Legal Commentary

"He's got enough cotton in his mouth to knit a sweater"

By Tom Kirkendall

That's how Lee Trevino describes a golfer who is choking under pressure.

But as noted in this outstanding Jaime Diaz/Golf Digest interview of the now 70 year-old Trevino, Merry Mex didn't choke much during his career on the PGA Tour.

Winner of 29 Tour events, Trevino won six majors (Jack Nicklaus finished in second place in four of them!) and probably would have won several more had he not been badly injured by an on-course lightning strike in 1975. After Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, there has been no better Texas golfer than Lee Trevino.

Trevino remains a genuine character. Here are a few gems from the interview:

On Jack Nicklaus:

"In those days, when Jack parked his car he was already four under."

On handling tournament pressure:

"Pressure was never really there for me.  .  .  . Where I came from, and where I'd gotten, I was playing with house money."

Who is better? Jack or Tiger?:

"[T]o answer your question—and I bite my lip every time I say this—Tiger's better."

On winning the 1984 PGA at Shoal Creek:

Going into the last round, on the practice putting green, I broke everyone up.

Herman [Mitchell, Trevino's longtime caddy] has got the gout, he's in a bad mood, and we're walking to the first tee, and some guy in the gallery yells at me:

"What do you feed that caddie?"

I look at the guy and say: "Rednecks!"

And Herman says: "And I'm getting hungry, too!"

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on December 03, 2009 (boomark / email).