Major champions Lanny Wadkins and Jose
Maria Olazabal and former United States president Dwight D. Eisenhower
highlighted the World Golf Hall of Fame class inducted on Monday.
Irish legend Christy O'Connor was also part of the class inducted at the World
Golf Village.
Wadkins, 59, was elected through the PGA Tour ballot, earning 61 percent of
the votes to top a list of players that also included Doug Ford, Mark O'Meara,
Davis Love III and Ken Venturi.
A member of eight American Ryder Cup teams -- a record he shares with Raymond
Floyd and Billy Casper -- Wadkins claimed 21 PGA Tour titles, including his
only major at the 1977 PGA Championship.
He also captured the 1970 U.S. Amateur Championship and won his first
Champions Tour start at the 2000 ACE Group Classic.
"It's something that I never dreamed of," Wadkins said of being inducted. "You
start out playing golf, you don't think about playing for a Hall of Fame. You
think about trying to win tournaments and support your family and maybe
accomplishing some wins and stuff, you never think it will culminate in
something like this. It's just very exciting."
Olazabal, a two-time Masters champion, was chosen through the International
ballot. The 43-year-old Spanish star -- still active on the PGA and European
Tours -- is also known for his Ryder Cup career, having played seven times for
the European side from 1987 through 2006.
Seve Ballesteros, Olazabal's mentor and Ryder Cup teammate, made the
presentation speech for Olazabal via video. Ballesteros continues to battle
brain cancer.
"Most of you don't know this, but when I was 15 years old, he gave me a phone
call and asked me if I would play in a charity match against him at his home
club, Pedrena, and I said yes," Olazabal said of Ballesteros. "Something
special happened that day. It's very hard for me to say, but you can call it
chemistry, call it whatever you want, but it was the base of a great
relationship through the years, and it showed at the Ryder Cup."
Olazabal's six PGA Tour wins include victories in 1994 and '99 at Augusta
National, his only career major championships. Olazabal has won 21 times on
the European Tour.
Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States and an avid golfer with
a handicap in the teens. Inducted through the Lifetime Achievement category,
the former five-star general served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces
in Europe during World War II.
A member at Augusta National, where he played often with Arnold Palmer,
Eisenhower, who died in 1969, was sometimes criticized for his dedication to
the game.
But almost every president since the Republican left office in 1961 has
enjoyed the putting green Eisenhower had installed on the White House lawn,
just a short walk from the Oval Office.
Palmer made the presentation speech for Eisenhower's family at the Hall of
Fame.
"I can say that this is an opportunity that I welcome very much, and to say
that the President, or Ike, or whatever you'd like to call it, The General, if
there was anyone that really should be in the Golf Hall of Fame, I think he
should be," said Palmer. "He was an avid golfer, and the part of his life that
he had the opportunity to play golf was probably as happy a part of his life
as he had ever spent."
O'Connor, who was inducted in the veteran's category, captured two money
titles on the European Tour. Although he never won a major championship,
O'Connor, now 84, played on 10 consecutive Ryder Cup teams from 1955-1973.
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