OAKMONT, Pa.— Lanny Wadkins knows Oakmont Country Club well.
When Johnny Miller shot his legendary 63 to win the 1973 U.S. Open here, the first player to step out of the scoring tent to shake his hand as Miller left the green was Wadkins, who played in the group ahead and shot 65. They were two-thirds of the sub-70 scores that day. Some guy named Nicklaus with a 68 was the other.
Knowing Lanny, he probably had some smart-aleck comment ready for Miller, right? Not so. He and Miller and tour player Jerry Heard were close friends back then. They shared the same business manager.
“I just said, ‘Great playing, congratulations,’ because I thought Johnny had it won when he finished,” Wadkins recalled. “It wasn’t over yet, though. John Schlee, of all people, had a chance to tie if he chipped in at 18.”
Schlee’s attempt came close but veered left at the hole as it ran out of steam.
Wadkins, 75 and a Hall of Fame player, retired from broadcasting PGA Tour Champions telecasts at the start of this year but now he’s slammed with renovating and improving TPC Craig Ranch north of Dallas, which took a shellacking from tour players this year during the CJ Cup Byron Nelson tournament. He played four majors at Oakmont — the 1969 U.S. Amateur, the 1973 and ’83 U.S. Opens and the 1978 PGA Championship.
Wadkins isn’t here for the 125th U.S. Open this week but he knows what to expect from Oakmont. It’s a beast, even more so after designer Gil Hanse’s recent alterations, but if you think it’s hard this week, you should’ve been here 50 years ago when players took it on using soft balata balls and persimmon woods with tiny little heads.
Wadkins likes Oakmont, something you probably won’t hear much from players who have to face it this week.
“I actually liked the green complexes because it took imagination to play them,” Wadkins said. “I like the variety of holes.
“It was a very difficult driving course, it had a couple of blind tee shots. And you had a lot of holes where you had to put your driver a foot from the right corner or left corner for the ball to stay in the fairway because they sloped a lot. That made driving the ball very, very demanding, more so than the second shot. I think driving is going to be at a premium this week so it’ll be interesting to see.”
The demanding shots required here play right into the hands of the game’s current best player, Scottie Scheffler, Wadkins believes. Scheffler, along with three-time major champion and fellow Texas Jordan Spieth, is an honorary member at Preston Trail, Wadkins’ home track, and he sees Scheffler and his coach Randy Smith there on a regular basis.
“Scottie and Jordan will come out there and work because they can hit balls there and nobody bothers them,” Wadkins said. “We’ve got tees at both ends of the range and all the stuff you could ever want—launch monitors and all that. We’ve even got different grasses to hit off, some zoysia and Bermuda.
“I’ve been really impressed with Scottie. He’s fun to watch and I like the fact that his swing is an original. I love guys who are successful with homemade swings, not some paint-by-number things. Scottie is a ball-striking machine, he is something to behold. When he’s at Preston Trail, I noticed he tends to work on distance control with his irons.
“You know what, that’s a telling thing: the best iron players hit it hole-high — Ben Hogan, Johnny Miller. The number of times I’ve watched a telecast and seen Rory McIlroy blow a wedge shot over a green, you don’t see that with Scottie. I’m really impressed the way he controls the height of his shots, too. Growing up in Texas is an advantage because you play in wind.
“I feel like Scottie could have played in the wooden-club days and been very successful just like I think Jack Nicklaus or Tom Weiskopf could have played with today’s equipment and been every bit as good as they were, if not better.”
Statistics confirm what Wadkins says of Scheffler. It may be stating the obvious, since Scheffler won nine times last year, including a gold medal at the Olympics but Scheffler’s stats are reminiscent of Tiger Woods. Scheffler leads or is near the lead in almost every important category. He ranks first in strokes-gained tee-to-green, off the tee and approach shots. He ranks sixth in greens hit in regulation; second in proximity to the hole; second in scrambling; sixth in putts per green hit in regulation; and first in scoring and bogey avoidance. So that should explain why he’s No. 1 in the world and has already won more than $14.5 million this season.
Woods dominated at first with his length and then with his accuracy. He hit it closer to the hole and more often than anyone else and was the best putter on tour, maybe one of the best putters in the game’s history. Scheffler isn’t as dangerous with the putter as Woods and he doesn’t have a distance advantage off the tee but he’s plenty long and definitely straighter than Woods was, ranking 30th in driving accuracy.
Around the greens, Scheffler is a match for Tiger’s scrambling skills. In fact, he looks every bit as good as peak Spieth, maybe even better.
“When you’ve got that good of a short game, it gives you more confidence to go at hole locations that are tucked,” Wadkins said. ‘You’re not aiming 20 feet left, you’re taking on the pin because you know if you miss it, you can get up and down. So that gives Scottie more short birdie putts and he can be more aggressive with his irons. He knows he’s got that in his back pocket that he can get it up and down, maybe even hole a bunker shot or a chip. In his head, that gives him a big advantage over everyone else.
“Scottie is unafraid to work the ball left or right. That’s the advantage of the upright-swing guys like Nicklaus and Miller. I was there, too, I always played from the center of the greens toward the flags. That’s one thing missing from other players’ arsenals.”
The winners at Oakmont have always favored the best ball-strikers over the best putters. Dustin Johnson, Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera, Larry Nelson, Miller, Nicklaus, Hogan.
For Wadkins, that makes looking ahead to this weekend an easy call.
“With everything that’s going to happen there, it’s really hard to pick against Scottie Scheffler,” he said. “Scheffler is going to be awfully good. McIlroy looks a little off right now, he’s not hitting on all cylinders. Maybe it’s a Masters hangover but I expect him to get back in form at some point.”
If not Scheffler, though, then whom?
“I usually like players who are in form and playing well,” Wadkins said.
“I like Scottie a lot but I’ll give you one dark-horse pick: I’m seeing some good stuff from Jordan Spieth and I would not be surprised at all if he won. He played well at the Memorial Tournament on a hard golf course.
“The way Jordan is driving it, pretty doggone straight right now, that is going to be a big asset at the Open. I wouldn’t be shocked at all if he plays well.”
