Trevino's Wife Sneaks Around Behind His Back
Trevino may owe his World Golf Hall of Fame career to his sneaky wife
Congratulations to Victor Hovland on winning the Hero World Challenge. Hovland has won five times (which includes back-to-back Hero World Challenge titles which are unofficial) on the PGA TOUR and all have come in tropical resort settings. He’s won in Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Mexico. Seems like he would be a good bet at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui next month. We’ll be watching The Match this weekend to see how Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy do against Jordan Speith and Justin Thomas. We’re continuing to do some features while we wait for the TOUR to return for the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January. We’ll return with our historical tournament coverage then. This week, find out how Lee Trevino could owe his World Golf Hall of Fame career to his first wife, Claudia.
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Sneaky Mrs. Trevino Helps Make Her Husband Rookie of The Year
Lee Trevino photo: (Golf Digest)
It is sometime in the spring of 1967 and Claudia Trevino, the first wife of Lee Trevino, was sneaking around behind his back. She filled out an entry form, with Lee’s name on it, for the local qualifier for the U.S. Open, inserted a check for $20 and sent it in without Lee’s knowledge.
This wouldn’t be Trevino’s first experience in a U.S. Open. He had qualified for the 1966 Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, but the experience was less than earth-shaking.
“When I got to San Francisco, it was cold, 45 degrees,” related Trevino to Golf Digest in the February 1968 Yearbook issue. “I was used to warm weather, and I never got going. I kept telling myself this was good experience, and I did learn one thing: The Open is a driving contest. You have to stay out of the rough to be a contender.”
“I took my stake of $700 and caught me a jet to the Open.”
Trevino made the cut, eventually finishing in 49th place, and returned to El Paso with the belief that he wasn’t good enough to play the tour. He did not plan on trying to qualify for the 1967 U.S. Open that would be played at Baltusrol. Then he found out that his wife, Claudia, had already entered him in the local qualifier played in Odessa.
Trevino shot 67-69—139 to post the lowest local qualifying score in the country and moved on to sectional qualifying at the Dallas Athletic Club. There he shot a 141, second to Billy Martindale’s 140, and he was on his way to New Jersey.
“More money than I’d ever seen in one place in my life.”
“That cut it,” Trevino said. “I took my stake of $700 and caught me a jet to the Open. I think the prices in the East shocked me more than anything. In El Paso you can get a steak for $1.85. Around New York you’re lucky to get onions on your hamburger for that kind of money.”
At Baltusrol, Trevino finished fifth with only Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, and Don January beating him. Trevino won $6,000 which he said was “more money than I’d ever seen in one place in my life.” It also earned him a spot in the Cleveland Open the next week on the PGA Tour, and Trevino informed tour officials that he would play.
That may have not been the wisest choice.
“I wanted to go back to El Paso and have a big party to celebrate my play in the Open.”
“Maybe I was still in a state of shock at Cleveland,” he remembers. “Anyway, my mind wasn’t on golf. I wanted to go back to El Paso and have a big party to celebrate my play in the Open.”
Trevino had a six-foot putt on the 18th hole of the second round to make the cut and play the weekend.
“I deliberately missed it,” Trevino admitted. "That was wrong. I’ve done a lot of foolish things, but I was all mixed up then.”
“I told Claudia I thought it might be best if she and Leslie went home so I’d be able to work on my game.”
After a three-week rest in El Paso, Trevino packed up Claudia and their two-year-old daughter, Leslie, and headed back out onto the PGA TOUR. The first three tournaments were an unmitigated disaster.
“I was disappointed,” Trevino related, “I couldn't pinpoint my problem. I suspected that I wasn’t concentrating enough or practicing enough. I told Claudia I thought it might be best if she and Leslie went home so I’d be able to work on my game.”
This seemed to work as Trevino tied for 10th at Hartford winning $2,150.
“I’ll never go with you again,” Claudia told Trevino upon hearing about his success at Hartford.
At the next stop, the lucrative Westchester Classic, Trevino tied for seventh and won $8,125. Trevino then went on to win money in all but one of the next six tournaments. He won $26,472 for the year and was named Golf Digest Rookie of the Year. He also won an exemption into the 1968 U.S. Open at Oak Hill Country Club where he beat Jack Nicklaus by four strokes to take the title. He became the first player to shoot all four regulation rounds in a U.S. Open under par recording scores of 69-68-69-69 He went on to win numerous titles on the PGA TOUR and worldwide and was named to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981.
Quite the career that might never had been if Claudia Trevino hadn’t been sneaking around behind Lee’s back.
Lee Trevino (Photo: Golf Digest)
How is a putter like a newborn kitten? Scroll down to see in our bonus story.
We’ve got a new playlist for you this week. It’s a second volume of songs from 1967. Listen HERE.
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Larry Baush
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Bonus Story
Lee Trevino rented a house from a Mrs. Mayberry near the Tanglewood Park Golf Club in Clemmons, NC, where the 1974 PGA Championship was to be conducted. Trevino was mired in a putting slump and had a theory about dealing with a slump that only Lee Trevino could have.
“Kittens are born blind,” Trevino said to the magazine, Kingdom, in 2020. “A lot of people don’t know that. When kittens are born, they can’t see for a week and their mother takes care of them and feeds them. Putters are the same way. A new putter is blind. You go into a pro shop and there will be 20 putters. You take two of them out to the putting green, you pick one and with that putter you make every putt in the world. So, you buy that putter but after seven days it opens its eyes, it recognizes you, sees you putt and from that moment you putt just as bad as with your old ones.”
So, in 1974, at the PGA Championship, Trevino was looking for a blind putter. He thought that the best blind putter for him would be a Wilson designed by Arnold Palmer blade—what became the Wilson 8802. Little did he know he would find one at Mrs. Mayberry’s house.
“I was sleeping in the top bedroom and down the hall was an attic with a glass door,” remembers Trevino. “As I walked down the hall, through the door I saw a set of golf clubs lying on the floor and sticking out was this Wilson blade by Arnold Palmer. I brought it out and it was the original version still with the original grip, which was very difficult to find. This putter fitted me just perfect.”
Trevino asked Mrs. Mayberry if he could buy the putter, but Mrs. Mayberry refused saying she was saving her recently deceased husband’s clubs to pass on to her son. She did give Trevino permission to use the putter that week which Trevino did. He shot a 73 in the first round, but then his “blind putter” got hot, and he shot 66-68-69 and beat Jack Nicklaus by one stroke to capture the first of his two PGA Championship titles.
After his second round 66, Mrs. Mayberry told Trevino that if he won the tournament, he could keep the putter. Trevino still has the putter in his home in Dallas, TX.
“It’s in a box upstairs,” Trevino said. “I call it Mrs. Mayberry.”
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Tour Backspin Quiz | Lee Trevino Trivia
How much money did Lee Trevino win with an ace on the 17th hole at PGA Stadium West Course in the Skins Game in 1987?
Answers below
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You may not be able to find the coat, or the pants, but you could score your own set of those great headcovers. Jan Craig has been making custom hand knit headcovers since 1962. While they hand knit custom headcovers that you can design, the lead time is six weeks. They do make a handful of their most popular designs ahead of time and can ship them in time for delivery by Christmas if ordered in the next week. Learn more HERE.
You can get a cool, daily dose of golf history at Your Golfer’s Almanac podcast. This short podcast provides interesting nuggets from the history of golf. Check it out HERE.
A signed copy of Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema makes a great Christmas gift. Order directly HERE. Be sure to include inscription instructions.
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Another great playlist on Tour Backspin this week. Reminds me of listening to Kasey Kasem on AT40. Nice work, Larry.
JTH
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Lee Trevino won a four hole carryover with his ace on the 17th hole at PGA Stadium West Course and won $175,000.
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