Lanny Wadkins - "Celebrity Tournaments" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it's a big thing.

Mike Gonzalez 0:14

I'd like to get both of your reflections because you played in slightly different eras, but uh I I go back to some of the what I would call the the more fun events, if you will, at least for the the spectator, the Bob Hope tournaments, the Bing Crosby tournaments, the Jackie Gleason tournaments, Sammy Davis. There were a lot of great celebrities hosting tournaments. Some of those had to be a lot of fun.

Lanny Wadkins 0:35

Oh, they were. Bob Hope was always interesting. That that that tournament was really kind of neat. The the social aspect around it, going to dinner at Bob's house was was pretty cool and you know, things like that. So um and I played with um a lot of different people. The year I won, uh I was in the celebrity field. I think I played with Johnny Mathis, Telly Savalas, uh, you know, two of the guys I played with that year. I mean, Telly Savallis had one of the first mobile phones in his cart ringing about every five minutes the entire round. So I mean Kojak. Yeah, and every time he answered, yeah, who loves you, baby? You know, he had the lollipop going. It was he was in full character. But um it was all good. I and I got to play as defending champion with Hope and uh Tip O'Neill and Gerald Ford, so it was kind of cool. Yeah, that's not familiar, Bruce. Devil did that.

Bruce Devlin 1:25

So Yeah, it was uh it was always fun. Yeah, like Lanny said, you know, back back in those days were you know to think that somebody would invite you like Hope would invite you to his house. Uh yeah. It was very neat. You know, it's yeah, sort of neat. You know, he's probably from uh entertainment standpoint, he m and and his patriotism for this country. Uh I d uh you know, he's he's really an icon. Oh yeah.

Lanny Wadkins 1:52

No doubt about it. Probably one of the greatest uh Americans of all time, if not the greatest.

Mike Gonzalez 1:57

Yeah, you had some great partners uh at some of those events too, didn't you?

Bruce Devlin 2:00

I did. I I uh I had the Lenny, I'm sure Lenny knows, I had uh I had the uh the honor of having Dean Martin as my partner at the what is now called the ATT, used to be the Crosby Klamback. Well Dean was easy to play with.

Lanny Wadkins 2:15

I played with Dean and Caleb. He was easy to play with because he loved golf and he was a very good player. So it was he wasn't your typical celebrity to play with. He was fantastic. He was fun, yeah.

Bruce Devlin 2:26

Uh he was uh he was a great guy. Uh you're talking about the Bob Hope Classic. When I won the Bob Hope Classic, I got a phone call in the clubhouse after the tournament and was told that there's an airplane at the airport waiting with waiting to take me in Gloria to Vegas for his opening at the casino.

Lanny Wadkins 2:46

There you go.

Bruce Devlin 2:47

So, you know, that's sort of that's a bit heady, that sort of stuff, isn't it? To think that you'd have Dean Martin send a plane for you and then you sit right in front of him when he's doing opening his show. But uh yeah. You know, I think a lot of those guys really helped the game, you know. Um I mean, I always harp back to the fact that Arnold probably was the most significant from a player's standpoint of of lifting the game of golf to where it you know where it's ultimately become. But those those celebrities helped a lot too.

Lanny Wadkins 3:19

And especially Hope and Crosby. They're the ones that really went out and they love they loved the game of golf, and they went out and they they ran quality tournaments. I mean and they stayed involved, they were in for the long haul. They weren't just there. I you know, I was a big baseball fan, always have been, yeah, my days growing up. Uh and one one year at the Bob Hope, my opening day foresome was Glavin, Maddox, and Smoltz. How about that? I thought that was kind of cool. Yeah, yeah. And on the putting green, it was Roger Clemens and uh George Brett and all I mean. I play with a lot of those guys over the years, so that was that was a lot of fun.

Mike Gonzalez 3:54

We hope you've enjoyed this short track of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 4:17

It went smack down the fairway. Then it started to slice just smidge off line. It headed for two, but it bounced off nine. My caddy says long as you're still in the state, you're okay.