Why Lee Trevino’s take on modern golf design is flawed

There’s rarely a dull moment when Lee Trevino takes the stage.

It was Tuesday at Pleasant Valley Country Club, in Little Rock, Ark., that the 85-year-old legend answered questions from the media before the Simmons Bank Tournament.

In true Trevino fashion, his answers were free-flowing and wide-ranging, touching on everything from memories of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer to why he doesn’t watch many NFL games. (“Not many Mexicans play soccer,” he said.)

Among other topics he covered: golf course construction.

Unlike Nicklaus, Palmer and other players of his generation, Trevino did not engage in the golf-architecture business. And as he readily admits, he didn’t see as many lessons as most of his peers.

“I started late in life, as you well know,” Trevino said. “I was 28 years old when I started playing professional golf. The only golf course I knew before was Tennison Park, which was a public course in Dallas.”

Bottom line: He didn’t take many trips with friends.

“I missed a lot,” Trevino said. “I missed a lot of good courses that I haven’t played yet.”

But what kind of subjects does he consider good?

Asked to name the best US Open venues, Trevino gave high praise to the usual suspects, including Oakmont, Pebble Beach and Merion, the site of Trevino’s two US Open wins.

It’s hard to argue with any of those.

A more puzzling comment comes when Trevino turns to modern academic design. Here, Trevino began to talk about blind shots and hidden dangers. He is not a fan, and thinks they were created for the wrong reason: to protect the best players in the world.

“One of the reasons why architects, in my opinion, hide things is because they’re trying to – we’ve fallen into the trap of trying to make the golf course challenging for the professional,” Trevino said. “There is no core of this game. The backbone of this game is the disabled players, the disabled, the lady, the young player.”

You are right about the core of the game. But as for modern course design? Maybe he was thinking of the 1990s. In recent decades, the modern-minimalist movement has created the exact opposite of what Trevino describes. Under the influence of designers such as Bill Coore, Tom Doak, Gil Hanse and David McLay Kidd, to name just a few, the emphasis shifted to accessibility and fun.

Now, more than ever, courses are designed with the average recreational golfer in mind. Among the current trends is a move away from golf like a high-flying air raid. In many modern designs, from Bandon Dunes to Gamble Sands and Streamsong and beyond, designers encourage the ground game, giving players a variety of options beyond the typical Tour pro power play.

Trevino seems to see things through a different lens.

“What they are doing is starting to build golf courses where everything is moved,” said Trevino. “You can no longer roll the ball on the green. There’s no such thing as a green open front you know. They’re going to put that green where it’s kind of boomerang and they’re going to lie all over the front and sides.”

Actually, they don’t. Not these days. But let’s not hold Trevino. By his own account, he doesn’t attend many lectures, and even if he doesn’t follow the latest design trends, he understands the truth about telling good stories: You don’t always have to accept the truth. get in the way.

Josh Sens

Golf.com Editor

Golf, food and travel writer, Josh Sens has been a contributor to GOLF Magazine since 2004 and now contributes to all aspects of GOLF. His work has been honored in The Best American Sportswriting. He is also the author, with Sammy Hagar, of Are We Having Any Fun Yet: The Cooking and Partying Handbook.