Wadkins Joins Fast Company

Lanny Wadkins lived up to his expectations in his Senior PGA Tour debut.

Wadkins became the ninth player in senior tour history to win in his first start, parring the third hole of a playoff in the ACE Group Classic on Sunday.

Wadkins, the 21-time PGA winner who turned 50 in December, beat Spain’s Jose Maria Canizares on the third extra hole. Tom Watson and Walter Hall had bogeys on the first playoff hole.

“It’s kind of like an instinct takes over,” said Wadkins, who won for the first time since the PGA Tour’s 1992 Greater Hartford Open. “I kind of smell blood and that’s what I wanted. I was about as focused as I think I’ve been in a long, long time.”

Don January (1980, in the first official Senior PGA Tour event), Roberto DeVicenzo (‘80), Arnold Palmer (‘80), Rod Funseth (‘83), Gary Player (‘85), George Archer (‘89), Jack Nicklaus (‘90) and Bruce Fleisher (‘99) are the other players to win in their senior debuts.

Wadkins closed with an eight-under-par 64 to match Watson (66), Canizares (67) and Hall (67) at 14-under 202.