Lee Trevino riffed on gear, what TV broadcasts get improper and (a lot) extra on the Simmons Financial institution Championship.
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Two years in the past, Lee Trevino joked he “got here alongside too early” in his golf profession, referring to the piles of cash professionals had been making on each LIV Golf and the PGA Tour.
The identical may very well be mentioned for gear offers.
Like all the things else within the golf world over the previous few many years, endorsement offers with gear firms have advanced, too. Notably, they’ve change into extra profitable.
So, who would Trevino signal with if he had a contract in in the present day’s golf world?
The intelligent bunker hack Lee Trevino discovered from Seve Ballesteros
He riffed on that subject — and much, heaps extra — on the Simmons Financial institution Championship at Nice Valley Nation Membership in Little Rock, Ark., on Tuesday. The event is the second cease of the PGA Tour Champions Playoffs schedule; the highest 36 gamers will advance to the Charles Schwab Cup Championship two weeks from now at Phoenix Nation Membership.
Trevino, 84, was on-site for festivities on Tuesday and deliberate to play within the pro-am on Wednesday. However again to our query: whose golf equipment and/or ball would Trevino use?
Naturally, he had so much to say. (And who’re we to chop off Lee Trevino?)
“Properly, you realize, they’re making some very, excellent golf golf equipment now,” he started. “They’ve gotten to the purpose to the place these firms, they’re competing with one another. Again in my day, I chased the greenback naturally, just because we didn’t have that a lot so far as prize cash was involved. We had been speaking about that only a second in the past. In 1971, I gained seven tournaments after which I completed excessive in quite a lot of tournaments and I gained a complete of $153,000. That was once you gained a event again then, a daily event, you gained 20 p.c of the purse, which typically was $100,000. Received a bit of bit.
“It’s powerful now with the golf golf equipment as a result of there’s a lot cash now that you just play for, a lot status. The massive tournaments imply a lot, the rankings imply a lot that I feel I might have quite a lot of bother enjoying an gear firm. I feel I might strive ’em all and simply play no matter’s greatest. So I might need a 3-wood that I can hit that anyone else makes, or a driver, irons. I bear in mind once I began the Tour, I had seven completely different makes in my bag. I didn’t have a whole set of golf equipment, however I didn’t have a contract with anyone. Not till 1971 once I acquired High Flite, once I acquired Spalding. They put a rule on you, they need you to make use of the motive force, No. 1. If the motive force’s not good, you’re taking the backseat.”
So his reply? Most likely none. He’d be a uncommon gear free agent, like Brooks Koepka and Adam Scott, amongst others, elect to do now.
Trevino elaborated on the subject and mentioned there was one time he took the gear contract cash and it backfired on him.
“I took the backseat in Japan as a result of I chased the cash,” he mentioned. “I bear in mind endorsing a golf ball known as Flawless and it was — the Flawless ball was a stable ball. We had it right here within the U.S. after which we had one in Japan. I used to be loyal, and I feel it price me perhaps some tournaments with it as a result of it wouldn’t go as far and I couldn’t work it in addition to I may the opposite golf ball. Golf balls in the present day are manufactured a bit of bit completely different. They’re more durable, they don’t spin as a lot, they don’t go as crooked because the balata did.”
Optimum gear or not, although, Trevino did all proper for himself: 29 PGA Tour wins, together with six main titles, and a spot within the World Golf Corridor of Fame.
