Lee Trevino: He's A Rookie Again At Age 50

MIAMI - At certain moments of particular giddiness, newly turned 50-year-old Lee Trevino boldly predicted he would win anywhere from six to 18 of the 30 tournaments on the Senior PGA Tour he plans to play this year. The boast didn't exactly knock a scare into the elder statesmen of golf, but a few players did cry triple-bogey.

``What I can't believe is that people are so dumb that they think he is going to come out here and bury us,'' said Dave Hill, already a winner of $1,149,824 in 2 1/2 senior seasons. ``Did he beat us all the time before? No. And he ain't going to beat us all the time now.

``And if his back goes, he isn't going to beat anybody. It's crazy. He can play. But not like that.''

Yet there he was, the Merry Mex, loudly storming around The Links of Key Biscayne Wednesday, his longtime caddie Herman Mitchell at his side in a golf cart. It was only a pro-am, but Friday the 1990 Senior season tees off for real with the first round of the $400,000 Royal Caribbean Classic. That is when Trevino's quest for dominance begins.

``Listen, if you talk as much as I do, you're going to put your shoe in your mouth every now and then,'' Trevino said. ``But these are the guys I started with. I know they can still play.

``Everybody is making their predictions. All I've said is that I'm going to make a lot of money. And I am.''

But what Trevino quietly says he desires as much as cash is the taste of winning. That's truly why he is here this week instead of at Pebble Beach desperately trying to keep up with the PGA Tour's growing depth.

It has been a long time since his storybook victory in the 1984 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala. The chance to win again was worth giving up his job as an NBC analyst, as well as the reason he is rededicating himself as if he were a teen-ager.

``I want to be competitive again,'' he said after Wednesday's six-birdie, four-bogey pro-am round of 69 at Key Biscayne. ``I want the feeling of getting the trophy and winning.

``It only lasts for about 15 minutes. Then everybody gets in their car and is even again. But I want that feeling again.''

In working toward it, Trevino has smacked hundreds of balls a day since September and says he has his game at a level that it hasn't been in maybe a decade.

Unlike fellow 50-year-old Jack Nicklaus - who has demeaned the Senior Tour for its short courses and lack of competition - Trevino sees a challenge out there. He feels macho when he steps to the tee and isn't always the first to hit a second shot from the fairway. It's nice for a change to be able to count on being around for the weekend television rounds.

No question about it. Lee Trevino just might be the world's happiest 50-year-old.

``God, my bones hurt,'' he joked after nailing a 25-footer from the front fringe for birdie on No. 18 Wednesday. ``Got to go to bed now.''

Ever since this ex-Marine who grew up on worn Texas courses won the 1968 U.S. Open, he has been considered one of golf's most creative players.

He thrives on having good hands and a feel for his shots. Perhaps that is what people have talked about most because of his flat unorthodox swing. Trevino steps up to the ball, appears not to give the shot a moment's thought, and whales away.

He has won six majors, 27 tournaments and five Vardon Trophies for low-stroke averages that way. He led last year's Masters for the first two rounds and wouldn't surprise himself if he somehow beat the best again someday.

But he has accepted that his future is here as an older man, that the ever-present gray in his hair isn't the only sign of aging.

And the Senior PGA Tour isn't such a bad place to be. The purses are growing larger every day (Royal Caribbean went from $300,000 to $400,000 before the first ball was struck, thanks to Cadillac's television sponsorship), players get to ride in carts if they want, and there is no cut.

``It won't be a cakewalk for him, but Lee is playing well enough to win,'' said Arnold Palmer, who has won just twice since 1985. ``How much? Nobody knows.

``It takes the same things to win out here as it did on the regular tour. You might say there are less guys to beat. But every year that group grows larger.''

Trevino made his Senior debut six days after his birthday in the final tournament of last year, the GTE Kaanapali Classic in Maui, Hawaii, Dec. 7-8. Trevino tied for seventh after consecutive rounds of 69 and won $9,258. It wasn't what he had hoped for, but it was a primer.

``Fifty is much younger than 55 as opposed to 25 and 30,'' Trevino said. ``That's what Gary Player told me. You have a different stamina and eagerness. That's why I think I can win a few tournaments in the next five years.''

Trevino doesn't worry about the back that Hill warns the golf world about. He stretches at dawn every morning with a five-foot wooden pole. It has been his routine since 1976, when he had surgery for a herniated disc.

``I'll probably play a total of 40 tournaments including non-Seniors events this year,'' Trevino said. ``My whole life is golf. I don't have any other hobbies. When I want to do something to relax, I play golf.''

And to prove he is in shape, he plans to walk every round.

A group of the biggest names on the tour - Palmer, George Archer, Chi Chi Rodriguez and others - sent Trevino a gigantic birthday card last month showing Snoopy passing out at the mention of his age.

``We took up a collection, $150,000 not to play,'' Butch Baird wrote. ``Will you accept?''

Trevino chuckled at the thought. Not a chance. It wasn't enough. If Bob Charles could win $725,887 in 1989, how much could Trevino stash in the bank in '90? A million?

``Money is why we're playing,'' Trevino said. ``If we were walking this course for health, we could go to Hawaii and jog every day.

``I don't need it, but it still is a motivating factor. Now what am I going to do with it? I don't know.''