By Lauren Deason Lee Trevino's back. The source of many health problems for the 67-year-old golfer, who had a revolutionary surgery performed last May to fix the nerves in his lower back. "[The discs] went bone on bone and trapped the nerves in there," described Trevino. "And when it trapped the nerves in there, I couldn't move. I couldn't bend, couldn't go sideways, couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't do anything." Following the "X-Stop" procedure, which was performed in Germany because it wasn't FDA-approved in the United States at the time, Trevino played in five Champions Tour events last year and has participated in 13 in 2006. While he still works nearly as hard as he can, the winner of 29 events each on the PGA TOUR and the Champions Tour knows his game isn't where it used to be. After all, he hasn't won on the Champions Tour since 2000. Trevino's daily routine in Dallas, Texas consists of a few hours of golf practice, though the hot summer sun and soaring temperatures make it difficult to stay out for too long. He isn't going to let a few recent health setbacks or a little heat, though, keep him from the game that he loves.
"But I can teach. I know a lot about the game. As far as being competitive, though, my days are over. There's nothing that you can do better at 67 than you did in your 30s. You can drink more wine, that's about it." The gregarious Trevino likes to joke around and is a born comedian, a trait he shares with good friend and Pro-Am partner for the week, George Lopez. Lopez phoned into the radio station KNBR while Trevino was giving an interview and requested to play with Trevino in the upcoming Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach. "Lord have mercy!" Trevino proclaimed when he heard the news. "Three days of George at Pebble Beach! I'll bring the jalapenos." He's not kidding, though, about the whole teaching thing, as he is looking forward to helping his young First Tee golf partner this week. The unique Champions Tour tournament pairs one Tour member with two amateur players and one junior golfer, meaning the self-taught Trevino can pass on some of the knowledge he has accumulated over the years. Trevino is also looking forward to seeing new faces out on the course. "I've been playing with them old people. [Dana] Quigley, [Jim]Thorpe and all those guys. I know all their jokes already. So I'm very excited about playing with the kids. I love that, I love that." Trevino is no stranger to the First Tee program -- he and his wife helped establish a facility near their home in Connecticut. The Connecticut headquarters is to be built near the TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., home of the PGA TOUR's Buick Championship. The players will be able to use the First Tee facility for practice during the tournament, but it will be a home for children who want to learn the game during the remainder of the year. Trevino enjoys dispensing sagely advice not just to the kids, but also to several PGA TOUR players. For instance, after Shaun Micheel won the PGA Championship in 2003, Trevino said his game started to go downhill. "His manager said, 'How can we get Shaun to turn this around?' I said, 'Tell him to go back to the basics,' offered Trevino. "Go back to what he was doing before he won the PGA. "Get away from your entourage which was not there before you won a major championship," he said with a laugh. "They come around after you win a major championship. Then go back to the basics. That's what you have to do." Those basics may not have changed since Trevino was on TOUR, but there is one major difference. And his name is Tiger Woods. "Tiger, he would have killed us. You know, Jack [Nicklaus] might have put a dent here or there in his fender but I don't know," Trevino admitted. This coming from a man who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981. A man who played against Nicklaus, Palmer, Player and some of the others legends of the game. Trevino thinks it's the mental game where players like Ben Hogan, Nicklaus and Woods dominated others. "We used to get to the golf course, we didn't know what in the hell we were going to hit on one or 10 or 14. Jack knew," explained Trevino. "Jack knew before he got there because he did it like Hogan used to do. Hogan used to play a round at breakfast in his mind before he went on the golf course." From his outside perspective, Trevino notes that Woods is the same as Nicklaus in that respect. The two also share an ability to win major championships, especially down the final stretch of holes on Sunday. He reminisced about the 1972 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, when Trevino went in as the defending champion but fought pneumonia-like symptoms and did not even play a practice round before the event. He somehow managed to grab the lead with eight holes to go in the final round, but Nicklaus started birdieing on the back nine and ended up winning the tournament. Memories like that one from Pebble Beach remain in Trevino's mind and will no doubt resurface as he returns to the area to play for the first time over two decades. He said he hasn't returned to the area because Cypress Point was taken out of the rotation, a course he lists as one of his favorites in the world. "I absolutely love it," Trevino said of that course. "If there was a way that I could jump off that cliff on No. 16 headfirst and let one of those big walruses swallow me up, I would do it, because it is just a breathtaking golf course." Over the years, on the many courses at Pebble Beach, Trevino said he has battled the elements, the greats of the game and even an Ice Plant that seemed to eat his ball when he tried to hit it. This time, though, Trevino returns armed with a top junior partner, his sense of humor and some tough amateur team members. Watch out, Pebble Beach. Trevino's back. |
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