Lee Trevino's Ball Flight?

[tgoodspe1991]

Love all the replies here. It's also great to hear everyone's personal experiences of seeing him in action. There's a few golfers that would have been fun to see in their prime, but none of them stack up to how badly I wish I could've watched Trevino back in his day...

[thug the bunny]

Love all the replies here. It's also great to hear everyone's personal experiences of seeing him in action. There's a few golfers that would have been fun to see in their prime, but none of them stack up to how badly I wish I could've watched Trevino back in his day...

 

tgo, I love the freezeframe in your avatar. Three things I notice - look at his left pant leg flying, shows how he really uses the lower body and fires the hips. Then, look at how the clubhead has not passed his hands even well after impact, indicating he had shaft lean at impact and held it off, no flipping there. Finally, he is still looking straight down where the ball was even though it is well on its way, kind of disproves all the instructors who say 'keeping your head down is totally incorrect'.

[Jordan Speeth]

I was caddying on Tour when Trevino was in his prime and though he had "go to" shots, he could hit it either way quite easily. He seemed to hit everything pretty low compared to most of the other top players. I'd finish my loop and immediately head out to find him. One, because he was funny and engaged the crowd and, second, because he had every shot there was and I wanted to learn. He usually hit the low fade but he could hit it wherever he wanted to in whatever shape he wanted to. He was an absolute virtuoso with the irons. He wasn't so popular with lots of the other players because he'd never quit talking and attracting attention to himself while most of the other guys were pretty serious about making a living. It was tough out there and only the very top guys were getting rich. Everyone else was out there fighting for their lives and didn't appreciate the distraction. They loved Arnie, even though he wasn't "one of them" because he made them all more money but Trevino was just kind of a pain in the butt for most. They all respected his game though...no doubt about that.

[mahonie]

I remember reading an article telling the story about when Trevino started working with Willie Aitchison, the legendary caddie, at the Open back in the days when players used local caddies. I can’t remember the year, but late 60s or early 70s. Trevino was allocated his caddie for the week at a practice round. After a couple of holes it was obvious to Trevino that he and the caddie weren’t getting on so he got word to the organisers to get him another better caddie for the back nine. This is where Aitchison picked up Trevino’s bag.

 

The 10th hole was a par 4 and Trevino hit a decent drive that left him 150 yards to the green. Trevino asked Aitchison for the yardage. Aitchison replied in his slow, Scottish brogue: “5-iron.” Trevino said that he wanted the yardage. Again Aitchison replied: “5-iron.” Trevino asked Aitchison to pass him 5 balls which he dropped to the ground. Then he asked Aitchison to pass him driver, fairway wood, 5-iron, 7-iron and putter. Non-plussed, Aitchison did as he was told. Trevino then proceeded to hit each ball with each club and put them all on the green. He turned to Aitchison and said: “When I ask for a yardage I want a yardage...I’ll pick the club myself.”

 

After that sticky start they got on well and Aitchison caddied for Trevino when he played over here including his Open victories.

[BladesOShanter]

On 3/7/2018 at 3:57 PM, dlygrisse said:

Not sure in his prime. But I followed him for several holes about 15 years ago and he hit mostly a low bullet that flew mostly straight. I think he learned to draw it on the senior tour but in his prime it was a fade that started straight and rolled right at the end. That was with the old equipment,....push-fade.

 

The most impressive thing were the low burning wedges. Two hopps and a stop. Deadly.

I remember following him at the Senior Open at Ridgewood and was surprised to see him hit a draw! He had this cool FW wood. Sorta tiger-striped or so it appeared. If I recall, he'd play it off the deck after thumping it to raise the turf a bit. His wedges from like 50-60 yards were amazing. I remember one coming toward me at the right side of the green. The ball did a hop, and spun left across the green to the hole. No fade bias there!

[golferdude54]

Trevino had course management and hitting fades and draws with the exact same swing down.
 

Aimed his club path inside left edge of every fairway and green with a club face range margin of error from square to path to slightly too open; he had the whole fairway and green at his disposal and he knew it was always starting (different from curving) in one direction every time.
 

For draws, all he did was close the club face at address a little bit and make the exact same swing as his push-fade swing, he wrote about it in his “Groove Your Golf Swing My Way” book. 

 

[iBanesto]

9 hours ago, BladesOShanter said:

I remember following him at the Senior Open at Ridgewood and was surprised to see him hit a draw! He had this cool FW wood. Sorta tiger-striped or so it appeared. If I recall, he'd play it off the deck after thumping it to raise the turf a bit. His wedges from like 50-60 yards were amazing. I remember one coming toward me at the right side of the green. The ball did a hop, and spun left across the green to the hole. No fade bias there!

 

Trevino can hit any shots he wants at any time.

 

He was never long but probably as accurate as anyone who has played the game.

 

 

Edited July 18 by iBanesto

[TiScape]

Not a record. But impressive nonetheless!

[Obee]

On 7/17/2025 at 10:48 PM, golferdude54 said:

Trevino had course management and hitting fades and draws with the exact same swing down.
 

Aimed his club path inside left edge of every fairway and green with a club face range margin of error from square to path to slightly too open; he had the whole fairway and green at his disposal and he knew it was always starting (different from curving) in one direction every time.
 

For draws, all he did was close the club face at address a little bit and make the exact same swing as his push-fade swing, he wrote about it in his “Groove Your Golf Swing My Way” book. 

 

He also moved the ball back in his stance a touch to hit draws -- especially with wedges, etc.

In fact, I daresay he hit more draws with his wedges than cuts, which is true of a lot of elite faders of the ball: They fade their LONG clubs, but frequently DRAW their shorter ones.
 

Edited July 28 by Obee

[tiderider]

On 3/8/2018 at 3:18 PM, Obee said:

 

He did, though, regularly draw short irons and wedges. Would assess pins and basically could (and did) hit any shot in his mind's eye inside 160ish(?). Amazing ball control. Longer clubs, preferred a fade.

remember reading a GD article with Chi Chi about who he thought were the greatest ball strikers ... two of three were Jack and Lee and he specfically mentioned that although they might've preferred the fade overall, they were confident with shotmaking ... mentioned he saw Jack tee an iron shot a bit higher than normal, probably so that he could hit a high draw to a left pin on some hole ... and hit it to 20 ft, or whatever ... I imagine you could legit talk anything with Trevino for several hours ... 

[straightshot7]

1 hour ago, Obee said:

He also moved the ball back in his stance a touch to hit draws -- especially with wedges, etc.

In fact, I daresay he hit more draws with his wedges than cuts, which is true of a lot of elite faders of the ball: They fade their LONG clubs, but frequently DRAW their shorter ones.
 

im not an elite player but I do the same..

 

draw with wedges means shallower angle, lower flight and less spin. I want it to one hop and stop.
 

Not get stuck in the wind and spin off the green. 
 

but my “draw”  with wedges is dead straight or 2 feet of right to left 😄

Edited July 29 by straightshot7

[J-Blade]

I got to see him play once at Rancho Park GC in L.A., back in what I like to call the "golden age" of the Senior Tour. This would have been around 1992. In addition to Trevino, we had Player, Palmer, Chi Chi, Floyd, Irwin, Colbert, Barber, Coody, Sifford, et al. Nicklaus was also still playing and winning, though he skipped the L.A. tournament. 

 

Trevino could still hit any shot he wanted and he hadn't lost any of his gift of gab either 🙂

[aabcuue]

52 minutes ago, J-Blade said:

I got to see him play once at Rancho Park GC in L.A., back in what I like to call the "golden age" of the Senior Tour. This would have been around 1992. In addition to Trevino, we had Player, Palmer, Chi Chi, Floyd, Irwin, Colbert, Barber, Coody, Sifford, et al. Nicklaus was also still playing and winning, though he skipped the L.A. tournament. 

 

Trevino could still hit any shot he wanted and he hadn't lost any of his gift of gab either 🙂

Worked a Champions tour event back in 1990s on a course that Gary designed. So all of the names showed up for one year or more.

 

Arnie held court and treated the bar to a round of drinks. Trevino did his own “crowd management” as well. He went along almost like he was giving live on course playing lessons as he played. Everyone loved it.

Nothing like calling your shot and making it happen.

Edited July 29 by aabcuue

[aabcuue]

On 3/12/2018 at 7:50 PM, thug the bunny said:

tgo, I love the freezeframe in your avatar. Three things I notice - look at his left pant leg flying, shows how he really uses the lower body and fires the hips. Then, look at how the clubhead has not passed his hands even well after impact, indicating he had shaft lean at impact and held it off, no flipping there. Finally, he is still looking straight down where the ball was even though it is well on its way, kind of disproves all the instructors who say 'keeping your head down is totally incorrect'.

Quite a few swing similarities w Moe Norman. Both backyard swings developed on their own.

Lee done for the hard pan and windy days of TX. Rest for the high end Nassau’s and gambling rounds.

[aabcuue]

On 3/7/2018 at 3:46 PM, tgoodspe1991 said:

For anyone who has seen Lee Trevino play in person... what was his ball flight actually like?

 

I read everywhere that he hit a low fade. Yes, I get that, but can someone who's seen it in person share some detail?

 

How low was it? Modern guys on Protracer have an apex between 100-130ft, would you say Trevino's was 80, 70, 60, 50ft?

 

How much did it actually curve from right to left? You always read people say things like "baby fade"... but one's small fade is another's large fade. To me, a baby fade is like starting a few paces left of the flag, and falling slightly right. So did he move his tee shots and irons shots a few feet, a few yards, 10y, 20y?

 

I've just always been curious as to how low he actually hit it, and how much fade he actually put on it!

Trevino changed in his career. There is before the lightning strike and back issues vs. post back issues.

 

Generally would be called a fader and shotmaker. McLean and most coaches would call it a hold off fade vs jacks power fade.

Post lightning strike 1975 he started to have back issues that caused low slight middle fade to go much shorter throughout the bag.

Lee then changed swing a bit but mostly change the ball position. Partially to get more ball height and also to get less stress on the back.

 

As a shotmaker, he could and would flight shots how ever he wanted. While stock shot was a fade, height varied as he could hit maybe half a bag from a given distance. Sometimes several different fades shots w the same club.

 

Until the modern era of bomb n gouge of power golf via tiger/phil/et. al, shotmaking was the way to win usually.

 

Edited July 29 by aabcuue

[Route 66]

Several years ago, I was fortunate to see Trevino do a clinic at D A Weibring's former driving range that was located at the Tollway and Spring Creek in Plano, Texas.  To say it was an amazing display of ball striking would be an understatement.  As other posters have said, he could hit any shot he wanted on command, all of which were dead solid.

 

D A was there and was sort of the straight man - asking Trevino questions, requesting he hit certain shots, etc.  Weibring asked him to talk about a nine hole match he recently played in Fort Worth where he used just one club and the other guy had his full set.  Trevino said he used a high lofted fairway wood as his one club.  Weibring asked him how he managed to do that.  Trevino proceeded to hit a series of shots to various targets with the club -  from 100 yard high shots to about 220 yard drives - all by opening and closing down the club face and changing the length of his swing to hit the shot he wanted.  It was incredible to see him change the trajectory and hit shots to the correct distances with that one club.  

 

He's quite the showman.  You could tell he was loving every minute of it, and so was the audience.  

[gvogel]

On 7/28/2025 at 7:46 PM, tiderider said:

remember reading a GD article with Chi Chi about who he thought were the greatest ball strikers ... two of three were Jack and Lee and he specfically mentioned that although they might've preferred the fade overall, they were confident with shotmaking ... mentioned he saw Jack tee an iron shot a bit higher than normal, probably so that he could hit a high draw to a left pin on some hole ... and hit it to 20 ft, or whatever ... I imagine you could legit talk anything with Trevino for several hours ... 

Maybe not.  He was very shy off the course, and had room service for dinner for many years.  He started going out for dinner with Tom Watson later on.

[aabcuue]

2 hours ago, gvogel said:

Maybe not.  He was very shy off the course, and had room service for dinner for many years.  He started going out for dinner with Tom Watson later on.

In the 90s Champions tournament, Lee and rest of players were treating it like a reunion of past years on tour. They were plenty jovial and constantly joking around and cracking each other up.

Nassau and games were setup throughout. Add a close by airport and the group post round trips and bonding became endless.

Edited July 30 by aabcuue

[aabcuue]

Great new video from golf.com w Lee Trevino on how to control the club face.

0:35 Three club faces

1:50 Body is engine

3:05 How to go w loft/ height at courses that don’t allow run up.

3:45 Hybrids & the best ever hybrid

4:00 Club fitting: simulator vs outside

4:30 Shotmaking

5:00 R forearm secret

6:30 The steering wheel

7:38 Pitch n run

8:00 Wedge shots

8:28 Open n close clubface w body, independent of ball position

11:00 Woods, design issues

 

 

Edited July 30 by aabcuue

[dcfas]

I met LT at a local event many years ago with my dad. It was a rainy morning and we were standing in front of the clubhouse wondering which tee to walk to in order to get a good spot when Lee suddenly came out. He walked right up to us with a huge smile and asked, “Isn’t it a great day to play golf?” He then teed off and eagled the first hole by holing his second shot. My impression to this day is that he is a true talent and a star of the game.

 

Later that day there was a par three contest hole in which you could pay a grand or whatever for closest to the hole against Lee. The local guy hit it to about four feet. Lee stepped up and hit it to one foot.

 

Just an incredible talent and also loaded with charisma.

Edited July 31 by dcfas

[TiScape]

23 hours ago, aabcuue said:

In the 90s Champions tournament, Lee and rest of players were treating it like a reunion of past years on tour. They were plenty jovial and constantly joking around and cracking each other up.

Sounds like a good description of the new Happy Gilmore film. Hopefully that ended better!! 😂