Nelson Banking on New Order

Larry Nelson came onto the Senior PGA Tour with great expectations. Here was a guy, many thought, who could push Hale Irwin and Gil Morgan for senior supremacy.

It didn’t work out that way in 1998, Nelson’s first full year on the senior tour. Irwin won seven times, Morgan six and the pair swept the four senior majors.

Nelson, like the rest of the players, was left behind, but his progress was handicapped by a herniated disk in his neck that forced him to take seven weeks off in the middle of the year. Even so, he won three tournaments and finished second in five others to finish third on the money list.

This year he’s back to try again and this week he’s at the Toshiba Senior Classic in Newport Beach with his usual opponents. Irwin and Morgan are here, but neither has won in 1999.

Nelson has, taking the GTE Classic last month at the TPC of Tampa Bay. In two other events, he finished second and tied for third, giving support to the notion that the 1983 U.S. Open champion and two-time winner of the PGA Championship is ready to roll.

If so that would fit nicely with one of Nelson’s goals. He said Thursday that some year he would like to be the tour’s leading money winner. He believes Irwin and Morgan, who won $2.8 million and $2.1 million, respectively, in 1998, will come back to the pack.

“I don’t think you are going to have the runaway that you’ve had in the last two years,” Nelson said. “I think the competition is going to prevent that.”

Last year, Nelson missed about 1 1/2 months of competition. The trouble first arose at the U.S. Senior Open at Riviera in July when his right arm went numb during the first round. He withdrew after hitting his drive on the ninth hole.

Avoiding surgery with a combination of anti-inflammatory medicine and rest, Nelson returned in September and won in his third event back.

Nelson still hasn’t fully recovered, and his doctor isn’t sure why it flares up. “He said I just have a bad neck,” Nelson said.

The problem comes and goes without warning. “I wake up some mornings,” he said, “and it feels like I’m wearing a boxing glove.”

That has played havoc with his putting touch, a serious problem for someone who ranked fourth on the senior tour in putting in 1998.

It also affects his driving. “On the good days I probably hit the ball farther than I ever have,” he said. “On the bad days I just have to compensate for it by not swinging quite as hard.”

Toshiba Senior Classic

* When: Today-Sunday.

* Where: Newport Beach Country Club (6,307 yards, par 71).

* Purse: $1.2 million.

* Winner’s share: $180,000.

* Television: ESPN. Today, noon-2 p.m. (delayed); Saturday, 3-4:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30-4:30 p.m.

* Last year: Hale Irwin closed with a course-record nine-under 62 for a one-stroke victory over Hubert Green.

* Last week: Gil Morgan shot a seven-under 65 to beat Irwin by two strokes in the Senior Slam.

* Notes: Jim Colbert’s two-stroke victory in 1996 is the only time the event was decided by more than one stroke. . . . Two-time 1999 tour winner Bruce Fleisher is scheduled to play. . . . Bob Murphy’s win in 1997 came in a nine-hole playoff with Jay Sigel.