Wadkins Wins Horse Race by a Nose
Lanny Wadkins fights his way through a crowd to capture the 1988 Colonial
All aboard the Tour Backspin journey through the past as we travel back to 1988 and the Colonial National Invitational horse race where Lanny Wadkins made it to the wire first, by a nose. Scroll down for the exciting finish.
Scottie Scheffler added another major championship to his resume in last week’s PGA Championship. The week was not without some drama. Scroll down for my take on the week in the PGA TOUR Wrap-Up, and check out the Clips I Loved.
PAST TOUR BACKSPIN ARTICLES AND PODCASTS ON THE COLONIAL NATIONAL INVITATIONAL
Lee Trevino gives a swing tip to Homero Blancas who goes on to win the 1970 Colonial NIT.
Gene Littler was not thinking about winning the 1971 Colonial NIT, until he did.
Doug Sanders stages the largest comeback in Colonial NIT history in 1961.
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Enjoy the golf from Colonial this week, a tournament that dates back to 1946 won that year by Ben Hogan, one of his five wins at the Colonial.
What did you think about the conforming driver issue at the PGA Championship? Let us know in this week’s The Tour Backspin Poll. This week’s Vintage Ad from 1988 (below the paywall) stars Lanny Wadkins and one of the best golf course/resort tie-ins, ever.
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The Tour Backspin Poll
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll we asked whether you thought the final score would be over 270.5, or under, in the PGA Championship. There were 71% of respondents who thought that it would be under as wet conditions would make scoring easier, while 29% took the over. Scottie Scheffler won with a score of 273.
Both Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy had drivers that failed testing and had to be taken out of play as non-conforming. Fans, and media, found out about Scheffler’s when he disclosed the information himself, while McIlroy’s was discovered by the media. McIlroy did not talk with the press all week, and the PGA of America, as well as the PGA TOUR has a policy of not revealing players who fail the confirmation test. The test was only applied to approximately 1/3, or about 50 players, at the PGA Championship, which coincides with the testing at a regular tour event. What do you think about the testing process? Let us know in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
We’re playing Colonial National Invitational trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to take the challenge. Give us your best guess in this week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? and if you get it correct you may win prizes from the Tour Backspin Golf Shop.
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Okay, we're on the tee, let's get going.
Enjoy!
Larry Baush
It’s Wadkins at the Wire!
It is the third week of May in 1988, and horse racing fans are excited to see if Winning Colors, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, could become the first filly ever to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown at the Preakness on Saturday. Little did they know that the horse race in Fort Worth, TX, at the Colonial National Invitational would prove to be just as exciting as the big race at the Preakness.
Texas golf fans were rooting for a repeat of the week before where a Texan, Bruce Lietzke, won the GTE Byron Nelson Golf Classic in a playoff against Clarence Rose. In addition to Lietzke keeping his hot hand, other Texans who were given a good chance to win included Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, and Lanny Wadkins, who was a transplanted Virginian now living in Dallas.
The Texan players ranked winning a Colonial NIT title as a top prize, outranked only by the four majors and the TPC (now The Players).
“If I could choose a tournament to win other than the four majors or five, if you include the TPC, this would be it,” Tom Kite told Mark Rosner of the Austin American-Star. “We play a lot of good golf courses but not a lot of great ones like Colonial.”
Colonial Country Club, an extraordinarily long course for the era, measured 7,116 yards and played to a par of 70. The course features narrow tree-line fairways, difficult rough, and small greens. It’s a course that requires a player to be proficient with every club in the bag.
Still, players could go low on Colonial as the Wednesday pro-am made clear. Payne Stewart took low pro honors with a 64, while Mike Reid and Curt Byrum both came in with a 65.
It’s now Thursday morning and you can just imagine the bugler calling the thoroughbreds to the post and, after the crack of persimmon contacting a Titleist 384 Tour ball, the track announcer declaring “and they’re off!”
Bruce Lietzke looked to build on his win at the Nelson and scrapped his way to an opening round of 70.
“I had a 70 and it could have been a 72 or 73,” he admitted after his round. “I think winning last week might have given me a little more composure today.”
Lietzke’s 70 placed him three strokes behind the leaders, a group of five players including Lanny Wadkins, Jodie Mudd, Scott Hoch, John Inman, and Clarence Rose, who lost to Lietzke the week before in a playoff.
“I guess it’s like an old girlfriend. You see her two or three years later and she looks a lot better.”
Wadkins had never broken par in his previous 37 trips around Colonial and skipped the tournament in 1986 and 1987. What changed?
“I guess it’s like an old girlfriend,” he reasoned to Charles Clines of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “You see her two or three years later and she looks a lot better. I haven’t played here the last two years and because of it I’ve saved gas money.”
Mark Calcavecchia led a group at 68 that included Buddy Gardner and Ed Fiori while six players were another stroke back including Lee Trevino and Ben Crenshaw. Lietzke had a dozen players who were tied with him at 70.
Players headed around the first turn, down the backstretch, in the second round and the track had turned muddy. Rain blew in and dumped an inch of rain in less than two hours causing a delay that started at 2:35 in the afternoon and lasted until 4:30. The rain softened the greens making scoring easier and 36 players broke par compared to just 15 after Thursday’s first round.
Players jockeyed for position with two of the first-round leaders, Jodie Mudd and John Inman, who both had a 72 in the second round, watched as ten players raced past them. Lanny Wadkins, one of the co-leaders after the first round, finished his second round before the rain started, posted a 68. Clarence Rose and Scott Hoch, also co-leaders entering the second round, had to endure the rain delay, both shot a 68 and sat atop the leaderboard with Wadkins.
At one point, Rose led at 5-under-par after birdies at the 1st and 4th holes. A bogey by Wadkins at the 4th hole dropped him to 2-under. Wadkins fought back with birdies at the 6th and 7th holes.
Wadkins hit his stride with an eagle at the par-5 11th hole where he hit a 3-wood second shot to within eight feet of the hole. The eagle placed him in a tie with Rose for the lead. He followed that up with a birdie on the 13th hole that widened his lead to two shots over Rose who had made a bogey. He was now 7-under for the tournament but bogeyed two of the final four holes dropping him back into a tie for the lead and allowed 19 players to stay within four strokes of the lead.
“This could have been a really low round,” Wadkins told reporters including Charles Clines of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I felt like a 68 was as high as I should have shot. But I misplayed the wind a couple of times. But it’s still a good score, especially when you consider my track record here.”
Rose fought an inconsistent putter during his round but stayed in the hunt for his first PGA TOUR victory.
“My putter saved me two or three times today on 20-footers,” Rose said after the delayed finish to his round. He played his final two holes after the rain delay was lifted.
Hoch also had putting problems during his round. He missed a four-foot putt for par on the 9th hole when the siren announcing the rain delay blew. He shot a 37 on the front nine and was a bit miffed at the delay. However, the delay gave him an opportunity to regroup as he came out after the rain stopped to shoot a back nine 31 to place him at the top of the leaderboard with Wadkins and Rose.
Other players maneuvering for position included Ben Crenshaw who shot a 67 after a bogey at the final hole, and he sat at 136, one shot behind the leaders. He was tied with Joey Sindelar, one of three players to shoot a 65 in the second round, and Steve Pate who finished with a 67. Another five players were just another stroke off the pace including David Graham and Mark Calcavecchia.
The Preakness was run on a muddy track on Saturday and Risen Star dashed the Triple Crown dreams of the owners of Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors. Risen Star won by a 1¼ lengths. The bunched-up field in the horse race at the Colonial NIT after the second round saw a leader separate himself from the pack. Clarence Rose posted a 65 for a total of 200 and a three-shot lead over Sindelar.
“I don’t think Clarence has reached his potential yet. I think you’re going to see his name a lot. Nobody knows how good he can be.”
Rose burst into the lead with four birdies in a six-hole stretch. Before that, it was nip-and-tuck as first one player would move into the lead only to have another player pass him. Crenshaw, Wadkins, Sindelar, and Hoch all had a share of the lead at one point or another before Rose pulled away from them.
Rose began his birdie run at the 10th hole, then chipped to six-feet and made the putt on the 11th for birdie. He ran in a putt from long-range for another birdie at the 13th and made a 15-footer for birdie at the 14th.
After the round, Sindelar sang the praises of Rose saying, “I don’t think Clarence has reached his potential yet. I think you’re going to see his name a lot. Nobody knows how good he can be. After playing well last week, he’s in his comfort zone.”
Rose agreed saying, “Last week helps a lot going into tomorrow.”
Crenshaw finished with a 68 for a three-day total of 204 and sat alone in third place, four shots off the lead. Wadkins was alone in fourth after a round of 70 put him at 205. He was followed by Mark Lye who had the round of the day, a 63, that included nine threes and a two on his scorecard. He was tied at 206 with John Mahaffey (69-71-66), John Inman (67-72-67), Calcavecchia (68-69-68), John Huston (70-67-69) and Hoch (67-68-71).
Sunday morning you could imagine our horse race track announcer screaming “And here they come!” as the crowded field of golfers headed down the homestretch. It was windy for the final round with gusts of 20 to 30 miles per hour.
The first to mount a charge was Wadkins who birdied the 1st hole after hitting his approach to three feet, added another birdie at the 2nd hole sinking a 40-foot putt. His 2-iron at the par-3 4th hole left him with just an 18-inch putt for another birdie. He added another birdie at the 9th hole for a front round total of 31.
Rose started his round with a birdie to go to 11-under but then stumbled with three straight bogeys starting at the 3rd hole and began to fall back.
Wadkins, Rose, Calcavecchia, Sindelar, and Crenshaw pulled away from the pack and not one of them could shake the others. Sindelar failed to take advantage at the par-5 11th hole that was playing downwind. He failed to get up and down for birdie from the front of the green. He then hit his tee shot at the par-3 13th hole into the water resulting in a bogey.
“It wasn’t a pretty putt.”
Wadkins was the first of the pack of players to reach the final hole and he barely managed to sink his birdie putt to post a final round 68 for a four-day total of 270, 10-under-par.
“It was a good thing there was a lip on the hole,” he mused to reporters including Clines of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It wasn’t a pretty putt.”
Calcavecchia held the solo lead up to the par-3 16th hole, but a flared 4-iron shot that missed the green and he failed to get up and down for his par. He left his approach at the 18th 30 feet short of the hole and then ran his birdie attempt, to tie Wadkins, four feet past the hole and made the comebacker for par.
“I was just glad to make that putt coming back,” he said after his round.
Sindelar had one last chance at the 72nd hole where he faced a 30-foot putt to tie but he left the putt four feet short. He managed to make the par putt.
“It’s a good thing I made the par putt,” Sindelar told reporters. “My wife would have killed me if I had missed that after leaving the birdie putt short.”
The hot round that Wadkins had going was in danger of derailing when he bogeyed the par-5 11th hole after his second shot ended up in a sandy divot. He hit his third shot fat and it ended up 20-yards short of the green. He faced adversity at the very next hole when he hit his tee shot into a bunker that fronted the par-3 green. He managed to get up and down from the bunker saving par, and his round.
“It’s special to win here. I was delighted to do it in front of so many friends and supporters.”
He mentally went to the whip to get a charge going on the 14th hole making a 30-foot putt for birdie. He saved a par at the 17th hole and then blanketed the flag with an 8-iron to three feet for a birdie and a round of 65 for a four-day total of 270, 10-under-par. He watched from the scorer’s tent to see if Calcavecchia or Sindelar could match his birdie to tie him. When they didn’t, Wadkins was $135,000 richer and was the third player, along with Sandy Lyle and Chip Beck, as the only multiple winners, so far, on the tour for the year. Wadkins also won the Hawaiian Open back in February. The Colonial NIT was the 18th victory of his PGA TOUR career.
“It’s special to win here,” Wadkins said. “I was delighted to do it in front of so many friends and supporters.”
Crenshaw, Calcavecchia, and Sindelar each took home $56,000 for their T2 finish while Clarence Rose won $30,000 after his final round 74 placed him in solo fifth place.
Texan golf fans were rewarded with quite the horse race, one as exciting as the Preakness, and one that featured a slew of players from the state of Texas. But it was Lanny Wadkins, a resident of Dallas, who crossed the finish line first, winning the Colonial NIT by a nose.
Coming Next Week: Ray Floyd captures the Memorial Tournament title in 1982
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WHAT HOLE IS IT?
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I’ve just returned from another editing session on the Tony Lema documentary. We’re making a lot of progress, but it’s a slow process. Here’s some more of the film that we had cleaned up and digitized for the movie. Tony talks to Howard Cosell about the individual aspect of golf. (clicking on link will open this post on the web, scroll down to video player).
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Tour Backspin Quiz | Colonial NIT Trivia
What distinquished the 1975 Colonial NIT from all the others?
Scroll down for answer
Clips I Loved
JT being JT.
Yikes! Glad the guy was okay.
Look at those faces!
Johnson Wagner is a treasure.
A lot of anger going on in the PGA Championship.
More anger.
Even from Rory?
Not the first time this has happened.
Another Scheffler win on Sunday.
Who set this pin? It’s criminal.
PGA TOUR Wrap-Up | PGA Championship
Scottie Scheffler added another major title, his third, to his resume winning the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. Even though he did not have his A game, he was able to dominate due to his finish on Saturday when he went 5-under on the last five holes, a stretch that was beguiling to every other player in the field. According to Data Golf, he had just over 5.0 strokes gained over the last five holes. He won by five over Harris English who had the round of the day on Sunday, Bryson DeChambeau, and Davis Riley.
During Sunday’s round, it looked like it was going to be close as Jon Rahm caught Scheffler after Scheffler bogeyed the 9th hole for a 2-over 37 on the front nine. Rahm failed to birdie the drivable par-4 14th hole, and the 15th hole. He then went through the “Green Mile” with a bogey, double bogey, double bogey finish to fall to a T8 finish.
There was controversy! First, there were the numerious mud balls and complaints from the players about playing the ball down. The other controversy concerned drivers that were found to be non-comforming due to wear on the face making it too thin for the testing specifications. The PGA of America, and the PGA TOUR, do not announce testing results so it was up to reporters, in the case of Rory McIlroy, and Scottie Scheffler’s revelation, for fans to find out about their drivers failing the testing process.
There are only 1/3 of the field, or about 50 players, who are tested randomly each week on the tour. The tour doesn’t want to reveal testing results because of the negative impact that failing the test might mean to the player and manufacturer. This is the wrong approach. Test the entire field, announce the results, and educate the golf fan to the tight perimeters that manufacturers strive for and how continued use, over a long period of time, inevitably wear down to face to where they are no longer conforming.
Read more from the editors of Golf Magazine HERE.
Here are the final round highlights:
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Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Members of Colonial Country Club recognize the 1975 tournament as the 29th playing of the Colonial National Invitational, while the PGA TOUR recognized it as the Tournament Players Championship. Al Geiberger won the event.
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