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FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP


July 9, 2004


Lee Trevino


DEARBORN, MICHIGAN

LEE TREVINO: I have good days and bad days and I got invited to play here and I thought I could do it. It was horrible. I didn't play very well. I know what the problem is, the 4 5 have gone together, cracked the nerves in the right leg. And we did MRIs and we know what the solution is, but I'm just going to have to wait till after the summer, take mama to New York, have some fun. The kids are in camp, we're together by ourselves for the first summer and I didn't want to have this thing done now and ruin our summer.

So the point right now is probably that's it for me until I have this thing done. So it looks like it won't be till about October that I come back.

Q. If you would, could you just talk about David Graham.

LEE TREVINO: I said to David Graham, I talked to him about four days ago: David, I know you're feeling a bit DOWN and everything, but I tell you something, partner. Congestive heart fail doesn't mean the end. They will put a pacemaker in. You'll be as good as new and you'll be back out here playing and everybody is asking about you. Turn on your cell phone; they all want to say hi to you.

28 years ago, I had a disk removed. I got hit by lightning in 75 and '76, I had a disk removed in 4 5. And the last couple of years, I have really been having a lot of problems with my lower back on the right hand side here. And what's happened, after the MRI two weeks ago, we found out that what has happened is the 5, the fifth vertebrae, last one before your tailbone, and 4 is up above it and it has gone completely together.

I went in for an epidural and they couldn't get the needle in. The doctor told me, Dr. Rachbaum (ph) in Dallas which has been taking care of me for 20 some years, he said they have some great new operations now. They will go in with a small incision and put a balloon in, separate it to where it will take the disks of these nerves on the right hand side. As long as atrophy don't set in on the right leg where I don't lose power I've already lost all the power. I'm hitting with my arms and I can't push off with the right side and I'm a right sided player.

You know, we know what the problem is and we know what the solution is. We don't know when we're going to do it. I can't play like this. I mean, I was hitting my driver today, maybe 150, 180 off the tee, maybe. I was hitting woods to all of the par 3s and par 4s. So the reason I stayed out there is because the Quigley men were playing in a twosome and I did not want to leave him by himself.

I knew when I was on when I got on the first hole that I couldn't play. I knew on the driving range that I was dead. But, I wasn't just going to go to the tee and say, man, I can't play and he's got to go in a one some. I couldn't do that to him. I just gutted it for 18 holes and that's it.

I won't play again till I get this back operated on and I'm healthy again which will probably be October.

Q. You look like you were having some fun.

LEE TREVINO: That's why you do it. They don't know you feel bad and that you're hurt. I tell you what, I did throw some curves into him out there because I hit a ball I hit a ball in the water on 14. I did not clear the barranca, I could not hit my driver over it. So the ball went out in the middle that thing. You're supposed to drop way back and I went over in the fairway and dropped the ball in the fairway and they are all looking at me.

So now I go up to 15, the par 3, and I putted the ball. I hit the ball over to the right of the green and I putted up about four feet. And then while the flag was in, I putted the ball in the hole while the flag was in, see, and everybody , it's very quiet, everybody is very quiet around the green. And I looked up at him and I said, "Listen, they old me when Mexicans come to Detroit they are allowed to use the flag." (Laughing). I was having a ball.

Then on the next hole, where was it, on 16, I hit it over the green with a 7 wood. I chipped it in the bunker below, and all of the people around there, I says, I'll take a 4, pick my ball up, my caddie went over and got the ball out of the bunker, so there's a lot we get a lot of letters. You know, it's going to be letter writing people, Trevino can get away of this. The reason I can do that is because I won six majors and I've been out here for 40 years.

Q. Quick word about Dana's round.

LEE TREVINO: Oh, let me tell you. I told him when we finished one of the wedges he has is a bit sharp. He hit a couple of fat shots that were potentially birdie holes. But Dana is always dangerous, he plays every day, and he hits the ball. Low, he has full control of the ball all the time. And when you have that, you're going to play well and he's a good putter. So he's going to they are going to have to contend with him before it's over here.

End of FastScripts.

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