Dave’s game

Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2002 | 10:01 a.m.

As Ben Crenshaw strolled to the back nine of DragonRidge Country Club on Tuesday afternoon in the Wendy's Three-Tour Challenge, he reminisced about Dave Thomas under the shade of a tree.

Thomas, the founder of the Wendy's restaurant chain who was noted for his casual demeanor in commercials and the depth of his charitable endeavors, died Jan. 8 after battling liver cancer for more than 10 years.

"He was a frustrated golfer, like all of us," Crenshaw said. "But he enjoyed his game. It's pretty simple. He was a very successful man, but he tried to share and tried to help people. I don't think you could ask for anything more."

Laura Diaz highlighted that even more when asked about Thomas's contribution to golf.

"Well, I'm not so sure about the game, but just life in general," Diaz said. "He gave so much back to help out children. He was a great man. He contributed a lot to the well-being of our country, as a whole. He gave so much back to charity."

Opening a pack of Marlboros, John Daly summed up his feelings for Thomas in classic Daly fashion.

"He was an awesome man," Daly said. "Plus, his food is real good at Wendy's."

The Three-Tour Challenge is a real good tournament, too. Wendy's International has been the title sponsor for the event for 11 years. It pits three threesomes -- each consisting of an LPGA, PGA and Senior PGA player -- against each other to determine the superior tour.

Tuesday morning, Karrie Webb, Daly and Gary McCord teed off first. Diaz, Jim Furyk and Crenshaw were next, and Juli Inkster, Rich Beem and Tom Kite rounded out the 18-hole, stroke-play competition.

The PGA team of Daly, Beem and Furyk shot a combined 5-unnder par to win. Daly and Furyk carded 69s while Beem had a 70 at the 7,039-yard DragonRidge Country Club.

ABC will split coverage of the Challenge, which has an $800,000 purse, on Dec. 21-22.

More importantly, the Challenge has raised nearly $10 million for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, which is designed to raise awareness for adoption and encourage people to adopt the approximately 150,000 children in North America who are in foster care.

Thomas himself was an orphan, adopted by a family in Michigan when he was six weeks old.

He opened his first Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969, and he began his adoption-awareness mission in 1990.

"I met Dave a long time ago, playing in Florida," McCord said. "He was a golf nut. He started Wendy's and, boom, here he gets into the charities and adopted children. It's fantastic. It's kind of what golf is all about.

"A lot of the guys are involved in charity events in their hometowns, and it's great to have this kind of medium, golf, have some fun and give a lot of money to charity."

Webb had a few occasions to speak with Thomas, whose company also sponsors an LPGA event in Columbus.

"He was a really, really nice man, very gentle and very generous," Webb said. "He's done a lot for golf and a lot for the LPGA. His Foundation for Adoption is a great charity. I think it's heartbreaking to see kids without homes."

Thomas was 69 when he died at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 12 when he started working at a barbecue joint in Knoxville, Tenn., and he rose to a management position with Kentucky Fried Chicken.

A meeting with KFC's founder, Colonel Harland Sanders, led Thomas to starting Wendy's, which has 6,000 restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, and boasts of more than $7 billion in annual sales.

Crenshaw always looked forward to speaking with Thomas at Muirfield Village Golf Club, the Jack Nicklaus course in Dublin, Ohio, that plays host to an annual tournament. Tuesday was Crenshaw's first opportunity to play in the Wendy's Three-Tour Challenge.

"He believed in golf," Crenshaw said of Thomas. "He was very generous and involved with a lot of charitable activities, obviously, but it's always been very important to him to have this tournament under his name. It's been a very nice thing.

"We golfers would just like to thank him."