up from a 50-year sleep. Trevino a six-time major winner? Prof Trevino is the least impressed man in the room.
Turns out Brady was right and Burress was indeed wrong – New England scored just 14. “Me?” he snorted when it was suggested that he was pretty good player in the not-to-distant past. “I was just a flea on their back. I bit ‘em every once in awhile. When they scratched, I had to change positions.”
The Prof had a good chuckle at that one. A great golfer? Me, Lee Trevino? Hardly, he said.
“I won the Screen Door Open once – and the Canadian Bacon twice.” He laughed loudly again, convinced that anyone who believed that 29 wins and six majors, anyone who suggested that Lee Trevino was a great golfer, is a little out of his coconut.
Life is much, much better, though, because he’s finally learned what happiness is all about. Before, he lived, breathed and slept golf, going to every backwater burg to play, and practicing 6-8 hours a day when he was home. Not now, though. Since he married for the third and final time in 1982, and had his two children with Claudia in ’89 and ’92, he’s become Mr. Mom. “I’ve got to be in the car-pool line with all the ladies at 3:30 picking up their kids,” he says before lapsing again into a laugh.
Photo: © David Cannon/Getty Images |
| Trevino played with son Daniel last December in the Del Webb Father Son Challenge. |
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But 68-year-old professors do take some things seriously. And there is no time for laughter when he starts talking about the one thing in life he still wants – teaching.
“The thing I love more than anything – and I just don’t have the time – is teaching golf. I love to teach.”
That’s right – he wants to instruct people of all skill levels, not just 2-handicappers, but the little old ladies and the elderly gents who can’t get the ball airborne. He wants to teach in a formal environment with students who want to learn from a man who knows the secret of making a golf ball go left or right or straight, on command.
Now he was serious, no clowning, no laughter, just Professor Lee Buck telling how it’s done.
“The thing that changes the most as you get older – is your grip,” he began, demonstrating how seniors must hold the club. “You start losing lower body speed, you can’t release the club because you keep going stronger (in the grip.) And the stronger you go, the more you have to hold. You’ll either duck-hook, or you’ll shank. The club has GOT to release.”
Photo: © Scott Halleran/Getty Images |
| Trevino is enjoying life more now at 68 than he ever has in his life. |
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Tom Kite would love to be able to sit in his classroom. “He’s so street-smart,” said an admiring Kite. “He’s not particularly book-smart, but he’s street-smart – actually one of the most intelligent men that I’ve ever been around. His views on a lot of subjects – not just golf but on a whole lot of things – is pretty right-on. I love Lee – he’s great.”
Actually, he’s been instructing for quite a while now. He plays at home in Dallas with a group of three elderly men who no doubt are a little in awe of lining up putts with one of the greatest players the game has known.
“We have a tremendous time,” he said. “These guys are 77, 80, 75 – I mean, they can’t swallow their saliva! I go over there and play with them, and we have a ball! I keep them alive, because they look forward to me coming over and playing them.”
And for a couple of months each summer, it’s his wife who is the student. They spend time at their home in Connecticut, and each evening after dinner, Lee does the dishes while Claudia gets on her golfing outfit. They go across the street and play holes 7 through 15. Rather, CLAUDIA plays and all Lee does is caddy.
“I tee it up for her, she hits it, I chase ‘em, teach her how to get out of bunkers and stuff,” Trevino said. “And we do it every day, 7 days a week.”
Photo: © Grant Halverson/Getty Images |
| On thing that Trevino still enjoys is playing golf. |
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His children are almost grown. His daughter goes to Southern Cal and is a budding thespian. His son is only 15, but a lacrosse player. Lee might have been the father of another professional golfer – his son has that type of swing, Trevino reports. But Daniel didn’t want the solitary life playing golf, and now is much happier enjoying a sport in which he has teammates.
“I told him, ‘It (golf) is a lonely sport. Now, do you want to learn a sport that you’re going to have to be alone? Or do you want to play a team sport where you have your buddies?
“He chose to play a team sport, and I’m glad he did. Because golf is a lonely sport, it’s an individual sport, you only get what you put into it, and if you don’t work at it, someone else who IS working is going to go right by you.”
Now, as a senior himself, Professor Trevino teaches someone almost every day. Some days it’s the gentlemen he plays social golf with, some days it’s his wife, other days it’s his fellow pros, occasionally it’s his son or daughter. But most of all, he’s coached himself, finally learning the secret to being really, truly happy.
“With everything I’ve had done,” he said, “I’m the luckiest guy in the world to be walking around and still be able to play at least a little golf.”
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