The World Golf Hall of Fame is filled with men and women who positively impacted the game with their skill, their presence, their innovative spirit and their accomplishments. Like other HOFs, there are a handful of criteria that guarantee one a place among the game”s elite.
If you”re considering the accumulation of major championships, then it makes sense that Hall members include Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo. Get five or more majors and you”re a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame.
A number of Hall of Fame members are considered contributors to the game. Innovative golf course architects such as Allister Mackenzie, C.B. Macdonald and Robert Trent Jones Sr. are in the HOF as are entertainers/golf ambassadors Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Karsten Solheim, the founder of Ping golf and the man behind the Solheim Cup Matches, is in the Hall as is longtime PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beaman.
Some golfers in the Hall have only one or two major titles. They include well-known linksters Roberto De Vicenzo, Gene Littler, Tom Kite, Johnny Miller, Ben Crenshaw, Tony Jacklin, Greg Norman and Bernhard Langer. Chi Chi Rodriguez has never won a major nor has Charlie Sifford, Isao Aoki and Christy O”Connor, and yet their presence in the HOF is based upon intangibles. Sifford was a gifted pioneering black golfer who was the Jackie Robinson of his sport. Robert de Vicenzo is in the Hall because of his enormous number of worldwide wins, 213 in total, his impact upon South American golf, and his British Open triumph, not because of his Masters scorecard debacle. The same can be said of the colorful Chi Chi Rodriguez who brought great joy to the game every time he teed it up.
This past November, Lanny Wadkins and Jose Maria Olazabl, Irishman Christy O”Connor and former president Dwight D. Eisenhower were the newest foursome to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. O”Connor, who was featured in an earlier column, was the godfather of Irish golf and the standard bearer during the earliest days of the European Tour. Eisenhower, our 34th president, was an avid golfer who helped popularize the game.
Olazabal and Wadkins are golfers of note who won two and one major titles, respectively, and yet were not the best golfers of their era. Yet another consideration is vitally apparent when one looks for that extra something that makes their careers more impressive than the careers of non-HOF members Andy North and John Daly, both of whom have won two majors. Wadkins and Olazabal had outstanding Ryder Cup records and had a major impact upon their victorious Ryder Cup teams.
Lanny Wadkins turned 60 years of age on Dec. 5. He was on the PGA Tour for close to three decades, starting out in 1971 during the heyday of Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino, and he finished his career at the start of the Tiger Woods era in the late 1990s. The PGA player of the year in 1985, the rookie of the year in 1972, and the 1977 PGA champion at Pebble Beach, Wadkins had a complete career and was highly regarded as a tenacious competitor. A collegiate golfer at Wake Forest, he won the 1970 United States Amateur and played on the victorious 1969 Walker Cup team.
Yet the real feather in Lanny Wadkins” career cap was his Ryder Cup record. He was on the American team eight out of nine times between 1977 and his final appearance in 1993. He was also the captain of the American team in 1995 at Oak Hill in Rochester. An extremely aggressive player who constantly took dead aim at every flagstick, Wadkins closed out the closely contested ”83 cup matches at PGA National with a kick-in birdie on the final hole of the final match. His style of play perfectly suited the magic of match play, making tap-in birdies, and if he made a mistake, it merely meant losing one hole. The uniqueness of the format was perfectly suited to his swashbuckling style.
Wadkins earned 21? points for the American Ryder Cup team, posted a 20-11-3 record. His 20 match wins are second only to Arnold Palmer. He has nine wins in alternate shot (foursomes), the most ever, and his eight appearances in Ryder Cup play are the most by an American. Wadkins is in the HOF because of his team exploits.
Jose Maria Olazabal was much more of a tactician on the golf course than Wadkins. He grew up in the Basque region of northern Spain. Like Wadkins, he was an impact player at a young age, capturing the British Amateur in 1984 as an 18-year-old. He also won the Italian Amateur, the Spanish Amateur and the British Boys as a teenager.
Olazabal turned pro in 1986 as a 20-year-old and made an immediate splash on the European Tour, winning twice and finishing second on the money list. He would remain a top player on that circuit, winning a total of 23 times from 1986 through 2005. Olazabal also competed part-time on the American PGA Tour. He won the World Series of Golf in 1990, beginning a run of six wins on tour. He won twice in Japan and truly made his mark upon the world golf scene with wins in the 1994 and 1999 Masters.
Like Wadkins, Olazabal was a demon when it came to Ryder Cup success. He played on seven European teams between 1987 and 2006. He was especially heroic when he was paired with fellow countryman Seve Ballesteros. He earned 20? points and accumulated an 18-3-3 overall record. His 10? points in best ball matches (fourball) is the most ever by a European team member.
Lanny Wadkins and Jose Maria Olazabal are the newest members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. They were solid players with long and successful careers. They were arguably two of the best linksters of all-time to lead their respective teams to Ryder Cup successes. And that”s why they now have that space in the HOF.
