Trevino’s 1995 Season has Been One Big Pain in the Neck

REST. It’s a four-letter word that Lee Trevino has no concept of. It belongs in the same class as those other four-letter vulgarities to him. But it is something that Trevino, the PGA Senior Tour’s premier player and defending champion of the Northville Long Island Classic, will need to embrace if he is to return to form.

After playing a round at Thursday’s pro-am, Trevino said that he will take at least three weeks off after Northville to complete the healing process from surgery he had to replace a ruptured disc in his back in late October, 1994.

“This is the last tournament I’m entered in,” Trevino said. “I haven’t entered anything else the rest of the year. I’m either going to take three weeks off, five weeks off or the rest of the year. I haven’t decided yet.”

The surgery required doctors to remove the disc through Trevino’s throat and replace it with someone else’s kneecap that was held in place by a titanium rod. But rather than waiting the originally prescribed three months to take his neck brace off, doctors, at Trevino’s request, removed it after seven weeks. It was too soon Trevino says in retrospect. The muscle in his neck had atrophied, and his neck has shrunk from 17 inches to the present 14. He does neck exercises twice a day.

“They took it off after seven weeks,” Trevino said of the brace. “If he would have kept it on there three months, I would have been OK. But he made the mistake of telling me that seven weeks is enough. I yanked it off and started hitting balls.”

He has played in 21 events this year, as many as anyone on the Tour. Add to the list his other engagements, and you can understand what a pain in the neck 1995 has been for Trevino.

“I’m not the kind of guy who can sit around and do nothing,” Trevino said. “But I’m afraid I’m going to have to if I’m going to keep playing.”

Trevino begins his defense of the Northville title Friday morning at the Meadow Brook Club in Jericho.

Last year, Trevino fired a tournament-record 200 to win his sixth event of 1994 en route to claiming the Senior Tour Player of the Year award for the third time.

“I’ve defended quite a few times this year, but I haven’t given it much thought. I’ve been hurt all year. I’m still in pain now,” said Trevino, while clasping the back of his right shoulder. “I’m having a lot of problems with this shoulder.

“I know I’m defending. I’m just not up to fighting like I usually do. I haven’t played well all year. I haven’t been able to put three rounds together all year. But the truth be known, I shouldn’t be playing. I should probably be getting some rest. I came back too early.”

One year later, the 45-inch driver that brought Trevino a title at Northville is buried somewhere in his closet. With his bum shoulder, he couldn’t even swing it if he wanted to.

When Trevino drives the ball, he endures constant pain at the base of his neck that also causes him to flinch. He thinks the pain originates from a severed nerve on the right side of his neck. The two ailments are not conducive to distance or accuracy. And the problem already has bred bad habits in his game.

“Let’s put it this way, if I was a baseball player or football player I wouldn’t have played all year,” Trevino said. “I would have sat out. But unfortunately, we don’t get paid to sit out. So we got to play. We either play or we starve to death.”

Sounding every bit like the guy in the poor house, Trevino, winless in ‘95, has earned $509,224 so far -- in an off year. His career Tour earnings are $9 million, not to mention endorsements and his engagements. After this weekend, however, he’ll just have to be satisfied with counting his money for a while.

The earliest one could expect a Trevino return would be Sept. 11 at the Brickyard Crossing Championship in Indianapolis. A deadpan Trevino told reporters he will spend the time off going out on the golf course to retrieve balls near his home in Jupiter Island, Fla.

“If I had a month off, I think this would get pretty well,” Trevino said.