Wadkins' induction to Hall of Fame a long time coming

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Lanny Wadkins' peers were inducted into the Hall of Fame years before it was his turn.

When word trickled down that Lanny Wadkins had indeed been voted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, only one thing popped to mind.

Dick Harmon.

If he'd only been here to see it. To hear it. To be a part of it.

As it was, there's not a doubt that when the votes were counted, he turned to his dad, Dave Marr, Jimmy Demaret, Ben Hogan and a host of others we've lost over the years and said simply: "It's about time, isn't it?"

We have to agree.

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One of the last conversations we had -- actually several of those last conversations -- were about Lanny and the Hall of Fame. Dick couldn't believe the voting body couldn't see what it kept missing. Those fingers in front of your face, you know. It was a no-brainer. An oversight that kept being, well, pushed along year after year.

To be fair, Dick had a vested interest in this one. And not just the Texas connection. He'd been watching over Lanny's swing for decades. One minute, we'd be chatting on the range, the next Lanny would blow by and say simply, "Dick." With that, one of the best teachers in the game would go to work.

They were so different, yet it worked. Lanny would gripe and get ticked off. Dick, with that comforting voice of his, would smooth those ruffled feathers and get not only Lanny's swing, but his temper, back in check. He'd do the same with Curtis Strange, one of Lanny's life-long Wake Forest buddies.

Dick was more like Jay Haas, another member of his group of Wake guys. A little more caustic at times, but you get the picture. He was the consummate pro, which made everyone realize that when he made his case for Lanny and the Hall of Fame, it wasn't just an emotional pitch.

He passed away suddenly -- and way too early -- in 2006, still wondering whether the voting body would ever do the right thing. Ben Crenshaw and Harvey Penick had been inducted in 2002; Tom Kite in 2004. They were Lanny's contemporaries. They went back to junior golf days together. They had been Ryder Cup teammates with him and had also been Ryder Cup captains. Crenshaw had 19 PGA TOUR wins, including two Masters; Kite had 19 wins, including one U.S. Open and a PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP.

Lanny? He had 21 wins, including a PGA Championship and a PLAYERS.

Didn't make sense Dick always said. Yet it did.

Lanny could be gruff and abrasive and a lot of voters saw that during his career. And during his second career in the television booth. Some put it aside and voted him in. More didn't.

And he wasn't alone.

It never seemed right to me that Kite wasn't inducted alongside Crenshaw and Penick. They should have been, yet they weren't. Again, it was popularity.

Dick always said that shouldn't enter the equation, but he knew it always did. He figured that one day enough people would set that aside and look at the numbers. And the man.

Lanny was never a silver spoon kind of guy. He and little brother Bobby were raised in a two-income home -- dad was a truck driver and mom taught school. They worked hard to give their sons a chance and instilled a hard-work ethic in both of them.

When you look back at his career, you see feisty. You see red-white-and-blue at Ryder Cups and Walker Cups. You see a guy who always wore his emotions -- yes, anger as well as excitement -- on his sleeve.

We think back to his days as a Ryder Cup player and then as captain. He was fierce and abrasive. And good. Think a 20-11-3 career record.

"I love representing my country. That's the thing I enjoyed as much as anything," Wadkins said last week. "I think I was a good teammate. I loved competing, fighting for wins. I was more feisty and temperamental than I should have been, but we all do things our own way."

Dick knew that last little insight better than anyone. Yet it didn't stop him from grumping every year Lanny didn't make it and hoping that one day the voters would figure out what he knew.

Finally enough of them did.

To borrow the line Dick's using right now -- It's about time, isn't it?

Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.