"When you rattled off that list of credits, you left out my cure for polio, but I'll excuse you for that."

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Long overdue, much deserved and well received by his peers, Dan Jenkins becomes the sixth media member to join the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Bill Fields' Golf World bunker item that broke the news.

Doug Ferguson with the numbers and retrospective.

Jenkins, 82, will be only the sixth media member in the hall when he is inducted May 7 at the World Golf Village along with Phil Mickelson, Hollis Stacy and two other inductees who are to be announced Thursday in London.

His career goes from Ben Hogan to Tiger Woods, from the manual typewriter to Twitter, and Jenkins is still going. He previously worked for the Fort Worth Press, the Dallas Times Herald and Sports Illustrated, and he has been writing for Golf Digest since 1985. Jenkins also has written 20 books, including "Dead Solid Perfect."

"Being from Fort Worth, I would follow Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson anywhere," Jenkins said Wednesday on a conference call to announce that he was selected through the Lifetime Achievement category. "Since they're in there, I'm happy to be the third guy from Fort Worth so included.

"I'm delighted to be in such good company with the people who are already in there, especially the players."

The other five media members in the Hall of Fame are writers Herbert Warren Wind, Bob Harlow, Herb Graffis, Bernard Darwin and television producer Frank Chirkinian. They were inducted posthumously.

For some fun reads from the archives, SI goes into the vault for some best of Dan, Guy Yocom's interview is a must as is Jaime Diaz's 2005 tribute.

And some highlights from the transcript, starting with a elated and overjoyed Tim Finchem who surely wanted Dan in for years and just couldn't convince his fellow committee members of the health benefits derived from biennial readings of You Gotta Play Hurt.

TIM FINCHEM:  Thank you, Jack.  I was excited to have the opportunity to announce Phil Mickelson when we were in Singapore a few weeks ago and talk a little bit about his great career.  I know that the recipient from the international ballot will be announced tomorrow in London by George O'Grady along with another announcement.

Today I'm very pleased to do something really fun, which is to recognize a unique individual for the lifetime achievement category, an individual who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this May and rightfully so.  That is Dan Jenkins.  A legendary, how shall I put this ‑ writer, humorist, commentator, critic from time to time, a great part of what sports in the United States is all about and has been all about for many, many, many years.

Dan has had a spectacular career, and I think I should note that over the years the World Golf Hall of Fame has been very sparse in their recognition of people from Dan's craft, only recognizing the very, very best. 

And now for Dan...

DAN JENKINS:  Tim, thank you very much.  When you rattled off that list of credits, you left out my cure for polio, but I'll excuse you for that.  You got all those other things in there.

I'm delighted and flattered and overwhelmed to take a spot in there with my old friends, Herbert Warren Wind and Herb Graffis and people like that who actually covered the sport.  I wish I had known Bernard Darwin, but I came along too late for him.

And we have a comedian on the line asking about memorabilia Dan might donate.

Q.  Any Western Union clips?

DAN JENKINS:  Right, yeah.  I do go back that far, actually.  I missed Postal Telegraph, but I was around for Western Union.  They used to garble your stories pretty bad.  Somebody told me one time they only improved them, really.  That may or may not be true.  But I do go back that far.

I went through the age of faxing, and now I'm in the computer age, and now I'm in the tweeting age.  So I've covered a broad spectrum of ways to transmit thoughts and people want to hear or are outraged to hear at some times.  Even though I was making a stab at humor, I don't think I ever wrote a line I didn't believe.

On where his sense of humor came from...

DAN JENKINS:  Well, when you grow up in Texas and you don't like sports, they drown you, that's number one.  If you've ever gambled at golf, which all of us did as kids and college and all of that, your sense of humor has to go with it because you get beat so often.  It just came natural.

I understand golf is a religion to a lot of people.  Never really a religion to me, but a great sports event.  Any great sports event required a sense of humor.  It just came natural.  I don't try to be funny, but sometimes I think that way.

I've always told young people who asked me about sports writing and golf writing and stuff, when something great happens, like when an Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods or Ben Hogan happens, you don't have to be funny, you just have to be accurate.

When you have to be funny is when you're on deadline, and somebody like Jack creeps up on you.  That's when you have to tap dance because it doesn't make any sense.  We have more and more of that these days, don't we?

Sadly, so true.

And the conclusion...

DAN JENKINS:  Thank you very much.  And thank you, again, Tim, and thanks to all of those people that called in with having nothing better to do.  I can't wait until May 7th when you put some (Indiscernible) on my shoulder and give me a saber.

TIM FINCHEM:  Thank you, Dan.  We look forward to seeing you here in Florida in a few months.