5 questions with Lee Trevino: Merry Mex on playing pain-free, his near-death experience, and his secret to the swing

My editor asked, “Do you want to interview Lee Trev—?”

I was out the door, notebook in hand, before he could say “-ino.” The Merry Mex had little talk time during a recent trip to New York City, but I would have yelled questions at him while chasing his taxi, if need be. I’m a big fan of Trevino, 69. Everything about his game, his life, his style was… different. Special. He once dipped a needle in ink and tattooed his own arm with "Ann." (Alas, he married a Claudia instead.) He unscrewed the cleats from his sole pair of shoes before going out to dinner. He was the only one with the will and skill to defeat Jack Nicklaus in a major playoff (Merion, 1971). With confidence towering high above his 5 feet 7 inches, he once boasted, “I got me a 1-iron I can hit 260 and right through the doorway.” Not to mention that incomparable Ikea swing. Teacher Bob Toski said of the six-time major winner's homemade move: “Trevino aims left, swings right, and splits the difference.”

With apologies to James Lipton, here are five questions with one of the greats of the game.

1. What are you passionate about? 
I’m telling anyone who will listen, and who has back pain, about the X-Stop Spacer, which has allowed me to play golf again. About five years ago I walked into a deep bunker, fell backwards, and landed on my left hip. I started having terrible back pain. I was playing in a tournament in L.A. and the spasms got so bad—nerve hitting bone—that I had to quit, and I was 5-under! I was bed-ridden for four months. It was spinal stenosis [a narrowing of one or more areas in the spine]. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t put my clothes on. My wife had to dress me. I had to go up the stairs backwards. I couldn’t drive a car, because my leg would lock up, so I couldn’t use the brake. It was frightening. We could have done regular surgery, but that would have meant losing rotation, losing my golf swing. My doctor found this X-Stop procedure, an implant that goes in your back. My back didn’t hurt any more. I came home two days after surgery. A lot of people out there who are 50 and over suffer through back pain, and they have no idea about this procedure. So I’m spreading the word. Go to your doctor or a specialist and find out if it’s right for you. Everyone doesn’t qualify, but it’s done wonders for me. I can play again. I can’t play like I used to, but I love it.

2. Arnie just turned 80, and you turn 70 soon. How would you choose to head off to that big golf course in the sky? 
I don’t care how I die. I’m not afraid to die. I got hit by lightning in 1975. I saw the other side, and the other side is a hell of a lot better than this. A lot better. [Pauses] I just hope my wife doesn’t bury me in a yellow sweater. I hate yellow! [Laughs]

3. What celebrity would you like on your cell-phone speed dial? 
None! Don’t have time for them. Cell phone? I don’t like cell phones, computers, none of that stuff. See, I don’t like experimenting with something because I might like it, and it would take up my time. Besides, if I like it, there’s something wrong with it. [laughs]

4. If you lost all of your money tomorrow, what would you miss most? 
I grew up poor. I could go back to being poor. It’s people who had money and lost it who jump out of windows. They don’t know what to do because they don’t know what’s important in life. I wouldn’t have a problem at all.

5. You’re considered one of the greatest ball-strikers ever. You once said that you found a secret move that took you from a 4-handicap swing to a Tour-level swing. Inquiring hackers want to know: What was it? 
It happened when I realized that in the swing the knuckles on the left hand are equivalent to the leading edge of the clubface—that whatever the back of your left hand is doing at impact is what your clubface is doing. Here [he leans forward], hold a club in your left hand. Now, the back of your hand represents the clubface, and wherever this “face” goes [he points at the back of my left hand], it turns the face of the club. So if you want to keep the club on target through impact, those knuckles on the left hand should face the target [at impact]. The face will only go where the left hand goes. Before I realized that, I was rotating my left hand either too soon or too late. It was hard to control. It’s tough to time this [he rapidly rotates hands] but not this [points knuckles of left hand at target with little rotation]. Today’s players over-rotate their hands. Even Tiger does it. He’s the greatest player in the world, and last year he was near the bottom [169th] in driving accuracy. Today’s players rotate the clubface too soon or too late.

TOMORROW: How Trevino’s secret move can improve your ball-striking.

Photo: James Drake