PRO CHAMPIONSHIP: THE SECOND ROUND : Lanny Wadkins Passes Brother, Ties for Lead

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. —  The Wadkins brothers, Lanny and Bobby, threatened to make a family affair out of the PGA Championship for a while Friday, but after another hot and muggy August sauna in Florida, Bobby dropped out of a share of the lead.

Bobby made bogeys on the final two holes at PGA National to drop two shots back of his brother, and when Lanny bogeyed his next-to-last hole, he let veteran Raymond Floyd slip into a share of the 36-hole lead.

Wadkins and Floyd, both former PGA champions, have matching four-under-par 70-70--140s.

“I was second to Raymond the last two times he won a major championship, in the ’82 PGA at Southern Hills and the (United States) Open last year at Shinnecock,” Wadkins said. “In my opinion, it’s time to change that around.”

Wadkins won his PGA in 1977, when he beat Gene Littler in a playoff at Pebble Beach. Floyd won in 1969 at Dayton, Ohio, and again in 1982.

Jeff Sluman, who is so short that it was difficult to locate him in the thick Bermuda rough, was in a three-way tie for the lead before he bogeyed his final hole.

Sluman finished with a 69 and is deadlocked at 141 with Tim Simpson (71-70).

Bobby Wadkins, the first-round leader with a 68, shot a 74 to drop into a tie at 142 with Seve Ballesteros (72-70), Ben Crenshaw (72-70) and Larry Nelson (70-72).

Crenshaw, who twice saved par by chipping in from off the green, put the Champion course in perspective when he said, “In essence, you’ve got two lakes on each side of the fairway. Hitting it in the rough is just like hitting it in the water. You take one stroke to get out and then you play on.”

Crenshaw, in addition to his par-saving chips, holed out a “no-brainer, 35-footer straight down the hill” on his final hole for a birdie.

Still very much in contention at 143 are Bobby Clampett, the former California Golden Boy who is in the midst of a comeback, and Mark McCumber, a long-hitting former ministry student from Middleburg, Fla.

Bobby Wadkins just wants to be in the final pairing Sunday with brother Lanny when the leaders go for the $150,000 winner’s purse.

The younger of the Wadkinses has not won a tour event in 13 years, while Lanny has won 16 times, including this year’s Doral-Ryder Open in Miami.

“Sure, I’d like to see Bobby’s name up there on the leader board with mine on Sunday,” Lanny said, then quickly added, “as long as his name is just below mine.”

The two were together at four under par when the heat and waiting got to Bobby with two holes remaining.

“It was hot enough, but when you have to wait, it seems like it’s 120 degrees,” Bobby said. “You miss a couple of shots, you start seeing the spike marks and you start thinking too much about your misery.

“But I’m only two shots back and there are only four guys ahead of me, so I’m not complaining. I’m just a little disappointed.”

Bobby bogeyed No. 8 (his 17th) when he pushed his 3-iron second shot into the rough on the 429-yard hole, and then bogeyed the final hole with a bad drive that forced him to hack out of the rough again.

“It was one of only two bad drives I’ve hit all week,” Bobby said. “And it cost me.”

Bobby lost the lead with two earlier bogeys on the back nine, but he got them back with an eagle on the 485-yard, par-5 sixth hole. After hitting his second shot into a greenside bunker, Wadkins blasted out from 30 feet and the ball rolled into the cup.

Lanny had no eagles, but he made a spectacular shot to save par on the 533-yard No. 3.

“I drove into the left rough and had to lay up short of the lake,” he explained. “I had 235 yards to the hole, into the wind, with a lake on the left and bunkers on the right, with maybe an opening of 15 yards.

“I busted a driver off the fairway right into the opening and got my par with two putts from about 50 feet. If felt like a birdie.”

While the Wadkinses were having their ups and downs, the methodical Floyd just kept plugging away at the course, ignoring the heat as only he seems able to do.

When Floyd won at Southern Hills, the heat and humidity in Tulsa was much like it is here.

“The heat was worse than it was yesterday, but I’m not going to let the heat bother me,” the 44-year-old Miami Beach resident insisted. “A lot of the guys were in the locker room, sitting around talking about the heat, but I ignored them.

“I just walked around them and went about my business, and I’ll bet that most of them didn’t play very well, either. If that’s what you’re thinking about, it’s got to bother you mentally.”

Floyd, a one-time playboy who stayed on the tour to make enough money to party, has turned into a philosopher.

“I’d like to go out tomorrow and do everything a little bit better,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to freeze anything right now except my attitude.

“I did some things today that pleased myself. At one point, I got out of rhythm. I felt that the heat was getting to me, but I came back, I gathered myself in, got it (his rhythm) back, and played my last two holes very well.

“Things like that can give you incentive and spur you on. They are positive signs for me.”

Phil Blackmar, the 6-foot-7 Texan who is one of the tour’s longest hitters, also had some positive signs. He made two eagles, both times rolling home putts after reaching the green in two big blows, on the 485-yard sixth and the 541-yard 18th.

The halfway cut at seven-over-par 151 eliminated Masters champion Larry Mize, who had 75-81--156, and Paul Azinger, the year’s leading money winner, who couldn’t come back from an opening-round 82 and wound up with 159.

“This ought to tell some of my friends something,” the unflappable Azinger said. “People read about how I’ve been doing, winning all that money ($586,962) and everything, and they want to know if I need to improve, or if I have anything to learn.

“Well, this just shows that I have a long way to go. I found out that the way I chip won’t get the job done in rough like this.”

Also eliminated were Southern California favorites Mark O’Meara (155), Tony Sills (156), Corey Pavin (157), Dave Stockton (159), Lennie Clements (161) and assistant club professional Jim Petralia (171) even though he improved his game 11 shots from 91 to 80.

The Hall of Fame threesome of Arnold Palmer, 57, Jack Nicklaus, 47, and Tom Watson, 37, again attracted the main portion of what little gallery there was. No more than 6,000 were on the course and more than half that number were officials, concessionaires and volunteers.

“There weren’t more than a hundred people following us all day,” said Floyd, who was playing with John Mahaffey and defending champion Bob Tway.

Watson, who seemed a threat to win his first PGA after opening with a 70, couldn’t handle the crusty, spike-marked greens in the second round and soared to a 79. He is deadlocked at 149 with Nicklaus (76-73).

Palmer, the oldest man in the field, also survived by sinking a 15-foot putt on the final green for his par to finish on the nose at 151.