Nelson Banking on New Order

By MARTIN BECK

March 12, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

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 won 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 disc 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 senior tour 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 Nelson, a 1983 U.S. Open champion and two-time winner of the PGA Championship, is ready to roll.

That would fit nicely with one of Nelson’s goals, becoming the tour’s leading money winner some year. 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 was forced out of the competition for about 1 1/2 months. The trouble 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 was able to rebound with a victory 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 touch on the putting greens, which is a serious problem for someone who ranked fourth on the senior tour in putting in 1998. He replaced the shaft of his putter with a stiffer one to adjust. “So I don’t hit it 15 feet by from 30 feet anymore,” he said.

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.”

Nelson is hoping the good days outnumber the bad in this tournament and he is able to win in California for the first time. “I think I finished second in every tournament but one we played on the West Coast on the regular tour,” he said. “I never won out here.”

Shooting for the moon: Senior tour rookies have won three of the first four events of 1999, and one of them, Allen Doyle, is enjoying the ride. Doyle, a longtime amateur standout who owns a driving range in LaGrange, Ga., has earned $243,000 and has raised his goals. Instead of winning one and finishing in the top 31, he is shooting for two victories and perhaps the top 10.

Doyle won the senior tour qualifying tournament by three strokes over Bruce Fleisher. Fleisher, who won his first two starts on the senior tour, is recovering from a viral infection and isn’t playing at Newport Beach.

Doyle is and seems to be relishing his Walter Mitty status.

“It’s a wonderful thing when you read about guys who came out of pro shops and do this,” Doyle said. “I run a little small-town driving range and with what I’ve won this year it would take me eight to 10 years to make picking up golf balls and cutting grass.

“Those guys coming out of tour school, some will make it and some will make a million bucks. That to me is like the Lotto.”

J.C. Snead was low pro in the two-day pro-am that ended Thursday. Snead shot eight-under-par 63, one stroke off the course record set by Hale Irwin while winning last year’s Senior Classic. Amateur teams led by Mike McCullough and John Jacobs shared first place at 19-under 52.

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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.

Today’s Tee Times

Tee times for first round of the Toshiba Senior Classic at the Newport Beach Country Club:

8:20 a.m.--Norm Davis, Bill Hall, Barney Thompson

8:30--Ray Carrasco, David Lundstrom, Gary McCord

8:40--Frank Conner, Walter Hall, Tom McGinnis

8:50--Lee Elder, Babe Hiskey, Walter Zembriski

9--Larry Laoretti, Jerry McGee, Jim Thorpe

9:10--Harold Henning, Larry Mowry, Calvin Peete

9:20--Dave Hill, Tom Jenkins, Orville Moody

9:30--Billy Casper, Jim Ferree, Don January

9:40--Hubert Green, Tom Shaw, Rocky Thompson

9:50--Gibby Gilbert, Hale Irwin, Bob Murphy