Larry Nelson - Part 1 (The Early Years and Tour Wins)

Mike Gonzalez 0:16

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game. Bruce Devlin this morning. All I can say about our guest is I love to watch his golf swing when I was a young man.

Bruce Devlin 0:26

Well, he's he certainly had a pretty golf swing, but I gotta say one thing to him. First of all, thank you for your service.

Larry Nelson 0:35

Bruce, thank you. Thank you very much. It was one of the best and worst things I did.

Bruce Devlin 0:39

Yeah, we uh we understand that, and we we appreciate the fact that you did, in fact, get uh served in the Army in Vietnam and uh hadn't played golf until you got back, and then boy, what a career! You've had three major championships, 41 professional victories around the world, and uh it is indeed a great pleasure to have Larry Nelson with us today. Thanks for coming.

Larry Nelson 1:00

Well, thank you. It's good to join you here. You all have had some great guests, and uh just uh I'm kind of uh I'm just happy to be a part of it. So, but thank you.

Mike Gonzalez 1:10

Larry, thanks for joining us. And uh, as we've talked about, we want to tell your story today. And so uh we typically start right at the very beginning. I know you were born in Fort Payne, Alabama, but spent uh a lot of your early years growing up in Ackworth, Georgia. Why don't you just tell us a little bit about that?

Larry Nelson 1:28

Uh yes, I was born in uh Fort Payne, Alabama. Uh Fort Payne was the closest place for my mom to get to to have me. Uh we were raised actually in Crosshill, Alabama, um, up on Sand Mountain. And um so I just had just normal, you know, four-year childhood, I guess, up to that point. And my dad worked in a body shop, had his own body shop, but uh decided to go to Detroit to work for uh GM, I think, is who he went to work for. And we were up there for only six months, moved back to Georgia, Kennesaw, Georgia, where he took a job at Lockheed uh aircraft. And uh so he worked there for, I guess he retired there 35 years later or so. Um but just kind of a normal childhood, loved being outside, loved uh hunting, fishing, um, just all the stuff, but uh played baseball. My father loved baseball, um, so he was kind of teaching me how to play from the time I was old enough to walk. Um ended up playing baseball, basketball, football in high school. Um and um really if I had to have picked a professional sports career, it would have been baseball. Uh golf was definitely not on my radar. There wasn't a golf course, I think the closest one might have been 20 miles away. Um and nobody in my family ever played golf, so uh that wasn't even I didn't even think much about it. But funny enough, the uh football assistant coach at uh North Cobb High School, where I graduated, asked me to go out for the golf team. And I said, you know, that's I don't play golf. And uh plus I didn't like what the kids wore playing golf. Um so that was that was not something that uh you know I said, no, I don't think so. But it's it's funny, years later I ended up playing with him, um, you know, when he kind of retired and um and I was playing with tour. So uh it came around full circle there, I guess that that way. But um I got uh uh actually I was going to school on a baseball basketball scholarship and um didn't have the money to do some of the things some of the other boys were doing when we went on trips, and so I decided, well, I just take off one quarter, work, make enough money, and then uh go back uh you know, go back to school. And during that time I got a letter from uh the U.S. Army saying, you know, you've been drafted. This was 10 days after my 19th birthday, and uh had to report 10 days later. So 20 days after my 19th birthday, I was taking basic training. Oddly enough, with uh Fort Benning uh 60 miles away, I went out to Fort Hood, Texas. So I did all my training in Fort Hood, Texas. So um during the training there, uh we would sit around with play cards or whatever. Um this was after basic, and one of the guys there uh went played golf from Miami Days Junior College, and uh he just loved golf and he talked about it all the time. And I didn't tell him I thought it was a sissy sport, you know, at that point. Um but but anyway, after I got back from Vietnam, um I hurt my arm, uh, pitched a ball game within 10 days after I got back to Vietnam and hurt my arm, couldn't do that, which was my first love, and uh so I only had one quarter or one one subject uh to finish my two-year engineering degree, and it was over at nine o'clock. I didn't have anything to do from nine o'clock in the morning until six o'clock when my wife Gail got home. And uh so uh there was a golf golf course just a mile from the school, and uh it had a really good junior membership program. Uh and so I was able to join, and so what a great way to waste 10 hours a day playing golf, yeah, playing golf. And so that's what I did, and um and that's kind of how my my golf career got started.

Mike Gonzalez 5:50

Well, let's go back uh a little bit, uh, you know, back uh you say you're a multi-sport athlete, which by the way is pretty typical of many of our guests. Bruce, you'll certainly recall a lot of these guys talking about how important it was to be a well-rounded athlete.

Bruce Devlin 6:05

Yeah, and particularly uh Paul Paul Azinger said that uh you know that was the one thing that uh that he felt like uh allowed him to be, you know, great hand-eye coordination playing and the team sport factor of it too, where you where you got to realize that you just weren't the only person involved in that sport. So uh and uh you know when you end up in golf, you end up being the only person involved in it. So uh uh we all know what that's like. It can be good and it can be bad.

Larry Nelson 6:34

Well, it can. I think one of the reasons why I got kind of discouraged with baseball or team sports is that when you're pitching, I pitched a couple of really good ball games and the shortstop would make an error and I'd lose one to nothing. You know, I and I I I found that you know if playing golf, it's kind of up to you. You know, it's it's you you have to play your bad shots as well as your good ones. And but I think there are probably two things. Pitching really helped the mental side with the golf. You know, you get to where you you're not really focusing on how you do something, but just doing it. I mean, when you're pitching to a guy with uh you know bases loaded and three-two count, you know, you can't think about mechanics, you can't think about anything else. You just kind of have to look and throw and trust, you know, all the practice and all that stuff. And so I really think that helped me with golf. And also I was a very good pool player. Um, you know, and I know uh You weren't a hustler though, were you when you were? Well, well, I went to different towns and played. I did, but it wasn't not in a hustling type thing. I just went out there and told them, okay, let's go play. You're better than me, then I'll pay you. If I'm better than you, you pay me. But I never tried to trick anybody or anything like that. And but I was good enough to where um I didn't feel like that I was gonna go anywhere and get beat. And but that's that's the mental side too. Um I and I you get to the point where you just look and shoot, you know, the next you have to look two holes or three balls ahead, you know, when you're playing nine balls. So uh you learn kind of the you know what you have to think about, uh, and and I think that just really carried over into golf. I mean, golf is sometimes uh even though you you're only focusing on that one shot, but you're also focusing on where you should play the next shot from from. And so so it's it's similar that way, but I think the mental side, um those two, the baseball and the the poo playing really helped.

Mike Gonzalez 8:42

And uh I know if you're like me and like many of us, uh our vintage baseball was sort of the sport of our childhood, uh, you know, especially growing up in a small town, a lot of it has all that's all we had was a ball glove, a bat, a baseball, and then a ball diamond. And uh no swimming pool, no movie theater in my little town, I know. And uh and uh you know that's just what you did, and and oftentimes we did it all day.

Larry Nelson 9:07

Well, for sure. And I I probably my hand and eye coordination, Bruce, you kind of alluded to that. Uh we used to just uh stand out in my gravel driveway and somebody would throw gravel and I would be hitting it with a broomstick. So now you're thinking about the size of a gravel and the size of a broomstick, you get pretty good at uh you know, baseball seemed pretty big at that point, and uh and you're hitting it with a bigger bat. So I think there were things that we did that uh probably helped and hand-eye coordination. Now you don't see too many gravel roads, and uh as the people have to go to batting cages and they do all that stuff now, and you know, we just we had to do it all ourselves and just figure out what was the best thing to use to to kind of enjoy hitting something. And um, so you could hit those, you'd be pitching those gravels at somebody that's got a broomstick, and you can hear that thing whiz by your head when it comes by. So anyway, it it I think a lot of that uh when I was younger, uh, definitely think it helps.

Mike Gonzalez 10:10

Yeah. Speaking of hitting something, did you ever play bottle cap baseball? We played a lot of that in the back of taverns when I was a kid.

Larry Nelson 10:18

Well, I you know, I I'd seen it played, but I didn't spend much time in taverns, so it was one of those I now I spend a lot more time now than I did then, but uh yeah, it's a good place to be. You can learn a you can you can learn a lot of stuff in the tavern, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 10:33

Who'd who'd you follow as a kid then in baseball? Braves weren't around yet. Like they were up in Milwaukee.

Larry Nelson 10:38

No, guys like Whitey Ford, uh, you know, I and Roger Marist and Mickey Mannell, all those guys were heroes to everybody. I mean, it you know baseball, you know, we didn't have a team here in Atlanta. The only team we had was uh the Atlanta Crackers, and they played down at Ponce de Leon Field, and I remember going down there quite a bit, but every small town actually had a I wouldn't even call it semi-pro, but they had adults that played baseball and they had the uniforms, and every little small town had a uh some sort of baseball field with stands and that kind of stuff. So we, you know, we spent a lot of time there, probably chasing foul balls more than anything when I was younger. Um so it was it was very popular. Um and uh since it was so time consuming uh and we only had three channels on the television, this was something that uh you know it was good for us to do.

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Mike Gonzalez 11:39

You you glossed over your Vietnam career pretty quickly, but uh reflecting back on that, Larry, um how did that experience change you or or uh uh cause you to uh to look at life a little different when you come back? And even today, uh what how would you reflect on that experience, how it uh impacted your life?

(Cont.) Larry Nelson - Part 1 (The Early Years and Tour Wins)

Larry Nelson 12:01

Yeah, of course, I trained, I trained to go to Vietnam for 18 months. Um and when I finally got over there, I they promoted me to E5. So I in 20 some odd months uh I went from private basic training to E5. I was a team leader in an infantry squad over in Vietnam. And um so it I think the biggest thing probably um was that I was really happy just to see the sun come up every day. And um still today I'm still happy to see the sun come up. Um it at night um I mean it's a scary thing. I mean it it every night it was, and sometimes our trip wires would go off and the flares would go up, and you actually didn't know you know whether it was an animal, whether it was a bunch of people coming at you or what. I mean, you you really didn't know. And so that was kind of a bad time. Not only could you see what was out there, they could see you too. So uh anyway, every time, every day the sun came up, uh felt like that uh we were blessed. And so I think that's pretty much the biggest thing. And I I think for all that, uh, you know, when you're getting shot at every day, uh a 15-foot putt doesn't really bother you much anymore. I mean, uh, you know, the the good and the bad, it means it means something to you personally at the time, but it's not life or death. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 13:37

Yeah, so perspective, I guess, would be a word that would come to mind.

Larry Nelson 13:40

Yeah, there it is a different perspective, sure.

Mike Gonzalez 13:44

Uh you'd mentioned uh and I and I uh uh I made a note of this fellow's name, if this is who you were talking about, that uh sort of uh got you thinking about golf. Uh remember the name of Ken Hummel. Is that the fellow?

Larry Nelson 13:57

Yeah, Ken Hummel. Uh I see him uh we would go down and play uh the Legends event down in Boca, and he would bring, he had he had boys uh that he was teaching golf, um, and he would bring the boys up. Uh I would see him every time every year when I'd go down there, which you know it's really uh looking back, uh, you know, I see guys that uh assistants that I played golf with uh when I was assistant for a couple of years, um and and they they think it's really strange that I did what I did. And I tell them I think it's strange that I did what I did. And uh so I look back on on my career and just says, you know, was that me? Because it was not, you know, I I see guys, see juniors, uh, you know, kids on the putting green say, okay, I'm making this putt for to win the US Open or the PGA or whatever. And um, I actually did that um not thinking that that was ever going to be a possibility when I was younger. So uh yeah, I'm still I'm not in awe of myself. I'm just in awe of the whole situation.

Mike Gonzalez 15:10

Yeah, Bruce, as as we've talked about with other guests, uh you all have your own unique stories, don't you, of how you got started in the game. But I think Larry sort of stands apart from most.

Bruce Devlin 15:20

Most definitely so. Like like we said at the start, you know, anybody that had to go through what he went through when he was a young man. And and by the way, he would he just got married too before he headed to Vietnam, which I'm sure uh I'm I'm sure his wife Gail wasn't too happy about either.

Larry Nelson 15:37

But uh No, she was 17 and I was 19. We headed to Texas right after we got married. I didn't even have a place to live. And my responsibility was to try to find a place to live before we got married. But there were so many people in Fort Hood, Texas, then the closest place I could find a place to live was Lamp Pasas, Texas. Right. Um which is the cricket capital of the world. If people hadn't been there. I mean, he you couldn't walk down, you could not you could not walk down the streets in Lamp Passas on the sidewalks without stepping on the cricket or trying to keep from it. I mean, I've never seen anything like it. But um actually we had to I had to dodge the emerald uh the uh uh what you call it, uh little thing you uh Armadillos? Yeah, the armadillos, that's it. Uh-huh on the way to Fort Hood every day from Land Passes. But um yeah, she was a trooper and uh you know we've been married 54 years now, and um it it it it I think all of us can look back on what uh what happened in the early stages and you know all through the career. And I mean she had as much responsibility of all this as I did. Uh so um it's um remarkable uh when you think about a 19 and a 17-year-olds getting married and making sixty-four dollars a month. I think that's what we were making and uh trying to deal with that. We kept the money in envelopes to keep you know this was for food, this was for this, and this was for that. So but it was it it's great. And I think you know, you learn things there that uh you don't even know you learned, uh that it's helpful later on.

Bruce Devlin 17:22

So back to Fort Hood for one minute, you know, each year. Uh this coming April uh will be the 11th tournament that we've put on at Fort Hood for all the soldiers. Oh, really? Yeah, we do it. We go down there uh under the Ben Hogan Foundation and put on a a tournament for 200 uh soldiers, take gifts down for them and their wives and kids, and we have teachers come down with us. It's uh you know, it's uh it's our way of saying thank you for all those young men that uh that protect us.

Larry Nelson 17:57

You know, I you know, I would love to do that sometime, Bruce, if you I mean, I'd love to go down there. I mean it's a well you know I we we we would meet generals and captains and lieutenants, but the highest ranking people in the army were civilians. I mean, I we everyone wanted to be a civilian. Nobody wanted to be a general at that point. We just wanted to kind of get through basic and go. But it it's really neat. And Fort Hood, very unusual, um, you know, how large it was. And I I were I was probably on part of every four hundred and twenty-five square miles of that base.

Bruce Devlin 18:33

It's a quarter of a million acres, yeah, just about. So so here's here's here's the deal. I will send you an invitation to come with us when we go next April. I'll give you the dates and all, and if you can work it out, I'm telling you the soldiers would be in rapture if you'd come down there and talk to them. I I mean they'd love to.

Larry Nelson 18:52

No, that's great. I I'm doing a lot of stuff with veterans right now in different places, but that that would be something that um uh would bring back a lot of good memories now. Um and yeah, you know, that there is life after Army. And um, so yeah, yeah, I I think it would be great. If you'd do that, that'd be terrific. And if it works out, I'd love to do it.

Bruce Devlin 19:14

Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you, Larry. That would be wonderful.

Mike Gonzalez 19:18

So, Larry, take us through how your game developed, how you learned, uh uh uh you know, it it's I I know you you probably read and watched television and so forth, but just take us through how your game, how you learned it and then sort of developed early on.

Larry Nelson 19:32

Well, uh Bert Seagraves, who was the uh well, let me just I guess this part. I was just playing golf and I would play by myself and um because I didn't know anybody there at Pine Tree uh and and and wasn't a very good player uh either, uh didn't know the rules, you know, nothing. I'd just go out and hit it and go find it, hit it again, and uh but uh uh there uh the pro there, Bert, um he noticed that I was playing, noticed I was out there a lot. And um after a SAS started in the spring, uh March, uh Gail, by the way, bought me a set of the clubs in Christmas that year of 1970. And uh so I had a set of the clubs and didn't know how to use them, but uh Bert took an interest in me and uh he said, Well, if you want to know the game, just read this book. And it was the five fundamentals of God Ben Hogan wrote, and uh I said, sure, that's fine, that's great. And uh so I played, you know, learning as much as I could. And then his assistant left. Um and he was looking for an assistant, and so I go in there and I just tell Bert, I say, Bert, you know that's nice. I'm hanging around here all the time. I know your assistant's leaving. He says, uh, could I work for you? And um he thought about it for just a minute or two, and he says, Well, we we can try it and see if it worked. And so I ended up working for him for two years. So I was an assistant there at Pine Tree for two years, uh 1970 to 72, and uh learned as much as I could about golf and um just uh you know would go out and play with the green superintendent because I could play with him. He was there early on early every morning. So I was there when the light came up, played nine holes or however much time we had to play, and then I would open the shop. Uh so um he was probably the best player at the club, you know, at that point. And Bert tells the story. He says I'd go and and Roy Jordan was his name, and Roy would beat Larry, and then after six months, Larry was beating Roy. Beating Roy. And so so it was one of those, but I worked as an assistant for two years, and I think there were two things specifically that I think helped me to improve. Well, three, if you count the book, you know, reading. The book, but um Bert would say, uh Larry, you have uh 30 minutes if you want to go down and hit some balls. Um, and so I didn't take any time to put on my golf shoes, my spikes, or anything. I would go down in my leather sole shoes and uh hit balls and developed really good balance. I mean, uh, the guys on the tour were amazed that I could go out and hit balls with no spikes on, uh, because that's that's how I learned, you know, I I probably hit more balls with my spikes off than my spikes on. And the other thing was I had to pick up the range. Well, a little quick story. I was changing the spikes in my shoes, you know. I hated that anyway, but um, I mean it would just wear you out. And uh so I wanted to change spikes because I was gonna go out and play with one of the members, and um so after changing it, my right arm was just weak. My right hand and my right arm from doing all that twisting and trying to get those things loose, and went out and played and shot 67. Best round I'd shot up to that point. And I started thinking, I said, Yeah, the only thing different with this is the fact that my all of a sudden my left arm was as strong as my right arm. And so from that time on I would go pick up the ball down on the range, and we had a ditch in the middle, and of course, woods and all that stuff, and I just I would go out there every day and hit all the balls out of the ditches and out of the woods with my left arm, my left hand. And so instead of trying to get my w right arm weaker, I tried to get my left arm stronger. And uh being a right-handed pitcher, thrower, and all that kind of stuff, I think that was the biggest thing. The combination of the leather sole shoes and the strengthening of left arm really helped me to get better quicker.

Bruce Devlin 23:51

That's why I had that beautiful timing that you like so much, Mike.

Mike Gonzalez 23:56

Yeah, yeah, and tempo, just beautiful, beautiful tempo and balance. So your game developed. Uh, you got help from Bert and others uh during this time, but it developed pretty quickly, didn't it? I mean, if if I read this correctly, you broke 100 the first time out, and within nine months we're breaking you broke 70, is that right?

Larry Nelson 24:14

That's correct, yes.

Mike Gonzalez 24:16

Uh real.

Larry Nelson 24:18

Well, yeah, it was, you know, I would I would shoot uh 68 and then the next day 95. So it was so it was not like that my game got you know just honed in better. Yeah. It it just uh I I knew I I could hit good shots, but I didn't know how to play. I mean, I honestly didn't know how to play. The pine tree, I think, had two or three bunkers on the whole golf course. So I tell people when I qualified for the tour, it took me 10 years to learn how to play out of a bunker. Um, I mean, it's just one of those things, and I didn't chip very much. Um, chipping was boring, putting was boring, but I loved to hit driver, I love to hit five irons and all that. So uh it I think it it it took me a little while. Once I was uh able to hit it where I wanted to hit it, um I had a hard time playing my missed shots. And uh so I think that was uh probably the biggest thing I had to learn once I qualified. But I worked for Burt for two years as an assistant. I actually thought, well, maybe I would just be a club professional. I I enjoyed being around people and enjoyed being around the club. And I applied for this job uh in Cartersville, which was about 12 miles away, came down to two people, uh, and the other person got it, had a much much more experience than I did. And he got it. I was disappointed because it'd been a huge raise. My monthly monthly, yes. And um, so uh some of the members there uh had seen my game progress, and uh so they just came up and said, Well, why don't you just go try to play? Uh so you can imagine that conversation going uh from and now I go home and ask Gail um or talk to her and said, uh, you know, um some people want me to go try to play golf for a living. And uh and she said, What? You know, because we were still getting, well, what do you do for a living? You know, this was three or four years into my tour career. You know, well, yeah, but what do you do for a living? So anyway, this was uh so we ended up going down um to Tampa for a year, playing on the mini tours so that I could qualify for the tour. I mean, we didn't know, none of my family knew what the qualifying school was. I didn't know that much about the qualifying school. So uh I went down to Tampa, I shot 7172, and that was absolutely the best I could play. That that was the best I could play. I think I made $35 um that tournament. And but by the end of that 20-week series, I won a couple of three times, and uh so the progression was pretty good. I mean, it was a great situation. The tournament was Monday, Tuesday, and then you were off Tuesday through the next Monday. So you could kind of work on whatever you wanted to do. It was a great way to learn the game. Um and we could play in some of the the Florida tournaments, you know, the PGA, Florida, PG8 had tournaments. So you could occupy yourself uh competitively as much much as you wanted to. And um so then it came around to 73. Uh, went to the tour qualifying school and made it the first time. Um finished uh 21st. They were giving 20, I think it was 23 in ties, and I finished 21st and never had to go back to school again. Kept my card and all that. So um so it was you know one of those things that was just kind of quick. Uh I was down in Tampa with guys who had been to the qualified school two or three times, um and this was what they lived for. And I went down there not knowing ignorance is bliss, basically. And uh so I went through and didn't learn what the tour was like. All of a sudden I got a locker by the Jack Nicholas. Nelson and Nicholas. Yeah. So so anyway, learning. But it was it was quick. We didn't know that much about the tour. Um and uh every and I mean it's been a learning process every year.

Mike Gonzalez 28:39

Pretty good class of uh qualifying school that year. Ben Crenshaw, Gil Morgan, Gary McCord, Mark Hayes, Joe Inman, Terry Deal, some names that people would recognize.

Larry Nelson 28:51

Oh, it was amazing. Of course, I didn't get uh I didn't start off quite as well as Crenshaw did. Um I qualified for San Antonio that year, but the year he won his first PGA tour event. Uh so yeah, it was a good group of guys. And I was down there with uh um, you know, uh college players, you know that there were number one in the states, best college player and all this kind of stuff. And I mean, I I was you know, two or three years earlier, I was reading magazine articles about Crenshaw and Curtis Strange and you know those people. So to all of a sudden, you know, be playing with them, um it just seemed unreal.

Mike Gonzalez 29:35

So just to recap for our listeners, the professional career of Larry Nelson, uh, as Bruce said, at the top 41 professional wins, including 10 PGA tour victories, three wins on the European tour, four wins on the Japanese golf tour, 19 senior wins, which by the way puts him tied 12th with George Archer for most wins on the senior circuit, and highest world ranking 12th in 1988. Uh outstanding record. Of course, the the highlights uh on the tour, on the regular tour, would be the three major championships, which we'll talk about the 81 PGA at Atlanta Athletic Club, the 1983 U.S. Open at Oatmont, and then finished up with the 1987 PGA Championship at PGA National. But let's talk about uh let's talk about just getting out on tour and and uh and finding your way to that first win, which I believe was the 1979 Jackie Gleason Invery Classic in Fort Lauderhill, Florida, as I recall, by three over Greer Jones.

Larry Nelson 30:36

Yeah, it's interesting. Well, you talked about my highest ranking, uh, what was it in 1988? Yeah, I think that was the first year they had the ranking. I don't know exactly what year that was, but uh no, it was started somewhere around in there because 1979 I finished second on the money list to Tom Watson. Um won twice, finished second twice. And so it it's one of those things that uh you know the ranking started later, and I think it was actually started by AMG. Um Mark McCormick, sure. Yeah, so they could get Greg Norman at number one ranking or something. So um that was that was you know what happened back then. But uh anyway, the yeah, 79, um you know, the tour when we started, it was uh you had to qualify on Mondays to play, of course. And uh uh when you qualified for the tour, you actually just got a card so that you could actually qualify for a tournament. It gave you the ability to qualify. So um and back then, if if you finished in a top 25 uh of any given tournament, you were exempt for that tournament the next year. Um so if you played decent, um then and of course if you made the cut, then you could qualif you could play next week without having to qualify. So um starting in 73, of course, was my in I had three tournaments I played in then, which I qualified for all three of them. Uh but 74 was actually my first year. And uh first 11 weeks in 74, I either qualified and missed the cut or didn't qualify. Uh so I was beginning to think, well, maybe this wasn't wasn't a good idea. Yeah, it wasn't what I needed to do. Um and actually I ended up shooting uh like even or one under at San Diego and missed the cut. And so I think, you know, these guys are pretty good. I'm either gonna have to get better or you know, either go back to being an assistant or go back to Lockheed, one or the other. And um actually I qualify in Jacksonville um and finished eighth in Jacksonville, made thirty eight hundred dollars, um, and you only had to make thirty-five to retain your card. Uh so the biggest thing was retaining your card. Uh the next biggest thing was making enough money to eat. So um, but that was that was kind of kind of the turning point, I guess. Um, and then it got a little easier because of the top 25s the year before, uh, and making more cuts. Uh so by 76 um I was almost exempt. I pretty much could play whenever I wanted to play. And then after 76, I'd been exempt and I was exempt for the rest of my career. Um through the top sixty and all that kind of stuff. And winning a major helps. Winning a tournament gives you a two-year exemption, and then when you win a major, it's a 10-year deal. And uh so it was you know, after 81 um playing the tour was not really not an option, I guess. I was exempt from that time on.

Mike Gonzalez 33:48

What what are your memories from that first victory back in 1979?

Larry Nelson 33:52

Uh it was one of those things you know, I had played good in a couple of tournaments and um but you finally get to the point where you f your your confidence kind of gets to your game level. Uh some people's game level never gets to their confidence. So uh I I was I finally I think uh my confidence got uh to the point where you know I felt like it was time I was ready to win. And um and it was a hard day, wind blowing, and the guy who was in second place I think was Mark James, who uh played and wind all the time. So if anybody had an advantage going into the last day, it would probably have been him. But I played really good and um I think Greer Jones had finished second to Nicholas the year before. Um, so he knew the golf course really well. But um I uh just wasn't really worried about anything. I was playing good and um ended up winning the tournament, and that was kind of the start uh for me. Um it got me in the masters. Of course, I live two hours from Augusta and had never been down there before. And somebody interviewed me and said, Have you ever been? I said, No, I think I'll go when I'm exempt or when I'm playing. And so then I I got into that in the World Series of Golf, and there were a whole bunch of things that uh that the winning in '79 first part of the year really helped. Uh and I ended up um winning um at the Western Open. I actually got beat in a playoff the week before in Memphis. Uh Gil Morgan chipped it in to beat me in Memphis, and then I was in the second playoff in a row with Crenshaw up at Western. I ended up winning uh winning the tournament at the Western.

Mike Gonzalez 35:40

So um That was a tough golf course, too. Butler National that was about I played with Bruce.

Larry Nelson 35:46

Bruce, you remember I'm playing with you the last round. I don't know if it was that tournament or when the guy, the telephone, the camera guy moved your ball in the rough. I you got it. Yes, when it was. 79, was it? 79. All right. Yeah, that was uh one of the worst breaks I'd ever seen, I think, from because then you either had to drop it, and uh it was a worse lie. You can and that's not a hole you want to be hitting it out of the rough in the green with. Not quite. But anyway, that that started. I ended up playing at the Ryder Cup that year. It got me in the Ryder Cup, uh, which I went five and oh um, beating Sevi four times uh that that time.

Bruce Devlin 36:27

How good is that?

Larry Nelson 36:28

Yeah. And uh so it started out my Ryder Cup career five and oh. And uh then uh of course my next one in 81, I went four and oh. So my first nine matches in the Ryder Cup I won.

Bruce Devlin 36:41

How about that? That's some record.

Mike Gonzalez 36:45

So uh uh coming off that win at uh at at uh at Butler National the following year, you won uh nearer to home, one of two victories you had in Atlanta at the Atlanta Classic. Uh the first one by seven, and this is at Atlantic Country Club, which you mentioned earlier, by seven over to Andy Bean and Don Pooley. So you kind of ran the table on that one.

Larry Nelson 37:05

Yeah, it was kind of funny. I um my caddy had worked for me for how he was with me when I won uh in 79 and all 79, and so I'm playing good. And you know, in the 80s, we didn't have the scoreboards, all the electronic scoreboards and all that kind of stuff. And they may have a scoreboard every two or three holes. And if you're fortunate, they may have one every hole somewhere, but not too many people on it. And so I get my hit my drive in the middle of the fairway on the 18th hole, not knowing kind of how I stood or anything. And I looked over at my caddy because I figured he was watching the scoreboard. Um, and I asked him, I said, if I make bogey on this hole, uh will I win the tournament? And and he said, uh yeah, if you make bogey on this hole, you'll win by six. So I I knew I was playing pretty good, but I didn't know relative to everybody else how I was playing. And so it was kind of nice. And I'm I'm I'm actually a scoreboard watcher. I'm not one that doesn't want to look at the scoreboard, doesn't want to know where he is. I'd love to know where I am, but it's just that day we just didn't have the opportunity and all that. But um I've got to tell you, uh, as far as Atlanta Country Club goes, uh my first time I qualified in 74. Uh they didn't give me an exemption, by the way, but uh qualified for the tournament in 74. First time my mom and dad had actually seen me play tournament golf or as a professional and uh or see me play at all. But uh my father did not play, but he was my biggest coach through all the sports and stuff. And so I played terrible. I just hit the ball everywhere, just was not very good. And so we were going back and and they were sitting in the back seat, my mom and dad were, and we'd just gotten out of the entrance to the Atlanta Country Club, and my dad tapped me on the shoulder and he said, Son, he says, Listen, he said, I don't know much about golf at all, but he says, if if I were you, I'd start trying to hit a little closer to where those flags are. And I'd and I tell people I tell people all the time, I said, I've been around Nicholas Dravino, you know, I've been through, and that was the best advice I ever gave. Yeah, pretty good advice.

Mike Gonzalez 39:28

That's good. Well, uh moving on to 1981, which uh we'll get to this later with the majors. That's that's uh the year you won the Atlanta Athletic Club, the first of your two PGA championships. But uh you won at the Greater Greensboro Open at uh Forest Oaks Country Club in a playoff with Mark Hayes on the second playoff hole.

Larry Nelson 39:47

Yeah, that was Yeah, tell us about that. Okay. Well, first of all, yeah, a lot of times, first of all, I I uh took a caddy from Atlanta Country Club. I mean, I uh you know, I changed caddies. It was one of those things. I I I wanted someone to carry my bag, be on time, and shut up. And yeah, don't say anything negative. And so that was that was pretty much and so this the guy who is a regular caddy at Atlanta Country Club, I said, You want a caddy for me at Greensboro? And he said, Yeah, that's fine. Um, didn't realize at the time that uh that he was an alcoholic. I I didn't have a didn't have a clue, but I mean he uh he was shaking, you know, the whole time. If he, you know, I I don't know much about alcoholism, but I know that cause the shakes if you don't have alcohol or whatever. But anyway, we played four rounds, and I'm going into the last hole. I'm playing with Mark Hayes and Lee Trevino, last hole at uh uh Green uh is it Oaks, Greenwood? Forest, okay, Forest Oaks. We're playing, and it's been wet, it's been rainy, bad weather, cold. I hit my ball, I'm one shot behind. I hit my ball in the the right bunker, pin high, deep bunker. Mark hits his on the back of the green. And um maybe I'm two shots behind.

Mike Gonzalez 41:07

You're two shots behind. You are two shots behind. There we go.

Larry Nelson 41:10

He hits his on the back of the green. We're walking after our second shot, and Dovino's congratulating Mark, you know, and all this kind of stuff, because I'm I nobody gets it up and down out of that bunker. And so anyway, I hold it out of the bunker and then um he three putts. So we end up tying. And so then I go uh go on the you know and beat him on the second hole of the playoff. But uh it was one of those things, it was an impossible bunker shot, but there was enough sand and it was wet enough that it slowed the ball down enough to go in the hole.

Mike Gonzalez 41:47

But could you even could you even see the flag? No, no, no.

Larry Nelson 41:50

No, I could not see. I could I could see the top of the flag, but I could not see the bottom of the hole. And um, you know, I'm just trying to get it up and down to finish second or third. I don't know exactly what it was at that point, but the ball it but it goes in the hole. And uh Mark was my best friend. I mean, he he he and Jana, and I mean they they so anyway, I hated it, but you know, golf is golf. I mean, you can love somebody but want to beat them at the same time.

Mike Gonzalez 42:14

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game.

Bruce Devlin 42:19

And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we take it up again for the good of the game, so long, everybody, it went smack down for it, just let it just make offline, headed for two, but it let off time, like it, as long as you're still in the stage, you're a cat.