The hardest shot in golf? Lee Trevino’s nomination will surprise you

Lee Trevino’s thought process on the range is pretty simple: “Every shot that you hit has to have a purpose.” That’s what he told our Dylan Dethier on the latest episode of Warming Up, in which the golf legend talked — and talked a lot — through nearly a dozen lessons in just a half hour.

Early in the video, while hitting little punch shots to a nearby green, he broke down what he believes is the most difficult shot in golf.

We’ll let him take it from here.

“The hardest shot in golf is when you get in the trees on the right and you can’t go down toward the flag and you gotta go across the fairway to lay up,” he said. “The hardest shot in golf is to take a wedge or whatever club you are going to get out from under the trees to get to the fairway — and nobody would even think of this — and the hardest shot in golf is how hard do you hit that ball to clear the rough here, but then stop it before it gets into that rough [on the other side]?”

Dethier, our host, clarified Trevino’s claim. “The hardest shot in golf?” he asked.

“That’s the hardest shot in golf, besides a 60-yard bunker shot,” Trevino said. “And you got to get out of the trouble, and you are laying up, so you need the ball in the fairway, and people will hit it too low, never make it out of the rough. Or they hit it too hard and go on the rough on the other side. So this is something you have to practice. You can’t just go out on the driving range and hit golf balls. You have to have a purpose.”

There’s that practice with a purpose line again.

The can watch the complete video with Trevino below. The aforementioned clip starts around the 10-minute mark.