PUNTA MITA, Mexico — Lee Trevino is hard at work doing the two things he does best: hitting a golf ball and talking a mile a minute. Some 50+ members at Punta Mita Golf Club, home to two Jack Nicklaus designs, and VIPs of the WCW Mexico Senior Open have gathered around the practice green for Pacific and Bahia golf courses as Trevino treats them to a clinic on the short game and bunker play.
Trevino, who celebrated his 85th birthday on December 1, hasn’t been slowing down. Just last month, he did Q&A’s and clinics in Chicago, Little Rock, Arkansas, El Paso, Texas, Palm Springs, California, and this one in Mexico, the country where his grandfather, who helped raise him, emigrated from a few years before he was born.
“It’s a funny thing because, hell, I make more now than I did when I played,” he says with a laugh. “This here, this is my home country. They’re buying my breakfast. That’s it. I told them, ‘Just buy me lunch and breakfast.’ ”
And so Trevino, one of the game’s greatest wedge wizards, still is performing, leaving them laughing with his trademark wit and wisdom and his audience soaked it all up until Trevino closed out the session by saying, “I’m done. We’re finished. I’m going to go lay down.” Of course, he headed to the back of the range and beat more balls.
Happy birthday, Lee. Don’t ever change and thanks for sharing your wit and wisdom with all of us.