Lee Trevino taught me 10 lessons in 38 minutes. Here they are

On a cloudless morning in early winter, legendary Lee Trevino pulled up in a golf cart at the end of the driving range and issued a statement.

“I’m not giving away any secrets!”

For a moment it was not clear what he meant. Was Trevino canceling our shot? A producer and I, lured by time with a dream guest, had flown in at the last minute Punta Mitaa golf course (and a ridiculously picturesque resort community) in southwestern Mexico, to have a session with one of golf’s all-time greats. A morning view of the Pacific lapping against the rocky coast was worth the trip, but we were hoping to catch more than just a sunrise and a sunburn, so Trevino’s warning set off some alarms. After all, golfers can be strange creatures — and Trevino has earned the right to make his shots.

But Lee’s son Daniel, who had come with him, rolled his eyes.

“I think he’s messing with you,” he said.

We breathed a sigh of relief. Elder Trevino was, in fact, messing with us, injecting some chaos into an otherwise calm scene. With a twinkle in his eye, Trevino grabbed a wedge from his bag, rolled a ball from the pile, and launched into our latest and greatest episode of “HEAT. And while there were some things Trevino actually he didn’t want to share – he keeps some secrets about his clinics, he explained – he wasn’t exactly holding back. What followed was 38 minutes of golden golf, delivered by a six-time major champion and first-ballot Hall of Fame speaker.

I would encourage you to watch the whole thing; this is some sense of the series, neither Trevino’s hit nor his commentary comes through the text, and you can find YouTube link below.

But also read about 10 things I learned from Lee.

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1. He still has it.

Trevino is keenly aware of his age – “most people are on the ground when they’re 85,” he says – but he doesn’t let that stop him. Every morning he wakes up and makes his way to the driving range, where he will hit balls for two hours. He is not preparing for a tour. He has no competitive goals in mind, he says. But he knows his practice sessions are important nonetheless.

“Golf still means everything to me simply because it’s what I’ve done for a living. This has been my whole life,” he says. He complains about losing swing speed. But does he ever wake up worried that his game has abandoned him?

“Oh no, no, no,” he says. “The good Lord gave me a talent. And he still hasn’t taken that away from me.”

2. Every shot needs a goal.

Does Trevino like to work with the ball? Hook, fade, rise, fall? Does he ever To hear him tell it, that’s the whole point.

“I don’t care what the shot is, it has to have a purpose,” he says. “And you have to work the ball to the right, you have to work the ball to the left.”

There’s a philosophy here—a philosophy that involves a little math.

“The reason to work with the ball is simply because of the percentages. If you work the ball from left to right, you aim 20 feet left. And it doesn’t work right, you’re 20 feet from the hole. If you work it 20 feet, you’re right next to the hole. If you work it 30 feet, you are 10 feet from the hole. If you work at 40 ft, you are 20 ft from the hole.

“Now, if you try to hit it straight and you hit it 40 yards to the right, you’re 40 yards from the hole.”

This, of course, assumes that while trying to hit a fade, you don’t suddenly hit a quick putt about 100 feet left in place. (That would leave you 120 yards away!) But Trevino may not have been this far off since the 1950s.

3. The “hardest shot in golf” is not what you expect.

The hardest shot in golf — except maybe a 60-yard bunker shot, Trevino admits — is often overlooked. No one thinks much of it until they’re messing with it: getting out of trouble.

“It’s when you get into the trees on the right and you can’t go down to the flag,” Trevino says. “And you have to go across the fairway to lie down.”

The dilemma, he explains, is to get it far enough to make it across the rough and onto the fairway, but not far enough that it slides into the rough — or trees, or worse — on the other side. It is very important to get out of trouble, but no one works on this specific shot when they practice.

“So this is something you have to practice. You can’t just go out on the range and hit golf balls. You must have a purpose. You need to change your control. You have to change the position of the ball. You have to change how far you are from the ball.”

4. There’s a young golfer he admired: Scottie Scheffler.

Trevino and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler have more in common than elite ball-striking, happy feet. They have also been members of the same Dallas-area club, Royal Oaksafter Scheffler was about eight years old. (Trevino has been a member since 1970.)

“He goes out and joins in and would go out there and wear the green; he would like to shoot for nickels,” Trevino recalled. “I wouldn’t put him in because I couldn’t beat him.

“And he always had long pants as a kid. He never wore shorts. (We would ask), ‘Why aren’t you wearing shorts?’ “Because one day I will be a professional. And professionals don’t wear shorts'”

Even at a young age, Trevino says he had never seen anything like Scheffler.

“I’ve been playing with (Jack) Nicklaus all my life. Nobody ever hit a ball like this guy.”

5. He will never change a person’s movement.

“I never change a person’s golf swing because they have an instructor,” Trevino says. “But not 10 percent of people who play golf, including the pros, know the mechanics. lore why the ball did something.

“Look, the golf ball will tell you what you’ve done,” Trevino says, then sets the ball with purpose. “People will say, ‘Oh, Jesus. I moved, I…’ No, you didn’t. You were good. You had the ball too far ahead (in your stance).

The golf club, Trevino explains, is like a pendulum in the golf swing. Find the bottom of the swing. Make sure the ball is there when you do this. Changing the swing itself is a much more uphill battle and not necessarily one you have to face.

“You own (your swing). You won’t change it. It’s like trying to teach a boy to walk differently. It’s like trying to teach someone to speak differently. You can’t do it. But you’re not changing a person’s swing — you can change their hands and you can change the position and that makes all the difference.”

6. There’s a pro on Tour who swings it a bit like Lee.

Trevino is such a beloved presence in the golf world that it’s easy to forget how he got here.

“The question has always been who guided me, who taught me how to play,” he recalls. “I learned to play by myself in a pasture, in the field. I didn’t start playing professionally until I was 27, almost 28. I was in the Marine Corps for four years. When I got out of the Marines I went to work on a construction crew building a golf course, I didn’t even play golf. I started playing when I was 22 years old. By the time I was 25, I had won the US Open.

Five more majors (plus nearly 100 worldwide victories) would follow.

“But I learned how to play by blocking the ball. The only guy playing like that right now on the tour is (Daniel) Berger. He drives with the back of his left hand. This is what I do. The back of the left hand does not rotate. The stump hits (the ball). The trunk moves the limbs.”

Tiger Woods has described it sound of Trevino’s shot as different from other players. Trevino says it’s because he compresses the ball so well. There is no sleight of hand involved. It’s not about time. He blocks it, swinging down on the ball with the back of his left hand. It worked then and it works now.

7. In the wind, Trevino could hit it as well as anyone.

Perhaps my favorite line of the session came when Trevino was transported on a windy weekend in the British Isles several decades ago.

“When I went and played the Open Championship, when I got up in the morning and looked out the hotel window and saw the flags going. whooshI said (here he smiles broadly), ‘Bring me a cup of coffee, we’re arranging to go pick someone up’.

He followed it up with another one-of-a-kind line — “I don’t like to hit 3s because bugs have to keep their helmets on” — but explained little about the genius that helped him both open titles.

“I could make him fall. I could take the driver and make him crash.”

8. Even as an all-time great, he got yps.

I mention that Trevino can make it to the Open THIS year, based on the ball-striking clinic he is putting on. He agreed. However, one thing would stand in his way.

“If only I could shoot,” he says. “I got so bad that I have to wear four pairs of underwear when I play. And then I change every six holes and finally end up with a clean pair.”

9. Open the club face when chipping.

It’s hard to transcribe this tip — you’ll have to look it up — but Trevino insists you don’t scratch with a square face, but start with the club pointed toward first base.

“The body brings it to the ball,” he says. “Bargu will close it.”

Lee shows another way to think about it (don’t kill a fly – you can do it with a blow from above – but grab fly instead) but it’s better to look at this. You will be convinced.

10. It went quickly.

Want to know what it feels like to accumulate decades of legendary accomplishments, decades of golf knowledge, decades of meaningful golf life? One line Trevino shared was from a beloved, final round of Arnold Palmer’s competitive career. The two were sitting in the locker room after the round, and Trevino could see that his longtime peer was feeling the weight of the moment.

“He’s got tears streaming down his cheeks and now he’s moved me,” Trevino says. “I didn’t know how to start because his lip was trembling and he couldn’t say anything.

“And I looked at it and said, ‘That went fast, didn’t it?’

The decade since that round has also gone by quickly, Trevino says, though it’s been another memorable decade in an unforgettable golfing life. There are some deeper lessons, one that is harder to narrow down to a simple list.

You can watch Warming Up with Lee Trevino here or in the player below.

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