By Travis Puterbaugh, World Golf Hall of Fame Curator
THE PLAYERS Championship has been described by many as having the best field in golf. No amateurs, no club professionals, no sponsor exemptions and no Monday qualifiers.
“The field here is stronger than at the Masters or the U.S. Open, simply because you have the 144 best players playing,” said Hubert Green, Class of 2007 Inductee. “No other tournament can say this.”
In its 46-year history, THE PLAYERS – or Tournament Players Championship, as it was called from 1974-87 – has often lived up to the hype, but it may never have seen anything quite like the final round on Sunday in 1980. At the end of the third round at the Sawgrass Country Club, the leaderboard read as follows:
1 Lee Trevino
2 Hubert Green, one stroke back
T-3 Gary Player and Curtis Strange, two shots back
T-5 Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Don Pooley and Peter Jacobsen, three shots back
T-9 Tom Watson and Hale Irwin, four shots back
David Lamm of the Florida Times-Union wrote that “most golf tournaments would be willing to hang their chairman in the clubhouse dining room just to get those six IN their event,” remarking on the rarity of having Trevino, Green, Player, Nicklaus, Watson and Irwin all in contention on Sunday, adding that “TPC officials ought to double the price” of tickets for the final round.
Adding to the cache of the final round was the pairing of Trevino, Player and Nicklaus, who had never been paired together as a threesome at any tournament. At the time, the trio had a combined 28 Major Championships and sat at first, third and fifth on the leaderboard respectively.
Sometimes overshadowed by the “Big 3” of Nicklaus, Palmer and Player, this final round pairing offered Trevino a chance to remind the world that he, too, deserved his recognition atop the golf world. He trailed only Nicklaus in career earnings in PGA TOUR history and had won at least one tournament every year since 1968, the longest such streak at the time on the TOUR.
With 24 career victories and four Major Championships to his credit, why wouldn’t he say, “I’m one of the big boys, too,” when asked if he felt intimidated or extra pressure playing with Nicklaus and Player?
“He wants to beat Nicklaus and Player so bad,” Fuzzy Zoeller said. “Don’t think for a minute he didn’t want it badly.”
Nicklaus and Player both started their final rounds strong with birdies on the first hole, while Trevino bogeyed the second to give back a shot. It served as a wake-up call for him, however, and he put the pressure back on Nicklaus and Player for the remainder of the round.
It turned out the members of the “Big 3” would be the least of Trevino’s worries on Sunday, as Nicklaus couldn’t get his short putts to fall and a double-bogey on the 14th wrecked Player’s round as both finished with a final-round 73.
Instead, it was Ben Crenshaw who came charging out of the pack with a blistering bogey-free round of 66 to tie the course record. He missed only two greens in regulation all day and had a chance on the 18th hole to likely force a playoff with Trevino, but missed an 18-foot putt by mere inches.
Meanwhile, Trevino stumbled on the par-4 17th after he ran his 35-foot putt for par just three feet past the hole. His comebacker for bogey barely caught the right edge and dropped in, as he narrowly avoided a disastrous double.
Needing only to avoid a bogey on the par-5 18th, Trevino delivered a vintage performance to close out the tournament. With his third shot to play just 102 yards from the hole, Trevino hit a wedge shot that Florida Times-Union reporter Greg Larson described as a low-trajectory shot that “bores in on a green like a kamikaze bomber.” The “skip wedge,” as Trevino called it, was hit low and hard towards the green. The ball bounced twice before rolling past the hole, appearing to those near the green to be a disaster.
Trevino knew better and grinned as the ball did its thing, throwing itself into reverse and rolling back towards the cup, settling just 15 feet from the hole.
“I really pinched that sucker,” said Trevino, who grew up learning to hit low shots with plenty of spin in Texas. “That’s my shot.”
He carefully two-putted to assure a one-stroke victory over Crenshaw. Trevino posted a two-under mark on the day, and his winning total of 10-under 278 broke the Sawgrass Country Club record by five strokes. He earned $72,000 of the $440,000 purse as champion, the largest payday on the TOUR at the time.
“I beat the four guys [Watson, Irwin, Nicklaus and Player] you gave me, so give me my money,” Trevino joked during the presentation ceremony on the 18th hole, punctuating a satisfying, if not validating, victory at Sawgrass. “I have always liked pressure and I’m hard to beat when I get out in front.”
