Lee Trevino, first ballot Hall of Famer getty images There’s rarely a dull moment when Lee Trevino takes the dais. So it was on Tuesday at Pleasant Valley Country Club, in Little Rock, Ark., where the 85-year-old legend fielded questions from the press in advance of the Simmons Bank Championship.
In true Trevino fashion, his responses were freewheeling and wide-ranging, touching on everything from memories of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer to why he doesn’t watch many NFL games. (“Not a lot of Mexicans playing football,” he said.) Among the other topics he addressed: golf-course design.
Unlike Nicklaus, Palmer and other big-name players of his generation, Trevino never branched into the golf-architecture business. And as he readily conceded, he hasn’t seen as many courses as most of his peers. “I got started late in life, as you well know,” Trevino said.
“I was 28 years old when I started playing professional golf. The only golf course that I knew before that was Tenison Park, which was a public course in Dallas.” Bottom line: He didn’t take a lot of buddies’ trips .
“I’ve missed a lot,” Trevino said. “I’ve missed a lot of great courses that I’ve not played.” But what kind of courses does he consider great? Asked to name the finest U.
S. Open venues, Trevino had high praise for the usual suspects, including Oakmont , Pebble Beach and Merion , the site of one of Trevino’s two U.S.
Open wins. Hard to argue with any of those. The more puzzli.