Lee Trevino won the title twice in career

Of all the golfers who have won the PGA Championship in the last 50 years, arguably none cherished the achievement more than Lee Trevino.

“The PGA of America gave me my life,” Trevino has said on numerous occasions. “That’s exactly what they did.”

Bill Eschenbrenner, the head professional at El Paso (Texas) Country Club for 35 years, helped Trevino when he moved there from Dallas in 1965 to obtain his PGA Class A card. When Trevino wasn’t busy winning money games, he was doing everything at nearby Horizon Hills Golf Club from opening the shop first thing in the morning to shining shoes to giving lessons. At the time, a pro was required to be a card-carrying member to play on the PGA Tour and Trevino’s previous boss in Dallas refused to endorse his work.

Eschenbrenner found another way through his local PGA chapter, and kept Trevino’s framed application from the Sun Country PGA Section – dated March 13, 1966 – on display in his pro shop until he retired in 1999 (and became pro emeritus).

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“I had faith in him,” said Eschenbrenner, who said Trevino’s PGA Class A card came through a week before the Merry Mex finished fifth at the 1967 U.S. Open at Baltusrol, after which his playing career was off and running. “I said, ‘If he doesn’t make a good PGA member, you can take my card.’ ”

As one of the last bridges to the days when touring pros started their careers behind the counter of a pro shop, Trevino always had an ulterior motive for winning the Wanamaker Trophy. The PGA Championship meant more to him than it did to his rivals. And he succeeded — twice. Trevino won the title for the first time 50 years ago, then won it again 10 years later for his sixth and final major as well as 29th and final PGA Tour title.

Lee Trevino during the 1973 PGA Tour season. (Photo: Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY)

Entering the 56th PGA Championship, held at Tanglewood Golf Club, a 36-hole public complex in Clemmons, North Carolina, Trevino had experienced little success in the championship. In six previous appearances, he had finished no better than 11th.

But he found the course – and the soggy conditions, which better enabled him to hold the course’s greens with his lower trajectory approaches – to his liking. More than seven inches of rain saturated Tanglewood in the days leading up to the championship and the thirsty turf sprang to life, resulting in unruly rough. “The grass was…