Lanny Wadkins - "Sudden Death at the 1977 PGA at Pebble Beach" SHORT TRACK

Mike Gonzalez 0:14

Let's move on to the one that uh I'm sure you've talked about a lot over the years. That's the PGA championship in general, but in particular your win back in 77. 28 starts, 20 uh 20 cuts made, five top fives, six top tens, ten top twenty-fives, and uh the big one, of course, the win in 1977 uh at the PGA championship uh at Pebble Beach.

Lanny Wadkins 0:38

At Pebble, yes. First major championship ever decided by sudden death, which was kind of cool.

Mike Gonzalez 0:42

You guys weren't expecting you weren't expecting that, were you?

Lanny Wadkins 0:45

Oh, no, no, no. I I got I'm sitting there waiting. Yeah, I finished a hit. I only I mean I was back of lit. We're all pulling for Litler to win. I mean, he's everybody's favorite, and he had some trouble, and uh all of a sudden I get to actually I looked at a scoreboard around sixteen and I'm thinking to myself, you know, if I can make I had about an eight-footer for part at sixteen, I'm looking at the boy, I said, I make this, and Bertie last two, I might have a chance.

Mike Gonzalez 1:11

You started six back that year.

Lanny Wadkins 1:13

Yeah, I did. And then uh I I made the putt at sixteen. The flag was back left at seventeen, the T's back across. I had the best two iron of my life at seventeen, about twelve feet behind the hole, and the putt did everything but go in. Went in the top side and it finished on the bottom right corner behind. I mean, I don't know how it didn't go in. I'm thinking, ah, that cost me. That was my chance. You know, I hit a good T shot at 18, laid up with four iron, and I'm standing in the middle of the fairway at 92 yards, the big scoreboard behind the green, and right before I hit my shot, and I numbers may be incorrect, I'm five, and Littler makes a bogey to go back to six, or Littler makes a bogey go to five, and I'm four, something along those lines. Anyway, I'm one back before I hit this shot, and I just went I I just you know I went nuts. I was like, I got a chance. And I hit I hit a 92-yard wedge, a foot and a half from the hole. Made birdie and stood by the scores tent waiting for everybody to finish. Nicholas had a 15-18 foot on the last screen to tie me. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, at this point in time, I'm thinking this 18 holes on Monday playoff. Yeah. I said, you know, I really don't want to play Jack Nicholas in an 18-hole playoff here at Pebble Beach on Monday. I said, that ain't that ain't gonna turn out really good for old Lanny. And so, you know, and when he missed, I was like, Yeah, baby, we're getting better. And then Littler actually got it up and down with the flag back left from right of the right bunker at 17. Yeah. For par and then had about 25, 30 feet at 18 and two-putted. So my buddy Ed Sneed had brought me a beer. I was up by the clubhouse, and I'm thinking I'm playing Monday, and they said, Nah, you're on the first T. So I I was halfway through a beer and I said, Oops, here it hit. I gotta go.

Mike Gonzalez 3:01

Did you have a chance to go hit any balls?

Lanny Wadkins 3:03

Oh no, no. You don't have a chance to pebble. I've been waiting almost an hour.

Mike Gonzalez 3:06

And so where did that start then?

Lanny Wadkins 3:08

First T. We did not they they did not have anything planned. They'd already taken the gallery ropes down, the stuff, everything was gone. You've seen the British open the the open championship when the guys on 18, everybody. We had that for three holes. Completely out of control. So you start at one? Started one, got on the first T. Don Paget was president of the PGA, looked at me and lit, and said, By the way, whichever one of you guys wins, you're on the Ryder Cup team. He said, You will knock Al Guyberger off the team.

Intro Music 3:38

Oh be damn.

Lanny Wadkins 3:39

So the right a PGA champion was going to be automatic. So we get up there and get on the first hole, and I had this cat, old caddy named Ralph Coffey, who you probably remember, old North Carolina boy. Yeah. I get on the first hole and I've hit it, hit a good tea shot out there, and he got my second shot, and I said, Well we got Ralph. Well, Ralph started stuttering. Ralph couldn't talk, he was too nervous. I said, Write Ralph, write it down, bud. So he my caddy on the first playoff hole. I'm 26 years old, 27 years old. I'm like, Ralph, write it down. But he can't, he cannot get it out. So he writes, he's shaking, gets the arch down. And so I said something, you know, uh-huh. I mean, so I hit a pretty little little eight-iron right over top of the flag over the green. I'm toast. I am. Couldn't be more dead. Uh and little seeing me lays it up on the right, on the right front of the green. I left my shot about 15 feet short, coming straight down the hill. I've got, he let he rolls up to about a foot, and I make this 15-footer stay alive. It's unbelievable. So then the uh we went to the second hole. But now we're gonna go one, two, three. Second hole, we got it on the green and two. Both of us did. I lipped out my eagle putt. He ran his about four feet by and made it coming back. Then three, we hit good T-shots, and uh uh we both did the opposite of what we'd done in the morning. In the morning, I'd hit it on the front of the green, spun it back off the front edge, and I now take wedge and I had a crappy lie, and I kind of caught a little mini flyer and it went over the back of the green. Lid had hit it over the green in the morning, I think, out of bounds. Well, he spun it off the left front into just a horrendous lie. I know my ball's over the green, and I'm walking. As I walk on the front of the green, I walk past his bar and I went, oof. And no way he can get that within 15. I mean, this lie was the green growing right into it, it was long, it was nasty. And I gouged mine out to about six feet. He got it about 15, missed it, and I made the six-footer to win.

Mike Gonzalez 5:39

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Intro Music 6:03

It went smack down the fairway. And 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. Yes, it went straight down the middle.