Best of the Players Championship: The 25 Most Dominant Performances
By Bill Felber
5. Lanny Wadkins, 1979, 283, -5, -3.29
Wadkins persevered through one of the most challenging final rounds ever to flummox Players participants. Winds gusting through the Sawgrass Country Club layout at speeds of up to 40 mph shot scores skyward.
The Sunday average was a debilitating 78.46. Of the 71 players who fought through that final round, 25 failed to break 80 and Bob Murphy soared all the way to a 92.
Wadkins, who carried a three-stroke lead into that final round, was one of the handful of pros undaunted by the conditions. He posted a closing 72, the day’s second best round, to finish five ahead of Tom Watson, who had risen from a tie for fifth on the strength of a 71.
The outcome also made Wadkins the first tournament champion to break par over four rounds at Sawgrass since that facility had become the tournament home in 1977. The 1977 and 178 champions, Mark Hayes and Jack Nicklaus, had both shot one-over par 289 to win. The tournament would be played there again in 1980 and 1981 before moving to the new TPC Sawgrass in 1982.
Wadkins survived a triple bogey 7 on the par 4 seventh hole Sunday. Playing conditions were so bad that after only 32 turned in four-round scores below 300, tour commissioner Dean Beman issued a rare public defense. “I think the players are better than that,” Beman told reporters. “The conditions were just a little too severe.”