When Lanny Wadkins won the Byron Nelson Classic in 1973, he earned a $35,000 paycheck and a handsome trophy, presented in person by the tournament’s namesake.
Wadkins was 23, at the dawn of his career. Nelson was 61 and long retired from competition. The two became friends and fellow World Golf Hall of Famers. Their connection would not end there.
Through the decades, Wadkins watched as the Byron Nelson moved from venue to venue, leaving its home at Preston Trail Golf Club for other Dallas-area courses. Nelson remained its official host until his death in 2006, and his name has followed the event ever since. Wadkins, meanwhile, has forged a new tie to it as the architect of sweeping renovations to TPC Craig Ranch, which hosts this week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
“Oh, I’ll be out there watching,” Wadkins said by phone. “I want to see how those guys take it on.”
Wadkins is 76, but he’s no old dog learning new tricks. He’s been involved in course design for decades, collecting credits that include Blackjack’s Crossing in Lajitas, Texas, and TPC Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. After his playing days, he climbed the broadcast tower and spent 18 years as a TV commentator. Now that that chapter is closed too, he’s turned his full attention to design. “I really don’t like to do something unless I can go all in,” he said.
His work at TPC Craig Ranch was the lynchpin to a $25 million overhaul carried out by club owner, Invited Clubs. The work began as soon as last year’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson wrapped up, with Scottie Scheffler running away with the title by eight shots at 31-under par. The course, a Tom Weiskopf design that opened in 2004, had never been touched. Now it has been.
Wadkins’ mandate was familiar in the modern era: stiffen defenses against the game’s best players while keeping the course playable for everyone else. One of the layout’s strengths, he said, was its flexible tee options, crucial in Texas, where the wind holds near-constant sway. He leaned into that, stretching several holes that play with a favoring prevailing wind. He also repositioned and deepened bunkers and tweaked angles on several holes. The 9th green now sits closer to a creek, for instance, while the 11th green — a bunker-less complex with false fronts that Wadkins described as reminiscent of the 14th at Augusta National — wraps closer to a lake.
“That’s one way to defend these days,” he said. “I try to put the driver back into play as an important club.”
On the greens, Wadkins and his team went with bentgrass, a receptive turf that allowed them to create challenging contours. Hole locations sit in relatively flat areas, so players will be rewarded for precise approaches. But sloppy shots stand to be punished, leaving players with long, bending putts or testy recoveries from run-off areas.
“Without stellar iron play, it’s going to take some real imagination to play well,” Wadkins said.
Growing up in Virginia, Wadkins cut his teeth on Golden Age designs, including a pair of William Flynn courses. Those experiences stuck.
“I did well enough in my career that I got to play a lot of really great courses,” he said. “But always really liked the old stuff.”
At Wake Forest, his home course was Old Town Club, a Perry Maxwell design, and he credits Maxwell’s wrinkled, contoured greens as an influence in his own work.
Some of that old-school sensibility shows up at Craig Ranch. The par-3 4th now features a Biarritz green, a classic design element, with a deep swale bisecting the putting surface. The 11th green, with no bunkers and a series of false fronts funneling wayward approaches away from the hole, is reminiscent of the 14th at Augusta. On the 6th hole, Wadkins and his team added a fronting lion’s mouth bunker, stiffening the demands of a short par 4 that Wadkins watched players carve up last year. They also stretched the tournament tee back to the fence line and installed crossing bunkers at 320 yards, forcing players to decide whether to lay up safely to a ticklish distance, or challenge the sand.
How hard will the course play? Wadkins isn’t sure. A lot depends on setup, which he does not control. He planned to play a practice round with his sons to get a feel for things — though he’s quick to note his game is no barometer of elite golf. “I hit it so short, I can hear it land,” he said.
If he had his way, the rough would be thick and the greens lightning-paced. “I think they could play them at 13,” he said, “though I don’t think the Tour would want to play them quite that quick.”
Hard to know what the winning number will be. The purse, though, will be dramatically different than it was when Wadkins won. The total payout tops $10 million, with the winner taking home $1.8 million.