LEE TREVINO

'Lee Trevino'

'Personal Information'
'Birth'	Dallas, Texas, USA
'Height'	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
'Weight'	180 lb (82 kg)
'Nationality'
'Residence'	Rancho Santa Fe, California, USA
'College'	None
Career
'Turned Pro'	1960
'Current tour'	Champions Tour
'Professional wins'	85 (PGA Tour: 29, Champions Tour: 29, Other: 27)
Best Results in Major Championships Wins: 6
Masters	T10: 1975, 1985
U.S. Open	'Won' 1968, 1971
British Open	'Won' 1971, 1972
PGA Championship	'Won' 1974, 1984
Awards
Vardon Trophy	1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1980
Byron Nelson Award	1980
World Golf Hall of Fame	1981
Jack Nicklaus Trophy (Champions Tour)	1990, 1992, 1994
Arnold Palmer Award (Champions Tour)	1990, 1992
Champions Tour Rookie of the Year	1990
Byron Nelson Award (Champions Tour)	1990, 1991, 1992

'Lee Buck Trevino' (born December 1, 1939) is an American professional golfer. He is an icon for Mexican Americans, and is often referred to as "The Merry Mex" and "Supermex".^[1]

Contents

Early life

Professional career

PGA Tour wins (29)

Other wins (17)

Champions Tour wins (29)

Other senior wins (10)

Major Championships

Wins (6)

Results timeline

Trivia

See also

References

External links

Early life

Lee Buck Trevino was born in Dallas, Texas in poverty to parents of Mexican descent. His mother and grandfather, a gravedigger, raised Trevino. He never knew his father. Trevino's childhood amounted to him spending time attending school occasionally and working to help earn money for the family. At the age of five, Lee started working in the cotton fields.
Trevino was introduced to the game of golf when his uncle gave him a few old golf balls and a rusty golf club. From this point on, Lee could not get enough. He spent most of his free time sneaking into nearby country clubs to practice his newly found activity. At eight years old he began caddying at a local golf course. However, a few years later, caddying became a full time job because he needed to earn enough money to survive. Thus, after eighth grade, Trevino had to leave school in order to go to work. As a caddy and a shoeshiner, Trevino worked for 30 U.S. dollars a week. On top of this, he was also able to make priceless gains in his golfing ability. This was because the caddies had three short practice holes behind their shack, and it was there, with old, discarded clubs, that Trevino learned to improve his golf game. For years, every day after work, he would work on improving his skills by hitting a least 300 balls a session. At seventeen, Trevino joined the United States Marine Corps and served four years. Over the last eighteen months in the service, a great deal of his time was spent playing golf with Marine Corps officers. Trevino himself claims that his time spent being a desirable golf partner helped earn him a sergeant's promotion.

Professional career

After his discharge, Trevino continued his pursuit of the game. In 1967, he began playing on the PGA Tour, that year he played in his first U.S. Open golf championship, he shot a 283, eight shots behind champion Jack Nicklaus, and earned $6,000 for finishing fifth. He won $26,472 as a rookie, 45th on the PGA Tour money list. In 1968 at the Oak Hill Country Club (Rochester, New York), a large goal was reached when he won the U.S. Open. From here on there was no looking back. Over the course of his career, Trevino won 29 times on the PGA Tour, including six majors. He was at his best in the early 1970s, when for a time he was Jack Nicklaus's biggest rival, winning the money list title in 1970, and picking up ten wins in two seasons in 1971 and 1972. Among the highlights during those 2 memorable seasons, were winning the 1971 U.S. Open in an 18-hole playoff over Jack Nicklaus, then 2 weeks later, he won the Canadian Open and the following week The Open Championship, making him the only player to win three national titles in the same year, and he was rewarded the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of 1971, as well as winning ''Sports Illustrated'' magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award, he was also being named as ABC's ''Wide World of Sports'' Athlete of the Year that year. After winning the 1974 PGA Championship he was struck by lightning at the 1975 Western Open and suffered injuries to his spine and back. He later underwent surgery to remove a damaged spinal disk and back problems later restricted his play. However, while he did not quite return to his early 1970s prime, he remained one of the world's leading players for more than another decade, winning his last major, the 1984 PGA Championship at the unusually advanced age of 44. In the early 1980s he was second on the PGA Tour career money list, behind only Jack Nicklaus. [1]
Trevino also won more than 20 international and unofficial professional tournaments. In his fifties he was one of the key charismatic stars who helped to make the Senior PGA Tour, now the Champions Tour, a commercial success. He picked up the same tally of 29 wins on this tour as he had on the regular tour, including four senior majors. He topped the senior money list in 1990 and 1992.
Trevino played for the United States in the Ryder Cup six times (1969, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1979, 1981), and had an impressive 17-7-6 win-loss-half record. He also served as team captain in 1985.
Trevino won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average five times: 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, and 1980.
Trevino has established numerous scholarships and continues to offer assistance to many Mexican Americans who are less fortunate.
Throughout his career, Trevino was seen as one of the more approachable and humorous of PGA golfers, and was frequently quoted by the press. At the beginning of their 1971 playoff for the U.S. Open, he playfully threw a rubber snake at Jack Nicklaus. [2] During his early career, much attention was focused by the press on a BandAid that Trevino wore on his forearm covering a tattoo of the name of his ex-wife. This became a frequent topic of self-deprecating humor for the good-natured Trevino. (He has since had this tattoo removed by a plastic surgeon using a laser technique.) His self–taught style, distinguished by an out-to-in swing designed to fade the ball (which he devised to combat a chronic hook), led to many exciting shots and skins game victories.
Trevino was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981.

PGA Tour wins (29)

★ 1968 (2) 'U.S. Open', Hawaiian Open

★ 1969 (1) Tucson Open Invitational

★ 1970 (2) Tucson Open Invitational, National Airlines Open Invitational

★ 1971 (6) Tallahassee Open Invitational, Danny Thomas Memphis Classic, 'U.S. Open', Canadian Open, 'The Open Championship', Sahara Invitational

★ 1972 (4) Danny Thomas Memphis Classic, 'The Open Championship', Greater Hartford Open Invitational, Greater St. Louis Golf Classic

★ 1973 (2) Jackie Gleason Inverrary-National Airlines Classic, Doral - Eastern Open Invitational

★ 1974 (2) Greater New Orleans Open, 'PGA Championship'

★ 1975 (1) Florida Citrus Open

★ 1976 (1) Colonial National Invitation

★ 1977 (1) Canadian Open

★ 1978 (1) Colonial National Invitation

★ 1979 (1) Canadian Open

★ 1980 (3) Tournament Players Championship, Danny Thomas Memphis Classic, San Antonio Texas Open

★ 1981 (1) MONY Tournament of Champions

★ 1984 (1) 'PGA Championship'
Major championships are shown in 'bold'.

Other wins (17)

★ 1969 World Cup (with Orville Moody)

★ 1971 World Cup (with Jack Nicklaus)

★ 1973 Chrysler Classic (Australia), Mexican Open

★ 1974 World Series of Golf (not yet a PGA Tour event)

★ 1975 Mexican Open

★ 1977 Morocco Grand Prix

★ 1978 Benson & Hedges International Open, Lancome Trophy (both European Tour)

★ 1979 Canadian PGA Championship

★ 1980 Lancome Trophy

★ 1981 Casio World Open (Japan Golf Tour), Sun City Classic (South Africa), PGA Grand Slam of Golf (United States - unofficial event)

★ 1983 Canadian PGA Championship

★ 1985 Dunhill British Masters

★ 1987 Skins Game

Champions Tour wins (29)

★ 1990 (7) Royal Caribbean Classic, Aetna Challenge, Vintage Chrysler Invitational, Doug Sanders Kingwood Celebrity Classic, NYNEX Commemorative, 'U.S. Senior Open', Transamerica Senior Golf Championship

★ 1991 (3) Aetna Challenge, Vantage at The Dominion, Sunwest Bank Charley Pride Senior Golf Classic

★ 1992 (5) Vantage at The Dominion, 'The Tradition', 'PGA Seniors' Championship', Las Vegas Senior Classic, Bell Atlantic Classic

★ 1993 (3) Cadillac NFL Golf Classic, Nationwide Championship, Vantage Championship

★ 1994 (6) Royal Caribbean Classic, 'PGA Seniors' Championship', PaineWebber Invitational, Bell Atlantic Classic, BellSouth Senior Classic at Opryland, Northville Long Island Classic

★ 1995 (2) Northville Long Island Classic, The Transamerica

★ 1996 (1) Emerald Coast Classic

★ 1998 (1) Southwestern Bell Dominion

★ 2000 (1) Cadillac NFL Golf Classic
Senior majors are shown in 'bold'.

Other senior wins (10)

★ 1991 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (with Mike Hill)

★ 1992 Mitsukoshi Classic, Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (with Mike Hill)

★ 1993 American Express Grandslam

★ 1994 American Express Grandslam

★ 1995 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (with Mike Hill)

★ 1996 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (with Mike Hill), Australian PGA Seniors' Championship

★ 2000 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf - Legendary Division (with Mike Hill)

★ 2003 ConAgra Foods Champions Skins Game

Major Championships

Wins (6)

'Year	'Championship	'54 Holes	'Winning Score	'Margin	'Runners Up
1968	U.S. Open	1 shot deficit	-5 (69-68-69-69=275)	4 strokes	Jack Nicklaus
1971	U.S. Open (2)	4 shot deficit	E (70-72-69-69=280)	Playoff 1	Jack Nicklaus
1971	The Open Championship	1 shot lead	-14 (69-70-69-70=278)	1 stroke	Lu Liang-Huan
1972	The Open Championship (2)	1 shot lead	-6 (71-70-66-71=278)	1 stroke	Jack Nicklaus
1974	PGA Championship	1 shot lead	-4 (73-66-68-69=276)	1 stroke	Jack Nicklaus
1984	PGA Championship (2)	1 shot lead	-15 (69-68-67-69=273)	4 strokes	Gary Player, Lanny Wadkins

¹ Defeated Jack Nicklaus in 18-hole playoff - Trevino (68), Nicklaus (71)

Results timeline

Tournament	1966	1967	1968	1969
The Masters	DNP	DNP	T40	T19
U.S. Open	T54	5	'1'	CUT
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	T34
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	T23	T48

Tournament	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979
The Masters	DNP	DNP	T33	T43	DNP	T10	T28	DNP	T14	T12
U.S. Open	T8	'1'	T4	T4	CUT	T29	DNP	T27	T12	T19
The Open Championship	T3	'1'	'1'	T10	T31	T40	DNP	4	T29	T17
PGA Championship	T26	T13	T11	T18	'1'	T60	CUT	T13	T7	T35

Tournament	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
The Masters	T26	CUT	T38	T20	43	T10	47	CUT	CUT	T18
U.S. Open	T12	CUT	CUT	DNP	T9	CUT	T4	CUT	T40	CUT
The Open Championship	2	T11	T27	5	T14	T20	T59	T17	CUT	T42
PGA Championship	7	DNP	DNP	T14	'1'	2	T11	DNP	CUT	CUT

Tournament	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
The Masters	T24	T49	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
U.S. Open	DNP	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
The Open Championship	T25	T17	T39	DNP	CUT	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP

Tournament	2000
The Masters	DNP
U.S. Open	DNP
The Open Championship	CUT
PGA Championship	DNP

DNP = did not play

CUT = missed the half way cut

"T" indicates a tied for a place.

Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Trivia

★ In the The Simpsons episode Marge Be Not Proud Lee Trevino is spoofed as Lee Caravallo in hosting a game called Lee Caravallo's Putting Challenge. Trevino had a similar game called Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf which was released in 1988 for Nintendo.

★ Lee Trevino had an extended cameo in the Adam Sandler film ''Happy Gilmore''.

★ Trevino is the first person known to have played pine cone golf.

See also

★ Golfers with most PGA Tour wins

★ Golfers with most major championship wins

★ Golfers with most Champions Tour wins

★ Golfers with most Champions Tour major championship wins

References

Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas, ''The Mexican American Family Album''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
1. Profile at Golflegends

External links

★ Profile on the PGA Tour's official site

★ Profile at Golflegends