OTL / ON YOUR GAME
Lanny Wadkins Telling it like it is STORY BY ART STRICKLIN
As the saying goes, Lanny Wadkins wasn’t born in Texas, but he got here as fast as he could. A junior golf legend growing up with his brother Bobby in Virginia, Wadkins first came to North Texas when he won the Byron Nelson tournament in 1973 at Preston Trail in Dallas and now is a long-time Preston Trail member. Quick with a quip, a killer look or clutch shot, the Richmond, Virginia native, turned North Texas resident for the last fourth decades, Wadkins became known as one of the fiercest competitors ever on the golf course. The eight-time U.S. Ryder Cup team member and 1995 Ryder Cup captain won 21 times on the PGA Tour, including the 1997 PGA Championship at Pebble Beach. Wadkins, a member at Dallas’ exclusive Preston Trail Golf Club, was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and now is a fulltime commentator for the Golf Channel on the Champions Tour before first working for CBS. He captured the 2000 Ace Group Classic in his first full senior season, then took time off for TV and to treat a variety of back ailments, and has worked with TV for more than a decade sharing the stories from years of golf in a different, less corporate era. He also still does some golf architecture work, having done the Lake Park course in Lewisville and Lajitas course in Big Bend Region, halfway between Austin and El Paso on the Texas-Mexico border. Wadkins was as unplugged and straight shooting as ever when he met up with OTL Senior writer Art Stricklin in the locker room lounge at Preston Trail. From, the legendary money games he played, the Ryder Cup matches and gamesmanship plus if John Daly could have fit into the previous Tour culture, his rounds with Mickey Mantle and Ben Hogan and if Wadkins would have feared Tiger Woods in a tournament.
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