There was a feeling of joy at the TPC at River Highlands on May 23, 2006!  It was Media Day and the future of the ICO/GHO/Buick/St. Paul Travelers Championship is secured at least for 4 more years.  There was a lot of doubt about the event continuing after this year and the new PGA Tour Fed Ex Cup schedule for 2007.  St. Paul Travelers, who has been partial sponsor since the ICO days, now secured the event through 2010.  This keeps Hartford on the big stage in professional golf and the only major sporting even in Connecticut.

The Media Day started with an interview by ESPN anchor “Chris Berman” and defending champ “Brad Faxon”.  There were many topics of discussion including Brad’s magical Sunday at the Buick where he shot 61 and won in a playoff.  Brad, being a New Englander, felt kind of at home here in Hartford and has always wanted to win here, but in his wildest dreams, never thought it would happen the way it did.  First, he almost missed the 36 hole cut, then on Sunday, shorting that 61 (nine under), and then waiting an hour and a half to get in a playoff.  Everyone, as well as Brad, remembers that last playoff hole where he hit that superb fairway bunker shot to 4 ½ feet, then making the putt to win.  As Brad said, “To win my 8^th event on tour in New England is a feeling I’ll always cherish.”  This year has been a struggle after getting over surgery on his knee, but recently he feels stronger, “I’m up to 90 percent and still feel with a couple high finishers or a win that I could earn a spot on the Ryder Cup Team.”

The interview was followed by a lunch and Brad did a short game clinic that captivated everyone’s attention.  Then a 1:00 p.m. shotgun on the course which is in great shape and with the extra rain, the rough should be tough.  It was a great day and as my old buddy, PGA Tour liaison Ted May said, “What a relief to know that we are secured for 4 more years.”The event is June 26 – July 2.  So don’t miss Connecticut’s only major sporting event “The Buick Championship”.  The next 5 issues we will be giving out Buick Championship tickets to the winner of our Trivia Quiz!

A Tour-Eye’s View

A Personal Memoir Wethersfield wondered:  Would there be Lee after Z?

     Although much of the membership at Wethersfield Country Club (CT) knew that there was a kind of secret weapon that would bring Lee Buck Trevino back more then several times a season  (“the greatest mother-in-law in the world” lived adjacent to the club’s 16^th tee), they understandably wondered how much they would see of him up in the clubhouse and on the practice tee and putting green after the death in 1992 of  his very close friend Peter J. Zaccagnino, Jr., the original “Z Man.”

     Well, not to have worried; Lee’s affection for Wethersfield, site for 32 years of the Greater Hartford Open, was much greater than one-deep.  Ray Scussel , once a pretty fair scatback  for Yale, and later a much better than fair one or two handicapper, replaced the virtually irreplaceable Pete as numero uno in the Mex’s coterie, but not even Scussel calls him “Mex,” a form of address exercised exclusively by Zaccagnino.

    To have been there at any of those visits was a rare theatric treat.  Although there may have been but one or two people on the putting green just before Lee arrived with his celebrity-status caddie Herman (who most tines was a crowd all by himself), there were quickly  a dozen and more, and he’s doing an animated vocal gymnastic one-on-everybody that would rank with Don Rickles at his best.

     Lee Trevino first came to Wethersfield in 1967 to tee it up in the GHO, some weeks after he had come out of nowhere to play so impressively and productively ($6000) in the U.S. Open at Baltusrol; and in the ensuing 26 years he made many friends among the Wethersfield membership, which made him an honorary member some years ago. And Wethersfield’s professional emeritus Bob Schappa and then-head professional Mike Bailey were two with whom Lee’s relations went well beyond the pro-to-pro kind of thing. Bailey, a strong player, was often in the money games that Zaccagnino regularly arranged when Lee was there, as the Lee-Zee twosome took on all comers, with the Z usually contributing more than just cheerleading.

     But with a “C’mon  Herman, let’s go to work,” the social hour was abruptly over and the two mounted up and rolled to the far end of the practice tee where the winner of six major championships might continue to suffer onlookers civilly, but where you  immediately sensed that this new context was different, and except when it was punctuated by the master’s own chatter, there was a silence that you knew enough to respect with your own as you watched true genius at work, a most remarkable fusion of art and science by the man that once-European Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher  called “the most commanding player with every club in the bag of the modern era.”

Tee at the top of Riverview Square

With Pete’s friendly persuasion and a check for $3500 (one-tenth of his usual fee for such appearances), and with then-governor Bill O’Neill in the gallery, Lee merrily hit some 27 balls (one for each of his regular PGA Tour victories) across the Connecticut River from atop the first building completed at Riverview Square, East Hartford, where he had broken ground a year before doing the same thing from a tee at river’s edge …-   Jack Burrill

Golf Tips

While at the Buick Championship Media Day at TPC, Brad Faxon was asked about his phenomenal putting skill.  Brad said “I was always a good putter, however, when I got on tour, he worked on it more and more and became on of the best.”  “You can get better by working at it and most importantly believing that you can improve.”  What he is saying is that you must convince your mind that you can be a better putter or you will fight it all the time.  Brad works with Bob Rotella, a sports psychologist who works with several pros.  Bob’s philosophy is simple in that you must come back to trusting your stroke.

Hard work is important but smart work can make the difference.  Use putting drills, play games such as draw back or 7 up, and most of all, be patient.  Do not be afraid to 3 putt, so that you can feel free to roll your putts aggressively at the hole.  Frequently, check your eyes to see if they are aligned to the ball.  Pick a stroke and stay with it and in time it will pay off.