An Obvious Choice

The year was 1970 and the event was the Dixie Intercollegiate at Callaway Gardens. A bunch of college golf coaches were sitting around talking. The subject: Lanny Wadkins, then a Wake Forest senior, who the year before had accomplished something quite incredible. As a junior, Lanny Wadkins finished either first of second in every tournament he entered. Problem was there was no way to acknowledge Wadkins’ feat. There was no award to recognize the best college golfer.

Nelson Ross was the golf coach and a professor at Columbus College in those days and he was one of those coaches. Shortly afterward, a committee that included Ross and several other Columbus-area golfers decided to come up with an award to honor the top collegiate golfer.

“We considered calling it The Columbus Cup,” Ross said. “But we decided that didn’t give it any personality.” Fred Haskins did. “Mr. Haskins had taught youngsters how to compete, how to play matches themselves and how to succeed,” Ross said. “The main thing was the art of competitive golf.”

Naming the award after Haskins was a natural, the committee decided. So the committee members approached Haskins, who after some reservations, agreed to lend his name.

Then they decided they didn’t want just any trophy. They wanted a special trophy. For more than an hour, Hugh Royer Jr.  - now head professional at Bull Creek Golf Course, then a PGA Tour player and once one of Haskins’ students - hit balls on a driving range as Ledger Enquirer photographer Lawrence Smith took pictures from nine angles. Those pictures were used as the model for the “golfer” atop the Haskins Trophy.

Excerpt from:

Steve Adameck Article

Ledger Enquirer Newspaper

June 30th 1985