TITANTIC THOMPSON: KING OF THE GOLF HUSTLERS, PART 2

FROM THE GOLF.COM WEBSITE
Last night's publication of the first of two excerpts from a very readable golf history book -
"Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything" by Kevin Cook, proved very popular with Scottishgolfview.com readers. Now for Part 2:

The story so far: Titantic Thompson, pictured, was possibly a better golfer, under pressure, than Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson. Although Titanic never played on the US Tour - he could make more money for less effort in big gambling golf matches.He was a notorious con man, card shark and he had killed more than one man - who tried to rob him. Thompson was one hell of a golfer - "the best shot-maker I ever saw," said Hogan.

You need to remember the life and hard times in which Thompson's style prevailed:

PART TWO
The most alluring golf hustler was a Las Vegas mob moll who belted drives while wearing high heels and a bikini. Gamblers distracted by Jeanne Carmen's 36-25-36 figure missed the pure thwack she put on the ball. A generation later she might have been an LPGA star; instead she tucked hundred-dollar bills into her bikini top after stacking three balls on a tee (a tricky task in itself) and lacing the middle ball 220 yards while the top ball popped up into her hand and the bottom ball sat untouched on the tee.
Titanic might admire Carmen's three-ball stunt as well as her figure, but he dismissed her and the rest as his imitators. "Bush-leaguers," he said.
In the mid-1960s Titanic arranged a high-stakes clash between two up-and-coming pros named Raymond Floyd and Lee Trevino — "the last of the great money matches," veteran pro Gary McCord later said.
Over two days at Horizon Hills Country Club, a dusty track in El Paso, Texas, Titanic and his gambling buddy, Ace Darnell, bankrolled Floyd, and gnashed their teeth as they watched him lose not one but two tightly-contested matches to the gritty Trevino who had been brought up in a hard school. The cost to Titanic and Darnell: 18 grand a piece.
Titanic was livid. "We bring a sports car to race a Model T and get run over!" he told Darnell. Their one hope was to talk Trevino's backers into a third round for still-higher stakes, a real showdown. But first Ti had to take his man's measure.
He sat Floyd down in a corner of the clubhouse. Floyd hung his head, griping about the cement fairways, the unreadable greens, and the wind.
"Listen here," Ti said. "You forget all that. There's times you get yourself down to two choices. You can lose. Or put your head down and play."
"I can beat him," Floyd said.
Trevino's camp agreed to one more round. Titanic wanted to play for $50,000. Trevino's backers agreed to $20,000, not knowing that Thompson couldn't cover even that. Down $18,000 already, Ti would be in a fix if Floyd lost. Losers who were slow to make their markers - settle their debts - could sometimes "woke up dead," as he put it.
The final day was a golf fiesta. "There were pick-up trucks bouncing down the fairway full of guys drinking beer and watching our match," Trevino recalled. Truck radios provided a Spanish-music soundtrack as Floyd fired a 31 on the front nine that had Darnell thumping the steering wheel of Ti's golf cart. Titanic, riding shotgun, had yet to crack a smile. "Got a ways to go," he said.
Sure enough, Trevino made a late birdie to cut Floyd's lead to one shot. He birdied again to pull even.
They were deadlocked as they stepped to the tee box at the 18th hole, a 556yd par-5 that was reachable in two shots, thanks to a hard-baked fairway that sent Floyd's drive bounding and rolling to a stop in a patch of brown grass within 250 yards of the green.
Trevino's shorter drive left him farther back. That meant he would hit next. He lashed a fairway wood shot that zipped past at head height, curled from right to left - his natural shape of shot - and bounced to a stop 15 feet from the hole.
The muchachos in their pickup trucks pumped their fists and honked their horns. Floyd was surely snakebit; if Trevino made that eagle putt, Floyd stood to lose even if he birdied the last hole. He reached for his one-iron.
Head down, Floyd pictured the target, a flagstick with another ball too damn close to it. He swung and struck a low, near-perfect approach that bit the green, skidded, and stopped — a Tour-level shot, almost as good as Trevino's.
Moments later the 18th green was ringed with golf carts, pick-up trucks, Horizon Hills golfers, course workers, and other locals who had heard about the match, a rowdy gallery of perhaps a hundred spectators. Some were drunk, others just festive, but everyone and everything — every gambler, dog, crow, and cowboy-hatted truck driver — went quiet as Floyd studied the green between his ball and the cup.
After three days at Horizon Hills he knew which way his 20ft putt would break. He started his ball toward the hole. It rolled for four long seconds and curled into the cup. An eagle!

Those four seconds turned the match upside down. Trevino, pictured in later life, would have to sink his own 15ft eagle putt to match Floyd's 63. If he missed, he would have outplayed the Tour's golden boy for 53 holes only to lose on the 54th. Trevino eyed his putt from every angle. When he chose his line, he didn't hesitate; he took his stance, rapped the putt.
The ball horseshoed around the hole. Floyd blinked. "I can still see that putt in my sleep," he said later. "It went down in the cup, went around, came back out and stuck on the lip."
Trevino looked at his ball in disbelief. Titanic sat up straight in his golf cart. After more than a minute of waiting, with Trevino walking around the hole, peering down from every angle, the ball still refused to drop in. Ti and Darnell clambered from their cart and hugged Floyd. Trevino's supporters surrounded him, commiserating in Spanish.
Their assistant pro had fought Floyd to a three-day stand-off. They loved him more than ever. Floyd worked his way through the crowd to Trevino. The players shook hands as Floyd deployed the only Spanish he knew.
"Adios, amigo," he said. "I can make easier money on the Tour."

An excerpt from "Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything," by Kevin Cook



+If you want to read more about Lee Trevino's golf exploits on the way to the top,

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