Lanny Wadkins set to retire as lead PGA Tour Champions analyst

Lanny Wadkins, the longtime analyst of Golf Channel’s coverage of PGA Tour Champions, is hanging up his microphone.

Adam Schupak of Golfweek reported Wadkins will call the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, which concludes on Sunday. After that, he’ll call one final event in January before retiring.

“Wadkins will retire after working one final telecast at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai on the Big Island of Hawaii in January, which also coincides with the Tour’s transition to having the TV broadcast team call PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour events from its new studio that was built next to the Tour’s Global Home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida,” Schupak wrote.

Schupak also noted that the Charles Schwab Cup Championship is serving as a “test run” for the studio coverage that will be implemented this year. Wadkins detailed what that entails.

“I’m going to call this tournament, which is arguably the biggest on the Champions Tour, and I’ll sit in the compound, a little 10-by-10 windowless room, and call it off monitors. You know, they’ve just taken it in that direction,” Wadkins said.

Wadkins also made it clear that he thinks the move to remote broadcasts carries significant drawbacks.

“I think that telecast is going to be losing something for all the positives that they can come up with,” he said, per Schupak. “I think the personal interaction with the players is one of the best things you can do. I know, for example, when I call the tournament in Hawaii, I have breakfast every morning with various players and you get them in a surrounding like that you’re able to get more info from them on what’s going on with their games, who they’re working with, how they’re hitting it, and what they’re trying to achieve, everything else.”

Prior to working as the lead analyst for PGA Tour Champions, Wadkins was CBS’ lead analyst for its PGA Tour coverage from 2002-2006, replacing Ken Venturi. As a player, Wadkins won 21 times on the PGA Tour, including the 1977 PGA Championship.

Wadkins, a 2009 World Golf Hall of Fame Inductee, will turn 75 in December.

[Golfweek, Photo Credit: World Golf Hall of Fame on YouTube]