I have a vivid memory of a man holing putt after putt after putt on daytime television in the early 1980s. His patter was as good as his putter and, as a golf-obsessed 12-year-old, I sat there glued to this exhibition.
For the past 30-plus years I have wondered if this actually took place or whether it was a figment of my young imagination. Whoever this man was he was continually knocking in a succession of short putts and, over the course of the programme, he didn’t miss once.
That man was Paul Trevillion, a name you should certainly recognise given his drawing exploits. He illustrated the cartoon feature ‘You Are The Ref’ which began in the Sunday People in 1957 before moving to the Observer and Guardian.
Otherwise he has drawn Roy of the Rovers, featured in almost every national newspaper, and has led the most incredible life. In the course of our 90-minute conversation he drops in, not at all in a boastful way, his dealings with Winston Churchill, the Duke of Edinburgh, Pele, George Best, Bobby Moore, Michael Jordan and Sugar Ray Robinson.
He did a summer season with Norman Wisdon – “He was a Brighton fan, he wanted to be a goalkeeper” – and he was the brains behind the sock tags, names on tracksuits, and warming up early for Don Revie’s great Leeds United side of the 1970s.
He is possibly the most amazing character I’ve ever spoken to. Now 84, he still speaks at a rate of knots. The stories of the past 70-plus years come flying out from all angles and he, or maybe his wife Lorraine, can lay hands on the most astonishing press cuttings and documents. His house must be a treasure chest.
But among all the stories of Churchill – “Mine was the first portrait he ever liked, I got him smiling, he was my big hero” – it was golf that we were here to talk about and, again, Trevillion has the most fascinating back story: The Tottenham Hotspur fanatic who was born a short distance from his heroes at White Hart Lane and who can’t read or write is the brains behind the pencil putting grip.
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The grip that you have seen Sergio Garcia, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Branden Grace, Michelle Wie and all the others win around the world with was first created by Trevillion.
And within time he would proclaim himself the greatest putter in the world, backed up by world tours where Trevillion would take on all comers from four feet. One wide-eyed punter put up his car in a head-to-head, shortly after Trevillion was running a Rover 2000.
It’s an incredible story and is best told in Trevillion’s words…
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“I always wanted to sit in the crowd, I wanted to see the players’ faces, I wanted some of the mud kicked over me and I would always draw on the back of the programme. I would practise my drawing in the air-raid shelters.
The Leeds sock tags came about by getting the players to give them to the kids in the crowd after. That way they will all be talking about it at school and that will bring in more fans. I mentioned the idea and the names on the back of the tracksuits to Bill Nicholson at Tottenham but he said it’s not for us.
I was born two minutes from White Hart Lane. As an early birthday present I went to see Spurs vs. Everton. My dad was a bus conductor and he worked his shifts around this. I couldn’t take my eyes off Dixie Dean. From that moment I became a sports artist. I didn’t want to draw animals or birds, I wanted to draw footballers.
Twenty years on I did Dixie’s life story for the Liverpool Echo. I support Spurs but I follow other teams. I worked with George Best, and I did the Paul Gascoigne and Gary Lineker books, but the best footballer I’ve ever seen is John Charles. He was unbelievable.
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I always carry a pencil around with me. I once met the Duke of Edinburgh at a cricket function and I couldn’t take my eyes off him, so I did a drawing of him inside the programme. I just sketched away, and at the end they asked for the programme as you weren’t allowed to take any notes.
We got talking and I told him I was a sports artist.
Then I met Len Hutton and that was the first time that I started thinking about the straight line on the ground that brought about the pencil grip.
He told me to imagine a straight line on the ground and to go straight back and straight through. I became an expert on playing the straight drive, I was taught by the best.
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I went to see Peter Alliss to do a golf strip with the Express. I didn’t know much about golf so they sent me to see Dai Rees.
I held the club like a cricket bat and he said you don’t hold the club like that. He said you had to hold it in the Vardon grip and, if it was good enough for Bobby Jones or Jack Nicklaus, then it was good enough for me.
I wanted to hold it like a cricket bat but he told me I had no clubhead speed. I told him I’m an artist, I don’t want clubhead speed.
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I saw Peter and told him I wasn’t into golf and that I couldn’t do the strip – I just wanted to hit the ball with a split-handed grip.
I asked him about putting and he said there were all sorts of different grips for putting.
I showed him my split grip and I holed the putt. He said that’s not bad but you must grip the club like this. He taught me the Vardon grip but I wanted to have my hands apart like the snooker players and Hutton. Anyway, we did the strip and I was pleased with it.
I did Pebble Mill in the ’80s and Alan Ball and Adam Faith were watching. They rang me up afterwards and asked if I would give them a putting lesson.
I can’t read or write, I never went to school. The Spurs training ground was just across the road so that was my school and Sir Alf Ramsey and Bill Nicholson were my teachers. I would draw them all.
At my 11-plus for a technical college I couldn’t read the question exam so I did a drawing on the back and they rang me up and offered me a place.
I don’t know what joined up writing is, my wife sends my emails. I don’t know what these machines are in the house. If you open up my glasses case you will find my address and phone number in there – I don’t know my own address, I’ve got a selective mind.
Trevillion continues his fascinating tale on the next page…
They had a par 5 at my club and I couldn’t hit the ball over this river – I never could, I’m not a golfer. One sunny day, the balls were warm, I hit the green in two to four feet. It rolled a lot but, still, I had never done this before.
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I took the putt with the Vardon grip and missed the putt. And I have never played a full round of golf since.
Peter asked me how it went and I said I just wanted to putt, ever since Hutton had shown me how to hit a straight drive that’s all I wanted to do, so I practised and practised.
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Peter brought out a golf game with Dave Thomas and he rang me up and asked if I would come to an exhibition to promote the game and hit a few putts as, by his own admission, he and Dave weren’t the best putters.
I split my hands and bang, bang, bang, bang – I couldn’t miss. That’s how I draw, I can’t draw a straight line with my hands together. I have never used a ruler. I’m 84 now and I can still draw a perfect straight line.
I once showed Neil Coles the grip and he took it as straight back as I have ever done it. It frightened the life out of me. It was the best I had seen.
I practised against a chair leg and hit it every time. Peter had a go and he was brilliant at it. I saw him at a tournament at Stoke Poges a week later and asked if he was going to do it and he said he was a bad enough putter without having to explain this method.
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Peter and I did a book together, it wasn’t very traditional and 24 publishers all turned it down. Stanley Paul agreed to do it and gave us an advance.
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Peter took the advance and I said I would take the royalties. The publisher said I might be working for nothing but I knew I wouldn’t be.
I wanted to put a picture of Charlie Chaplin in there – Peter didn’t want it, but I got my way. They reprinted the book 10 times over 20 years. Peter asked me how I did with the royalties, I said you should see my villa in Spain.
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A four-foot putt was a six-foot putt for me, that’s how hard I hit it to take out the borrow. I never told anyone, that was my secret.
The night before the 1972 FA Cup final between Leeds and Arsenal, I had the Peter Alliss game. There were two holes almost the size of a golf hole and one hole in the middle about half the size, so we went for that.
It came down to me and Johnny Giles and he couldn’t miss. Neither of us missed from four feet. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang…
Revie said this was going on too long so he moved it back. Johnny almost got it in, it spun out.
This was now a six-foot putt so it was my distance but I didn’t want to beat Johnny, not before the final. I knocked the ball behind me.
Big Jack Charlton picked me up off my feet and said, ‘You’re going to hit the putt.’ He put me down and, bang, I knocked it in.
As I walked out the door Allan Clarke put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘I’ll score tomorrow – and if Arsenal score, I’ll score two.’
He scored the only goal of the game.
Ben Sayers contacted me and said they had seen me on the practice putting green at The Open and that I didn’t appear to miss any putts.
‘Not from four feet, no,’ I replied. ‘Every putt is straight. Outside four feet the borrow comes in.’
They asked if I would endorse a putter – the Pencil Putter – and I said I would have to engrave a pencil on the blade. They agreed.
At the Open, Doug Sanders and Ray Floyd had cardboard cut-outs so I asked where mine was and we had some heated words. Someone overheard this and asked if I wanted a coffee. It was Bernie Silver of Dynaflyte, the biggest mail-order company in America.
He asked how good a putter I was. I said, ‘Have you seen me?’ He said, ‘No, but I’ve heard you talk – and if you can talk you can sell.’
They put six balls around the hole all four feet away and I banged them all in. He said, ‘You’ve got a deal.’ I was under contract so I went back in and asked for the cut-out again which got my contract terminated.
Dynaflyte gave me some first-class tickets to the States and I was off there.
Find out how Trevillion’s American adventure panned out on the next page…
They gave me a driver and Bernie said I would speak to the papers, radio, and TV, then I would go to a store and then a club. He had a million putters to sell.
He took me to an aircraft hanger and there were a million shafts, no heads on them, and he said, ‘We’re going to sell the lot. But if you miss one putt they will be staying there.’
I said, ‘I’m not going to miss, I promise I won’t miss.’
I would be on TV programmes holing a thousand putts. In America they want to see you do it, over here they just want to see you miss.
I lost nearly a stone and a half. I just wanted to go home. He had everything there for me at the PGA Show but I just couldn’t do it again. I didn’t want another penny, I was a dollar millionaire and I was happy.
On my way back to the airport I didn’t have any cash so I got my pencil and paper out and I drew the taxi driver. I got a free ride for it. I went to an Italian restaurant and drew Frank Sinatra. They put it on the wall and I ate free.
I went to the Open and I saw Mark McCormack. Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus had their own instruction strips and I told Mark that I could do them better. I asked him if I could draw one of his players and he suggested Gary Player. It outsold Arnold and Jack.
I wanted to draw Lee Trevino. Mark said, ‘You are getting a third of Arnold, Jack and Gary, we don’t manage Lee. Be sensible.’
If I wanted Trevino then he would tear the contract up. But I wanted to draw Trevino.
I have got the shoes that Trevino was wearing when he chipped in against Tony Jacklin at the Open. He knew Tony was broken after what he did to him. All the time he was sitting there he was lining up that putt.
Years later I was working with Golf Illustrated and I still wanted to draw Arnold, Gary and Jack. Mark said he would take me to court if I did.
I did, so he took me to court and I beat him. He paid all the fees and we stayed friends forever.
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No artist has ever pushed a pencil. Tom Watson’s putt that would have won the Open in 2009 is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. The left hand blocks things.
Jordan Spieth from long range is great but he blocks it with his left from short range. The left stops the right hand working.”
The Art of Putting (Penguin) by Paul Trevillion is available now, priced £12.99.
Visualisation: Putting performance principles
Main image courtesy of Vanessa Champion. All other images courtesy of Paul Trevillion.
