Columnist Peter Benton: Wadkins makes most of new opportunity

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2001 | 1:29 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

With his victory in the recent Long Island Classic, Bobby Wadkins, at 50 years and 10 days, became the youngest player to win a Senior PGA Tour event.

Wadkins had failed to win in 712 starts on the PGA Tour and 65 on the Buy.com Tour. But after turning 50 on July 26, he quickly made amends in the win column.

"How could I not have won this week?" Wadkins asked. "Lanny, (Wadkins, his brother) and I grew up on Meadowbrook Country Club (in Richmond, Va., their hometown,) and my first tournament as a Senior was at Meadowbrook. I made double eagle, the second I've ever made."

Although never winning on the PGA Tour, Wadkins won the 1978 European Open in Surrey, England, and two Dunlop Phoenix titles in Japan (1979 and '86).

His tie for second in the 1994 Kemper Open matched career bests in the 1978 Joe Garagiola Tucson Open, the 1979 IVB-Philadelphia Classic and the 1985 Sea Pines Heritage Classic. He was a playoff loser in the latter two events, to Lou Graham in '79 and Bernhard Langer in '85. Wadkins also placed second in the 1987 Andy Williams San Diego Open.

At the '94 Kemper he was leading over eventual champion Mark Brooks through 54 holes. But a lost ball and eventual triple bogey on the sixth hole at TPC at Avenel led to a final-round 74 and a tie for second with D.A. Weibring, three strokes behind Brooks.

With his incredible start on the Senior PGA Tour, it certainly looks as if Bobby Wadkins is going to make the very most of his "mulligan in life."

Chris Smith, a current PGA Tour member, was the first Buy.com Tour player to earn the chance to become an immediate PGA Tour member by winning three times in 1997, capped by a victory in the Omaha Classic.

Heath Slocum, a 27-year-old Pensacola, Fla., resident, won the Buy.com Omaha Classic two weeks ago, his third win of the year, and thus also earned his way onto the PGA Tour.