Golf’s Tournament of Champions : Wadkins Fires 68, Closes In on Kite

Lanny Wadkins has already won two golf tournaments in California this year, and he is closing in on another.

By shooting a four-under-par 68 in the second round of the MONY Tournament of Champions at the La Costa Country Club Friday, Wadkins charged within a stroke of the leader, Tom Kite, and started worrying about paying more California income taxes.

“I’m paying more taxes in California than most of the residents here,” he said.

Wadkins won this tournament in 1982 and 1983 and finished sixth last year. Last January, he won both the Bob Hope tournament at Palm Springs and the Los Angeles Open.

If he wins the Tournament of Champions again, the state will deduct another 11% off the top of the $72,000 prize money. But first, Wadkins has to beat a talented field that has suddenly become tightly bunched.

Kite didn’t exactly blow up Friday. In fact, he shot 18 straight pars for a 72 and a 36-hole total of 136. But if you shoot par on the PGA Tour today, you usually get passed by half the field.

Kite, in fact, got beat by 9 of his 25 competitors Friday and now has four players within four shots of him, and three more within five. After the first round, when Kite shot a record-tying 64, only Fuzzy Zoeller was that close.

Larry Nelson shot a 69 to move within three strokes of Kite at 139, and Mark McCumber, after a 71, and Zoeller, who shot a 72, were at 140. Lee Trevino shot a 67, five under par, tying Woody Blackburn and Wayne Levi at 141.

The best score of the round, which was played on another gorgeous day, was shot by Bernhard Langer, the Masters champion from West Germany. He knocked 10 strokes off his Thursday score with a 66. His seven-birdie, one-bogey round moved him within six strokes of the lead at 142.

Tom Watson, the defending champion, improved two strokes with a 73 but is virtually out of the fight at 148. Jack Nicklaus is at 146 after shooting a 72. Nicklaus’ only two birdies of the day are worth mentioning. At No. 4, he chipped his third shot into the hole, and on No. 16, he hit a bunker shot into the cup.

Peter Thomson held his lead in the senior division by shooting another 70. The 55-year-old Australian sank one putt from 35 feet for a birdie and one from 30 for a par. “I made some near ones and some far ones,” he said. He also hit better tee shots than on Thursday, he said, “probably because I went to bed earlier.” Thomson leads Arnold Palmer, who also shot a 70 Friday, by two strokes.

After practicing putting with two putters for 30 minutes before the round, Wadkins went out and saved a par on the first hole by sinking one from about 12 feet after hitting into a bunker.

He breezed through the front side with nine straight pars and then shot four birdies in a row, starting at the 10th hole. His birdie putts measured 20, 10, 15 and 6 feet. He made another one from 12 feet at No. 16 after making his only bogey at the 15th hole, where he drove his tee shot under a tree and had to waste a stroke to get back onto the fairway.

At No. 18, he almost made another birdie when a putt from 20 feet hit the hole and spun out.

The surprise was that Wadkins putted as well as he did. “My putter has been on the quiet side for a couple of months,” he said.

He started putting poorly after the L.A. Open, he said, and when he started blowing putts in the Bing Crosby Pro-Amateur, he lost his confidence.

The big difference in Kite’s round, in contrast to Thursday’s, also was putting. He just didn’t make as many. “Thursday, I was making those 15- and 20-footers,” he said. “Today, they were going in and out of the hole. You don’t really enjoy a round like that.”

Kite missed four greens, but the longest putt he had to make to save par was about four feet.

Then, apparently to keep his membership in the PGA’s

ed-Just-as-Well-as-I-Did-Yesterday-but-Couldn’t-Get-the-Ball-Into-the-Hole Club,” he said, “You’re not going to believe this, but I played just as well today as I did yesterday.”

Calvin Peete, who was disqualified Thursday for failing to turn in a correct score for the fifth hole, will not get a share of the $400,000 purse, the PGA ruled Friday.