IF the galleries at last week’s British Open learned anything, it was:
Don’t mess with Supermex, otherwise known as Lee Trevino. Teamed with
Britain’s own Tony Jacklin in the third round, the gritty little Texan
reacted to the crowd’s partisan booing with typical machismo: “That
only makes me fight harder.” Fight he did. Scrambling as he had been
doing all week, he started off the final round with four birdies on the
first nine holes to take a seemingly insurmountable five-stroke lead.
Then, on the treacherous 17th hole on the rolling moonscape of the
Royal Birkdale Golf Club, he ran afoul of one of the crater-like traps
and took a double bogey. That left him just one stroke ahead of
Formosa’s surprising Liang Huan Lu. Now it was time to fight some more. After lofting his 6-iron shot onto
the fringe of the 18th green, he putted to within 18 in. of the cup and
holed out a birdie four to win with four consecutive sub-par rounds:
69, 70, 69 and 70. In the short span of one month, Lee Buck
Trevino—Mexican-American, grade-school dropout, ex-Marine sergeant and
all-round hustler—had become the first golfer in history to win the
British, Canadian and U.S. Opens in the same year. “Now,” he cried,
“maybe they’ll consider me a good international player!” There was never much doubt of it back home. True, when Trevino first
came out of nowhere to win his first U.S. Open in 1968, many dismissed
him as a one-shot upstart. Who, after all, had ever heard of a Chicano
champion—a Chicano, moreover, who had learned the game by gambling
with easy marks on a Texas pitch-and-putt course? Who could believe a
pro golf titlist who looked like a hacker and talked like a hustler? Yet in the seasons since, swaggering down the fairways, wearing gaudy
red socks and a grin as wide as the Rio Grande, Trevino has captured
the fancy of the fans—and the purses of the Professional Golfers’
Association. Since that first U.S. Open triumph, he has won more money
and finished among the top ten in more tournaments than
any other golfer on the tour. With official P.G.A. earnings of $196,000
so far this season—the $13,200 he won in the British Open is not
included in P.G.A. money rankings—he is a cinch to break Billy
Casper’s 1968 record of $205,000. Trevino plans to play in at least
eight to ten more tournaments this year, which means that he can
conceivably earn more than $300,000 in prize money. “You can call me a
Spaniard now,” he says, “because who ever heard of a rich Mexican?” Smacking and Wisecracking It will not be easy to win any or all of the upcoming tournaments.
Golfdom’s perennial Big Four—Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary
Player and Billy Casper—are still potent, and the sport has a host of
other aggressive young stars who in any given week can run
off with the big money. Clearly, though, no other golfer is about to
match Trevino’s record in 1971. At 31, he is in his prime—and is
working through the hottest streak of his career. In addition to
finishing among the top five money winners in nine of his last 11
tournaments, he is leading the pack in the race for the Vardon Trophy,
which goes to the pro golfer who averages the fewest strokes per round.
