Lanny Wadkins - "My Favorite Ryder Cup - 1983" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to push the water.

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

You probably have vivid memories of each of your each of your writer cups. What was your probably your most favorite?

Lanny Wadkins 0:23

I mean Kiawa stands out because of what it was. We hadn't won in a while to get back and win at Kiawa, but I think I still think the one that if I when I look back, the 83 match at Palm Beach Gardens uh with Jack Nicholas as captain was was very, very special. Uh and I think that was was that way because Jack was the captain. Had a team that pretty much got my peers, I mean Curtis Strange, Jay House, Fuzzy Zeller. Uh was Raymond on that team? Raymond was on that team. Calvin Pete was on that team. Uh we had a a really solid team of Gil Morgan was on that team. Gil and I won big one day alternate shot seven and five or something. And uh but it was you know a really good team, good bunch of guys. They all got along. It was uh but the cool thing was instead of having our team dinners at the hotel in a room, we went to Jack's house every night. It was ten minutes away. We'd go to Jack's house and have dinner at his house and Barbara and I mean the whole deal. And we're all walking around Jack's house, where are the trophies? You didn't have any trophy. We're like, come on, man. I want to see a master's trophy. Uh so but he got nothing out. So it was really kind of but it was really neat, you know, being close to Jack, and then for me uh I played with Craig Stadler two rounds, and I think I played with uh Gil Morgan another one, so it was it was all good stuff. I played the matches, and then I had my singles match came down to me playing Jose Maria Conazaris, and I needed to beat him for us to win 14 after, 13. Not beat him, but actually tie him. I had one of those matches I played really well, but he holed it from everywhere. I mean, first hole was a good start. I've got it about six feet for Bertie, he's forty feet for par and we tie the hole.

Intro Music 2:13

Oh my.

Lanny Wadkins 2:13

I mean, that that happened a lot that day. And uh I actually made a six footer at seventeen to stay alive. I get to eighteen. One down, and um the entire team's out there. The only group left on the course is Watson playing Bernard Gallagher, and Watson's two up and two to play. Watson didn't lose when he was two up and two to play, so they weren't concerned about him. But I had everybody, Curtis and Jay and everybody right next to me. Tom Kite was right there when I'm playing this hole because they know I've got to win this hole to tie my match for us to win four. Otherwise it's gonna be a tied rider cup. I had a good drive. I outdrove Canizaris. He took it across the corner of the lake with his second, which I thought he was gonna lay up, and I was like, damn, that means I gotta hit it over there too. And I hit a really good three with I hit this three wood, and Curtis Strange starts yelling at my ball in here, get up, go! I said, Don't worry, Curtis, I hit it solid. So it carried and got over there. I had 72 yards to the hole. Kind of Zarus was away. He kind of fatted it to the front edge of the green, and I hit the 72 yard shot about a foot from the hole.

Mike Gonzalez 3:22

I remember that.

Lanny Wadkins 3:23

Made birdie, won the won the hole, tied the match. Nicholas goes over and kisses the divot. I mean, that was the whole that was the whole deal. You know, it was it was very cool stuff. And probably to this day, the best party celebration we've ever seen in our team room. It was it was unbelievable. I mean, Jack Nicholas was drinking champagne out of the router cup with a cork in his mouth, and he tried to waterboard Barbara. He said, Barbara, you gotta take a sip out of the router cup, and it was full of champagne. And he grabs the back of her head and dumps the whole thing. It was impressive.

Mike Gonzalez 3:59

No social media back then.

Lanny Wadkins 4:01

No, no social media. I mean, thank God it wasn't, because I mean it was you know, those memories to me are better being ours.

Intro Music 4:09

Yeah.

Lanny Wadkins 4:09

You know, I d I didn't we know, too. In our head. We don't care. Well, I you know, my generation didn't care about sharing that stuff with everybody or felt obligated to. It was they were our memories and our celebration, that's what it was about. So uh, but yeah, really, really cool stuff. I remember Raymond uh and there dancing with his wife and Calvin Pete's wife, and it was I mean, everybody was it was a very, very big celebration. Fuzzy's elder started it all. It was it was all nice and calm until Fuzzy walked in with a magnum of champagne and sprayed the room. You know, and that's that's what started it. I walked up behind Joe Black, who his devil knows was the straight-laced executive director of the PGA back then.

Intro Music 4:49

It's still around, too.

Lanny Wadkins 4:51

Yeah. I had a big bottle of champagne. I walked right behind him, grabbed the collar of his shirt, and took put the whole thing down his back. I mean, it was a wide open party, so it was good. And then we went to dinner, we had destroyed the suite. We come back after dinner and they have cleaned it. It looks like nothing ever happened in there. And I mean I remember. There were a couple people, I'm not going to mention names, that I actually carried to their room later on that night.

Mike Gonzalez 5:20

Then it started to 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 with the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 5:42

Smack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. And it started to slice just smitch off line. My caddy says as long as you're still in the state, you're okay.