Larry Nelson - "The 1981 PGA Championship" SHORT TRACK

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle.

Mike Gonzalez 0:14

So let's move on to the PGA championship then for Larry Nelson. 27 starts, 13 cuts made. He had two top fives. Of course, those were wins, four top 25s. And let's talk about the two wins. Those are the highlights. 1981, where he wins it at Atlanta Athletic Club by four over Fuzzy Zeller, with Fuzzy sporting his new perm that week.

Larry Nelson 0:34

Oh, that was cute. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going, uh, you know, I'm living in Ackworth, so it's about a 45-50-minute drive from Ackworth over to Duluth, where um the uh North Cross where the tournament was at the athletic club. And um had a lot of time to think, you know, when you're driving that long and uh just through country, really. And I had a three-shot going in, three shot lead, and um didn't know I knew I was playing well, uh, but I knew that uh fuzzy and Tom Kite was the other one uh that I played with the last day and uh and it was hot. I mean it was hot, typical for Atlanta in August, and um didn't really know how I was doing, but knew I was playing well, and uh just got off to just kind of a normal start and um played better than they did, and even with lead, I think I ended up winning by four. Um and I think I improved my lead anyway, but I can remember going to the last hole, which uh you know they take a par five and make a par four out of it, and I knew I had I had at that point that I had a pretty good lead, and I had a four iron into the green and told my caddy, I said, Well, I'm just gonna hit it in a left bunker. And um that was the best shot I hit all day. I hit it I hit it hit it in the left bunker. Uh because you don't want to miss it right or short anyway, there uh because the water unless you want to get wet. No, right. So I hit it in the left bunker and uh got it up and down uh to win by four. But um the thing is you have to walk around the lake uh and between the the walkway is between the stands and the the lake, getting it to getting around where you can get onto the green and just seeing a lot of my friends, my family, Bert, Sea Graves was there, uh and my dad, mom, um Gail, of course, my wife, and um it it was fun to to be able to um just see everyone. Um and as Bruce knows, you kinda you you go from a qualifier to a tournament winner, and then you go from a multiple tournament winner, hopefully to a major winner, and then so this was one of the steps. This was kind of the next step, and I felt well maybe I do belong out here. So um and it it's it it it was a fun to do it at home with my family and friends. Um it it was it was a good good week.

Mike Gonzalez 3:11

How helpful was it to play with Fuzzy Zeller?

Larry Nelson 3:15

Um well you know, I you hear the same jokes all the time. Uh you know, we've we've heard most of that stuff before. So uh the gallery enjoyed it a lot more than we did. I mean, Fuzzy's a good guy. He's a pool, he's gonna pull for you, he's gonna do all that, and and um so it's fun. He and Trevino, you know, but I mean Trevino had he not played professional golf, I think could have been a comedian. I mean, he he comes up with stuff that you just don't, you know, don't understand. But um it I um I think playing with with Fuzzy, I'm sure it did not hurt at all. Um don't know that it helped that much. And of course, Tom, Tom is such a competitor that you know he's just he's going at it all the time anyway. And Fuzzy seemed like he didn't care a whole lot, which probably between those two I fit in. You know, I was a gr I was a grinder and didn't care all that much, so it was okay.

Mike Gonzalez 4:15

So w when in that final round did you feel, okay, this is my tournament?

Larry Nelson 4:19

Uh actually when I hit it over the water on 17. Uh 17, uh the T shot on 18 and the second shot on eighteen can get you, but um you have to carry it over the water on seventeen. And now we're back there with two and three irons and hitting it um, you know, downhill 220 or 2 however far it was. And all I was trying to do was hit it on the green and the back of the green. I figured I could two-putt from back there, and that's exactly where I hit it. When I hit it on the 17th grain, I knew it was I I knew it was over. I could handle you know, three-shot lead going into the last hole. And uh so that was that was kind of when I knew, but nothing nothing before then. I was so focused on what I was doing that uh I didn't feel any relief until I hit it on the grain on the 17th.

Mike Gonzalez 5:16

We hope you've enjoyed this short track of For the Good of the Game. 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 tee it up again with the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 5:39

It went smack down the fairway. And it started displayed, just smacked off line. It had it for two, but it left off nine. My head, as long as you're still in the stage, you're okay.