Good morning golf fans from Classic Swing Golf School in Myrtle Beach South Carolina, here’s another slice of golf history from blogger Dan DeFreest.
Few golfers in history have a more compelling rags-to-riches story than Lee Trevino. He was born in Dallas Texas in 1938 and never knew his father who had abandoned his family when Lee was an infant. Trevino was raised by his mother and grandfather who was a gravedigger. Things were so desperate that Trevino was forced to pick cotton at the age of 5 to help that family survive.
It was around that time, that one of his uncles gave him an old rusty golf club and a few balls, Lee began sneaking onto a local golf course and hitting the balls around and at the age of 8, he began caddying at the course. Trevino dropped out of school to work full time, caddying and shining shoes and then at the age of 17, he joined the United States Marines.
During his stint in the Marines, Trevino honed his skills on the golf course when he was off-duty and eventually started playing in military tournaments. After four years, he was discharged and returned to Texas where he got a job as a club pro, but made his real money hustling rich golfers on the links.
In 1966, Lee Trevino joined the PGA Tour and the following year won the US Open, the first of six major wins and one of his 29 PGA tour wins. After retiring from the PGA tour, he joined the Senior Tour and added 29 more victories, including 4 senior majors.
Because of his impoverished beginnings, Trevino’s swing was unorthodox and self-taught, fortunately you don’t have to be self-taught, in Myrtle Beach, we have the Classic Swing Golf School where you can learn from some of the best teaching professionals around.