Lanny Wadkins healthy, looking forward to Hickory

 By HOWARD WARD

 Look out, Champions Tour! Lanny Wadkins is healthy and back in the hunt.

Wadkins, a fiery competitor who won 21 tournaments, including the 1977 PGA Championship on the regular Tour, was expected to make a huge splash when he debuted on the Senior Tour in 2000. He made the splash, all right, winning the ACE Group Classic in his first appearance. But everything since then has been just one big belly flop.

It isn’t that Wadkins didn’t have the game, of course. He’s always had game. And it certainly wasn’t that the Wake Forest All-American lacked motivation. He’s always been ready to rumble. Mainly it was a series of frustrating injuries that simply wouldn’t allow him to make the swings that earned him more than $6 million on the PGA Tour.

But the Richmond, Va., native is healthy again now after spending the past year as golf analyst for CBS where he replaced the legendary Ken Venturi. He’s playing without pain for the first time in two years and that’s not only good news for him but great news for tournament officials of the Greater Hickory Classic, which is being held at Rock Barn Golf and Spa in Hickory Sept. 22-28.

Lanny’s entry provides the Rock Barn event with a rare brother act, as Bobby Wadkins is also playing.

“It was really disappointing,” Wadkins said of the elbow tendonitis that forced him to curtail play. “I’ve had my share of injuries over my career, but nothing more serious than the wrists.”

Wadkins injured a tendon in his left wrist during the 1998 Hawaiian Open, and a short time later began having problems in his right elbow. Then his left elbow became sore and he was unable to practice. Always a range rat, not being able to pound balls hurt his scoring ability and confidence.

“It was one elbow, then the other,” he said during a recent interview while working with CBS during the broadcast of the PGA Championship. “I didn’t know what to do, because I was already playing graphite shaft clubs. So I just kept doing exercises and staying in shape. My game was in pretty good shape.”

The game was always in pretty good shape. The 1970 U.S. Amateur championship, 21 PGA Tour wins and eight Ryder Cup appearances attest to that. Now he’s looking forward to getting back on the Tour and fulfilling the promise that was his.

“The elbow is well and I’m swinging better now,” he said. “When I get to Rock Barn, it will be my fourth tournament in five weeks.”

Wadkins hasn’t seen the new Rock Barn Course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., but he isn’t concerned about that.

“I’ll have Monday through Wednesday to get ready,” he said. “I’ll probably play it twice before the tournament. In fact, I’ll use the two-day pro-am as practice.

“I’m really looking forward to playing in Hickory. That’s a great place to be this time of year. I can’t think of a better place than the North Carolina mountains in the fall.

“I’m going to use the time to visit my family in Richmond on the way down and I’ll stop by Wake Forest and see some friends. We’ll be playing The Tradition, in Baltimore and in Raleigh. I’m really looking forward to that three-week stretch.

“Hopefully, by the time we play at Rock Barn, I’ll be back on track and having some fun.”

Wadkins is having plenty of fun with CBS, but it isn’t the same as playing competitive golf.

““When I was approached by CBS, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with the elbows,” he said, “and I thought if I took that job, at least I would still be involved with golf. I never really felt any pressure as far as replacing Ken (Venturi). The pressure was just in doing a good job myself. It was something I had to get confident with. Jim Nantz and the other guys were very supportive and were pulling for me so that made it easier. The CBS staff is a diverse group of personalities (Gary McCord, David Feherty, Peter Oosterhuis, etc.), but I think we’re more of a team than the other networks. With all the different personalities, there’s never a dull moment around here.”

Wadkins won’t be able to play a full Champions Tour schedule because of his commitment to CBS, but will still be able to play several events.

“I’m committed to 18 television events over the next three years,” he said. “But we’re doing only three more telecasts between now and the Masters next year so I’ll have time for several tournaments. I may not play as much during the summer as I normally would.”

Wadkins is looking forward to playing in the same events as brother Bobby.

“That will be nice,” he said. “It’s great seeing Bobby playing well. I think with his play on the Seniors Tour he’s getting some financial stability.”

Bobby, who never won during a lengthy career on the regular PGA Tour, became the youngest player in Champions Tour history to win, claiming the 2001 Lightpath Long Island Classic just 10 days after turning 50. That win made the Wadkins brothers only the second set of siblings to win on the Tour, joining Dave and Mike Hill.