Like a lot of golf enthusiasts, Brad Lanning was glued to the television on Father’s Day watching the final round of the 123rd U.S. Open Championship. As the world witnessed Wyndham Clark’s improbable victory at The Los Angeles Country Club by holding off four-time major champion Rory McIlroy, the 52-year-old felt a sense of pride and connection to the new champion.
Lanning, one of the 156 competitors in the 43rd U.S. Senior Open at SentryWorld, served as the assistant coach for two seasons at Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch, Colo., where Clark was the team’s best player. Lanning and his wife, Pam, had relocated to the area so he could attend Denver Seminary School with the hope of possibly becoming a high school guidance counselor.
To make ends meet, Pam was selling Mary Kay cosmetics, and while networking, she befriended Clark’s mom, Lise, who happened to be the company’s national sales director.
When Lise discovered Lanning was a golf pro – he had spent six years after college chasing his dreams on various tours – Lise mentioned she had a son who was a competitive golfer. An immediate friendship formed between the two families, which eventually led to Lise recommending Brad for an assistant coach position with Valor Christian.
Thirteen years later, Clark produced the biggest victory of his burgeoning career, and Lanning finally qualified for a USGA championship.
Talk about coming full circle.
“I just feel lucky that our lives kind of connected there for awhile when he was in high school,” said Lanning, who helped Clark harness his on-course temper. “Just lucky to have a little piece of his life. I’m so happy for him. He is such a good kid.
“It’s been great to see him mature. Every day I watched the coverage … he was just a rock. Greatest short game I’ve ever seen and most competitive kid I have ever coached. He was just a rock mentally.”
Three weeks before Clark saw his ultimate dream come to fruition, Lanning was fulfilling his own at Stevens Point Country Club. It had been Lanning’s lifelong ambition to qualify for a U.S. Open. Four trips to final qualifying failed to produce the ultimate prize, and when Lanning lipped out a birdie on No. 17, and then bogeyed the 18th at his May 26 U.S. Senior Open qualifier, the Hortonville, Wis., resident didn’t feel this attempt at playing a USGA event in his adopted home state would be a possibility.
But as the day’s scores trickled in, Lanning’s 73 somehow stood up for one of the two available spots. A few Spotted Cows were part of the post-round celebration, along with a bevvy of joyful tears.
“It was pretty emotional, I’ll be honest,” said Lanning. “My father passed away when I was 15 and I had a lifelong dream of playing golf in an Open on Father’s Day and was always short. This is pretty special, especially being in my backyard. I hope I play well.”
Lanning’s journey to SentryWorld is one full of twists and turns. Born in Ohio, his family moved to Florida when he was 3. His golf game was good enough to land a scholarship to Stanford University, where his teammates included Casey Martin and Notah Begay III. In fact, Begay and another teammate, Will Yanagisawa, are both in the field this week.
“Notah was in my wedding,” said Lanning of his former roommate. “He’s just one of my closest friends in my life. It’s just fun to have the three of us [in the field].”
After winning the 1994 NCAA title just before Tiger Woods arrived on campus that fall, fresh from winning the U.S. Amateur, Lanning returned to Florida.There, he met his wife, a Wisconsin native, and tried his hand at professional golf. He played various circuits, including the Canadian Tour, South American Tour and the NGA Hooters Tour. He saw players like future two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson hit one amazing shot after another and knew he wouldn’t be competing on the PGA Tour.
Seeking a new career direction, he enrolled at Denver Seminary and that led him to an assistant coaching position at the University of Oregon, where the head coach was Martin, his ex-college teammate. Martin was trying to land Clark, along with virtually every other Division I school, and Lanning accompanied his prized prospect on his recruiting trip to Eugene. Clark eventually signed with Oklahoma State, but Martin gained himself a new assistant for the 2011-12 season.
“At the time, I was getting my master’s in counseling at Denver Seminary,” he said, “and my intention was to be a guidance counselor at Valor Christian. That would have been my highest goal there. We went out for the visit … and Casey winds up hiring me.”
