Golf Masters: Tiger Woods Can Thank Lee Trevino, a Real Sports Golf Legend

Sports fans around the world will be Velcroed to their Lazy Boys and have their eyes peeled to their HD television CBS and ESPN sports channels the week of April 5, 2010, as Tiger Woods makes his return to Pro Golf at the PGA 2010 Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, after an infamous fall from grace in his personal life. There was another time in Pro Golf history when the world was glued to the golf sports channels, but for very different reasons. Sports golf legend Jack Nicklaus had met his match; a wildly unexpected challenger and newcomer in the world of professional golf.

The year was 1971 and I was a freshman at Eastwood High School in El Paso, Texas. We lived down the street from golf legend Lee Trevino and it was the year Lee Trevino moved the PGA and Pro Golf from Country Club clubhouses to every television sports channel in America, Great Britain, and Canada, among other nations. The Merry Mex from Tex, sporting his colorful sombrero and jokingly throwing a rubber snake at Jack Nicklaus, changed the sport of golf. Golf was now fun to watch and golf fans everywhere soon joined Lee's Fleas.

Lee Trevino, the self-taught, free-swinging, Supermex pro golfer from El Paso, Texas beat Jack Nicklaus in an 18-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open. Two weeks later, Lee Trevino won the Canadian Open, and a week later, the British Open. Sports fans around the world gazed in disbelief, as Lee Trevino became the only pro golfer in history to win all three majors in the same month.

Lee Trevino was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, and ABC's Wide World of Sports named Lee Trevino Athlete of the Year. Trevino was awarded the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of 1971. Lee Trevino also won the Vardon Trophy in 1971 for lowest scoring average, a trophy that he won five times in his career.

The city of El Paso went crazy over their wacky, funny Mexican sports golf legend that beat Jack Nicklaus and captured the golden trifecta of golf. The city threw a big party for Lee Trevino that we attended in the Sun Bowl stadium of the University of Texas at El Paso. Lee Trevino's fans, dubbed Lee's Fleas, got another special treat that night. Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw were in El Paso filming The Getaway and attended the special sports golden event for Lee Trevino.

Not quite as scandalous as Tiger Woods fall from grace near Thanksgiving 2009, Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw created their own scandalous headlines in 1971 by falling in love while filming The Getaway. When Ali MacGraw was filming The Getaway in 1971 and 1972, her Paramount executive producer husband, Robert Evans, was producing The Godfather. Ali MacGraw would later divorce Evans and marry McQueen. Despite the Hollywood hoopla that was being chatted up in the Sun Bowl that day, the main focus of attention remained on Lee Trevino and his impossible, unlikely historic PGA golf wins.

I am sure the world will return to watching Tiger Woods for his sports golf genius game and not the personal scandal he created. When I think of sports golf legends like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Tiger Woods, I still stand in awe of Lee Trevino more than the Country Club Boys. In 1966 and 1967, Lee Trevino was the Assistant Pro Golfer at the Horizon Hills Country Club in El Paso when my Father was also a member. NFL Champion, Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame member and UTEP alum, Jesse Whittenton, got Lee Trevino his first country club job for $30 a week pay. We would go to Horizon every weekend, and while Dad was off hitting golf balls, the kids would be swimming while the wives sat under table umbrellas sipping their Pina Coladas.

On the rides home, we would listen to Dad beaming with excitement and sports golf pride for hitting golf balls with Lee Trevino and Jesse Whittenton. In my Dad's later years, after Lee Trevino made his mark on professional golf, my Dad would sit in his Lazy Boy chair cherishing the times at Horizon Country Club when he got to hit some golf balls with a future legendary PGA champion. In 1968, Lee Trevino won the U.S. Open and would go on to change golf history.

Then in 1975 while playing golf at the Western Open, Lee's Fleas and golf sports fans around the world were stunned when Lee Trevino was struck by lightening. The injuries to Lee Trevino's spine and back would prove damaging to his golf game, although in 1984 at the golf old age of 44, he won his last major PGA Championship. Throughout this decade however, Lee Trevino was second behind Jack Nicklaus on the PGA tour career money list.

I love that Lee Trevino taught himself the game of golf and didn't enter the PGA until he was 27 years old. I love that Lee Trevino served in the U.S. Marines before winning 29 times on the PGA tour, including six majors. I love that Lee Trevino has won 29 times on the seniors' tour, including four seniors' majors. I love that Lee Trevino worked in cotton fields in Texas at age 5, became a caddy at age 8 after sneaking into Country Clubs to learn golf, and dropped out of school in 8^th grade to work full time for $30 a week as a full-time caddy to help his family survive. Using old discarded golf clubs behind the caddy shack, Lee Trevino mastered his game of golf.

Lee Trevino worships his fans, never forgets where he came from, and loves the game of golf so much that after he retired from the PGA, he made the Senior PGA Tour, now the Champions Tour, a huge commercial success. It was the Legends golf tournament at Barton Creek Country Club in Austin, Texas where I would get my first autograph from Lee Trevino. Lee Trevino wrote on his MySpace profile that his heroes are God, Sam Sneed and Byron Nelson.

Tiger Woods may be the most winning talent the game of golf has ever seen, but Tiger Woods can thank Lee Trevino for making the game of golf a popular mainstream sport on American televisions. Lee Trevino made the game of golf fun to watch. Lee Trevino has charisma, guts, and raw talent that turned the world of golf upside down. You just can't beat the sports story of golf legend Lee Trevino. Lee Trevino is the total package.

Sources:

Lee Trevino, Sports Illustrated Athlete of the Year, 1971

Lee Trevino Turns Professional

NationMaster Encyclopedia Lee Trevino

Masters 2010, The Masters Augusta National

Lee Trevino MySpace Page

The Getaway