Lee Trevino saw the lightning: ‘Your whole life flashes before you’

Golfer Lee Buck Trevino, 82, was inducted to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981. He won six major championships and 29 PGA Tour events during his career and is considered one of golf’s greatest competitors. Trevino came to El Paso in 1966 after a four-year stint as a U.S. Marine. He left El Paso for Dallas in 1977.

El Paso Times’ Mark Leibson wrote about a near-death experience Trevino faced at the 1975 Western Open golf tournament in this Sept. 4, 1983 column:

Sun Carnival Parade grand marshal Lee Trevino and his wife join the festivities Jan. 1, 1970.

Your whole life flashes before you

Lee Trevino learned the true meaning of the phrase: “Your whole life flashes before you.”

Every episode passed in vivid review eight years ago at the Western Open golf tournament in Chicago. Trevino was struck by lightning.

He was standing near the 13th hole with Jerry Heard and Bobby Nichols when a bolt from the clouds bounced off a nearby lake and struck all three as they waited for play to resume.

“When people say that everything flashes in front of you … your whole life … it really does,” Trevino says of the crisis. “I started thinking about my wife and family before I blacked out.”

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‘I couldn’t hear a thing’

Trevino had just marked his golf ball about three feet from the pin and was walking toward a lake. He thought the skies were about to clear and decided not to seek shelter.

Of actually being hit by lightning, Trevino recalls: “It was comfortable. It was a very, very quiet sensation. I couldn’t hear a thing. There was a whining noise in my ears. I know it (lightning) had me when I started shaking.

“Then it started stretching out and picked me up off the ground. I couldn’t breathe and I remember gasping for air. Everything looked orange to me.”

The cause is much easier to understand than the effects: two back operations to repair a ruptured disk damaged by the electrical shock. Heard’s operation to correct the same problem was not as successful. Hi golf career, for all practical purposes, ended on that 13th hole.

Story continues

Nichols also survived the attack and continues his career.

More: Lee Trevino talks about being struck by lightning

‘I don’t know what to do for you’

“The doctor told me, ‘I don’t know what to do for you. I’ve never had anybody struck by lightning. They’ve always gone right by this place and straight to the morgue.’ He said one of the reasons I survived is because my heart is so strong,” Trevino says.

Since the lightning attack in 1975, the Professional Golfers’ Association has improved its methods to  monitor nearby storms, including a machine that detects lightning up to 100 miles away.

Trevino, at the time one of the premier players on the tour, had to alter his swing because of the two back operations.

“I now stand more upright and I don’t cut the ball like I use to,” he says. “I had to learn to play completely over. I couldn’t make the same movement into the ball and now, I’m coming out of my swing quicker. It makes me draw the ball more.”

Golf great Lee Trevino, center, flips a coin to decide which team will do what in the Sun Bowl in December 1971 between Louisiana State University and Iowa State University. He played a round of golf earlier that week at the El Paso Country Club with, from left, Frank Redman, ISU coach Johnny Majors, LSU coach Charlie McClendon and country club golf pro Bill Eschenbrenner.

Lightning almost strikes twice

Lightning almost struck twice in Trevino’s case.

Last summer at the U.S. Open, Trevino withdrew from the tournament because of back pains and was replaced by Bobby Wadkins. A member of Wadkins’ threesome was struck by lightning, as were several fans in the gallery.

Does the sight of lightning now scare Trevino? “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.”

Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com or 915-546-6179.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Lee Trevino saw lightning before strike during 1975 golf tournament